When to Consider Legal Separation vs. Divorce: What’s Best for Your Family?
Uncontested Divorce Mediation
Posted May 6, 2025
Divorce is not just about relationships. It’s a legal way to divide a household, separate finances, and create a child custody agreement. However, you don’t necessarily need a divorce to accomplish these goals. You can achieve all the logistic goals of a divorce without ending the marriage through a legal separation. Which is the right answer for your family? If you are considering a legal separation, how would you get one?
As experienced Denver divorce mediators, we can help you understand your choice and provide practical legal support for both the divorce and legal separation process.
What is Legal Separation vs Divorce?
Divorce ends a marriage, including all the aspects of a joined household. It involves dividing finances, property, and child custody while also permanently severing the marital bond so that two people are no longer considered married in the eyes of the law or society.
Legal separation makes it possible to divide a household’s finances and child custody while keeping your marriage intact. You can live separately, keep separate accounts, properties, and investments, but remain legally married. It may also be reversible. You can bring your household back together in the future and resume a joint marital life if you choose to end the separation and share marital assets again.
Which path is best for your family depends on why you are separating and your future plans.
Distance Without Divorce
One of the most common reasons for legal separation is when two spouses need to live apart. Perhaps one takes a distant job for several years, or moves to another country to take care of relatives. The marriage is still active, but it’s important to handle your finances and household separately in order to avoid complicated tax issues and keep your divided budgets tidy.
It may also be necessary to build a travel-based child custody plan so that your children can spend time with both parents while your households are divided. Legal separation provides for child custody agreements within an active marriage.
Societal and Cultural Implications
Some married couples are in a situation where divorce is not an option for societal or cultural reasons. If your marriage is deeply rooted in tradition and a divorce would cause unnecessary strife, legal separation can be a more peaceful way to get space from one another without officially ending the marriage.
Legal separation is often a solution for couples who no longer want to live together but choose not to sever the family ties or upset their extended relatives or community by getting a divorce.
Taking the Halfway Step
In marriages where there has been conflict or loss of trust, legal separation can act as the halfway step, like a test-run for divorce. You can go through the process of dividing your assets, creating separate households, and even navigating child custody before officially ending the marriage. If absence makes the heart grow fonder or you are able to work out your differences over time, then you can end the separation and rebuild the marriage.
Separation gives you the opportunity to get time apart, try courtship again, and decide later on if you want to complete the marriage division, come back together, or simply maintain a separated lifestyle.
Financial Protection
In some situations, legal separation is used to provide financial protection between spouses. This can be used when spouses want to live separate financial lives making their own decisions regarding both savings and spending without ending the marriage.
Bringing the Family Back Together in the Future
One of the most important differences between legal separation and divorce is that separation is reversible. If both spouses agree, and the court agrees to vacate the legal separation you typically can end the legal separation at any time and rejoin your households, finances, assets, and child custody. In contrast, divorce is final and you would need to get married all over again to rejoin your households.
Legal Separation or Divorce?
Which is best for your family, legal separation or divorce? While many people are certain when it’s time to end a marriage, legal separation provides a world of nuance, from long-distance marriages to reversible break-ups. Whether divorce or legal separation is your ideal path, Split Simple can help with skilled mediation services. We specialize in matters of asset division, future planning, child custody, and ensuring swift court processing without time in a courthouse.
More information regarding some of the legal differences between legal separation and divorce may also be found here: https://www.splitsimple.com/blog/what-is-the-difference-between-legal-separation-and-divorce-in-colorado/.
Contact us today for divorce mediation or legal separation mediation in Denver.