Opinion ID: 1187555
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: temporary attorneys' fees.

Text: The purpose of temporary attorneys' fees is to place spouses on an equal footing. . . for . . . maintenance of the. . . proceeding. Bieler v. Bieler, 130 Colo. 17, 19, 272 P.2d 636 (1954). Given that the wife is unemployed, without separate assets and required to pay for investigative and defense services in a complex case involving very substantial assets, her lack of readily available funds to pay attorneys' fees may place her on an unequal footing. The district judge, however, has not denied her request for attorneys' fees. He merely has postponed the fee determination until he has made findings of fact and conclusions based upon the distribution of assets. Such a postponement may not preclude the wife from eventually recovering attorneys' fees. As an appellate court we cannot independently find, as a matter of fact, that she has been denied equal footing in seeking a fair property division. Awarding attorneys' fees in divorce proceedings is generally within the trial court's discretion. Morgan v. Morgan, 139 Colo. 545, 550, 340 P.2d 1060 (1959). While the proof in a particular case may show that one of the parties has been placed at such an unfair advantage as to call for our intervention, no such factual showing has yet been made here. See e. g., Peercy v. Peercy, 154 Colo. 575, 581, 392 P.2d 609 (1964). Any disparity in capacity to pay attorneys' fees which now exists may be rectified at the time of the property division hearing. Therefore we find no abuse of discretion regarding attorneys' fees at this stage of the proceedings.