Cleaning out the joint account "before they do" feels smart but is one of the worst mistakes you can make. In Colorado it can also violate the Automatic Temporary Injunction.

It's a common impulse, sometimes even suggested by aggressive advisors: empty the joint accounts before your spouse can. Resist it. Once a case is filed and served, Colorado's Automatic Temporary Injunction forbids transfers or disposal of marital property, so a unilateral cash grab can put you in contempt. Even before filing, judges may take a negative view of a spouse who loots the marriage, and it can come back to hurt you in the property division and on your credibility.

If you're genuinely worried about being left with nothing, the measured approach is different: document the account balances, move no more than roughly half of the liquid funds into an individual account if you must, leave the rest, and tell your attorney exactly what you did and why. Same principle for valuables; inventory and photograph rather than hide.

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Colorado

Colorado, USA