Alienation of affection and criminal conversation are potential legal claims or causes of action against a person who committed adultery with your spouse—the paramour or lover with whom your spouse had an affair. These claims are based on the idea that the person with whom your spouse cheated destroyed or alienated the love and affection in your marriage.

Alienation of affection claims are no longer recognized by courts in most states—but Hawaii, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Dakota, and Utah do recognize such claims. And in some states that do or do not not recognize such claims, the cheated-on spouse may seek an unequal division of the marital estate based on fault in the breakup of the marriage.

The details of alienation of affection laws (sometimes called heart-balm laws) vary from state to state among the states that do recognize such claims.

In Colorado, claims for alienation of affection and criminal conversation are not recognized by the courts. Colorado follows the trend of most states in the United States, which have abolished these causes of action. These claims were traditionally used to sue a third party who was believed to have interfered with the marital relationship, leading to the loss of affection and, in the case of criminal conversation, engaging in sexual relations with someone's spouse. However, Colorado does not provide legal recourse for these situations under these theories. Instead, Colorado is a no-fault divorce state, meaning that the courts do not consider misconduct such as adultery when granting a divorce or dividing marital property. The division of marital assets in Colorado is based on the principle of equitable distribution, which aims to divide property fairly, though not necessarily equally, without regard to marital misconduct.