Divorce and the DMV

It was what some judges call a Harley-Davidson divorce.  There were bikes, trucks, cars, ATVs, snowmobiles and even a mobile home marooned out on the back lot.  Some of the trucks were salvage, knee-deep in piles of their own rust, but the cream of the crop was worth going to the mat for.

In years of seeing families come through the divorce courts, it is often the “Motor Vehicles and/or Recreational Vehicles” section of the Separation Agreement that is where all the action is.  The home may be leased, sold, or about to disappear into foreclosure, but there is the camper or the trailer to divide up.

The self-help/forms section on the State of Colorado Courts website has never really gone beyond judicial department forms.  When you actually get down to working through a Separation Agreement, there are many other government forms and agencies to know about.  So, I have begun to add a listing of these to my website, to bring some resources together in one place.

I thought I’d start with motor vehicles, but my plan is to keep adding to this.  I’ll get to the IRS and the wealth of information contained in its online publications, but there is much more.  For example, many couples can use help with the Family Support Registry and their local child support enforcement agencies.  I’ll get to those, and I am happy for input on where to go next.

And what about my Harley couple?  Their lives were much more complicated than “the parties agree to sign over the respective title of each vehicle by (date)” which is the standard language on the Separation Agreement (jdf form 1115).  They needed to put something in the “other” section of the form.

The clincher in settling the case turned out to be giving the older children title to the vehicles that the kids were driving.  I was able to point the couple to the DMV website for some free information.  Some vehicle titles were missing, and duplicates were needed, and some of the vehicles needed to be sold.  Help was needed with language for a bill of sale.  In the end, both husband and wife drove away in something on four wheels, and each kept a Harley-Davidson.

Motor Vehicles - Resource Page