Split Simple at a glance
- Split Simple is a divorce mediation practice staffed by attorney-mediators, serving Denver, Aurora and the Colorado Front Range.
- The mediators work with both spouses at once. They do not represent one side against the other.
- Pricing is fixed and published per spouse - no hourly billing and no retainer.
- Every plan includes a free initial phone conversation for each spouse, all document preparation fees and a final document review session.
- Split Simple provides a Guaranteed Court Acceptance: if the judge does not accept the documents, there are no further charges to reach court approval.
- Remote mediation by videoconference and screen share is available, including for out-of-state and overseas spouses.
Why the billing model is the story
The standard complaint about a traditional Denver divorce is not that lawyers are expensive. It is that nobody will tell you the number. Hourly billing means the total is discovered at the end, and every extra round of negotiation makes it bigger.
That structure also puts the incentives in an awkward place. Your interest is in reaching a fair agreement quickly. An hourly biller's revenue rises with the hours. Split Simple's argument, on its home page and again on saving you money in the long run, is that fixed pricing removes the conflict rather than asking you to trust that it will not bite.
Under a fixed plan the risk of a case running long sits with the firm, not with you.
The published plans
| Plan | With children | Without children | Sessions | Built for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $2,050 | $1,750 | One 2-hour mediation session | Simple estates; Straightforward support plan |
| Standard | $2,500 | $2,200 | Two 2-hour mediation sessions | Typical estates; Division of retirement plans; Spouses with different incomes; Disagreement on some issues |
| Premium | $2,950 | $2,650 | Three 2-hour mediation sessions | High net worth estates; Multiple asset transfers or co-ownership; Complex support plan; Significant areas of disagreement |
Read the columns carefully: prices are per spouse, not per couple, and the with-children and without-children columns are different products because a parenting plan is additional work.
- Pricing is per spouse.
- No hourly billing.
- Free initial phone conversation for each spouse.
- No retainer - pay as you go.
- A Mediation Critical Checklist provided before the session.
- A pre-mediation assets and debt questionnaire.
- Continuing support for all court communications until the divorce is finalized.
Current figures are always on the pricing page. One inconsistency to know about: an older passage on the FAQ page still describes hourly billing that the pricing page has superseded. Confirm on the call.
How the plan gets chosen
The plan is selected during the free initial phone conversation, which each spouse gets separately. The mediator is sizing three things: how complex the estate is, how far apart the two of you currently are, and whether children mean a parenting plan is in scope.
Roughly, the plan tiers map to session count — one, two or three two-hour sessions. The published guidance is that Basic suits simple estates and a straightforward support plan; Standard suits typical estates, retirement plan division, spouses with different incomes and disagreement on some issues; Premium suits high net worth estates, multiple asset transfers or co-ownership, complex support plans and significant areas of disagreement.
If you are somewhere between two tiers, that is a conversation for the consultation call rather than a guess from a web page.
What the money buys
| Step | Stage | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Consultation and scheduling | A free phone consultation with your mediator, separately for each spouse, to settle on the fixed pricing plan that matches your divorce. Then the first session is booked at a location and time that works for both of you. |
| 2 | Mediation preparation | Split Simple sends a Critical Mediation Checklist covering the topics and documents you need, plus a Financial Questionnaire. Your mediator uses the questionnaire to prepare a preliminary analysis of your estate in advance, which the firm says cuts up to an hour off session time. |
| 3 | Mediation session or sessions | Two-hour sessions facilitated by your attorney-mediator, covering allocation of assets and debts and, where relevant, parenting plan options. The working spreadsheet is projected on a large screen so you watch every number change in real time. Your mediator also produces an estimated post-divorce after-tax cash flow reflecting your new filing status and support plan. |
| 4 | Mediation replay | After each session you receive the proposed asset and debt allocation plus a written summary of what was discussed and tentatively agreed. Your mediator stays available between sessions. |
| 5 | Review | Your mediator drafts a Separation Agreement and, where applicable, a Parenting Plan, along with the court documents - written to be readable rather than in legalese. You go through all of it with the mediator before you sign anything. |
| 6 | Your guarantee | You leave the final review session with everything needed to finalize, and with Split Simple's Guaranteed Court Acceptance: if the judge does not accept the documents, there are no further charges to get to court approval. |
The line items that are easy to underprice when you compare against an hourly quote: pre-session preparation, all document preparation, the final review session where somebody walks you through what you are signing, and continuing support for court communications until the divorce is finalized.
The Guaranteed Court Acceptance sits behind all of it — if the judge does not accept the documents, there are no further charges to reach approval. That is the clause that stops a fixed price from quietly becoming a variable one at the worst possible moment.
What is not in the price
Court filing fees are the court's, not the mediator's. If either spouse wants an independent attorney to review the agreement before signing, that is a separate engagement — the role of the attorney-mediator page explains where the neutral's role ends. Nothing here is legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.
The 91-day statutory wait also sits outside anyone's price list. Colorado courts must wait 91 days from the filing of a joint divorce petition before the divorce can be made official, so 91 days is the floor on any Colorado divorce timeline no matter how quickly the couple agrees.