Divorce and Custody
Many surveys show that divorce and custody disputes are the second most stressful time of a person’s life- with only the death of child, parent or spouse being more stressful. Let our experience of assisting clients for over thirty years help you through this difficult time. Our team of lawyers led by Judith Carlson, a former family court judge and Paul Dunkelman, a certified Respondent Parent Counsel and former President of the Continental Divide Bar Association know family law.
We know all aspects of family law. We represent the full range of clients – custodian and non-custodial parents, men and women, couples with heavy debts, couples with many assets, couples who get along and couples in high conflict divorces. We strive to accurately and honestly evaluate you case, which enables us to effectively and firmly advocate for you and your interests.
Child Custody
In the middle of divorce the importance of children and family become clearer than ever. The ability to see and help your children grow, the need to protect them from physical or emotional abuse and bad influences are key to your values as a parent. Our philosophy is to look for the best interests of the children when advocating for our clients.
The law starts with a presumption that children deserve to have both parents involved in their lives, provided it is not harmful to them. The best situation is when despite divorce, children still have two parents who love them and are interested in how they grow into adults. However, when the facts merit we do not hesitate to seek every legal remedy to protect children from abuse or dangerous situations. Courts are authorized to appoint an independent Child Family Investigator (CFI) in difficult cases where there are issues concerning the treatment and well being of the children.
Technically in Colorado custody has been replaced by parental responsibilities and parental duties. This reform is supposed to get people to change their thinking. The hope is that by changing the language people will not think of children as possessions but focus on making good parenting decisions instead of fighting over custody designation.
Similarly the term visitation has been replaced by parenting time to allow greater involvement of both parents and address the Disneyland Dad syndrome. We can represent you in getting enough time with your children, developing parenting time plans and modification of court orders. When necessary we also aggressively pursue restrictions on parenting time to protect children.
Child Support
Child Support in Colorado is determined by a formula set forth in a statute based upon the primary factors of parental income and overnight parenting time and adjusted by who pays for child care costs, health insurance and extraordinary expenses. Even though the formula is supposed to make child support a straight forward issues about unreported income, voluntary unemployment, the negotiation of overnights and the impact of the adjustment factors leave room for sufficient flexibility that having a lawyer in your corner is important. We have assisted clients in literally thousands of child support adjustments and cases. We can help you.
Alimony/Maintenance
In Colorado the term for alimony is maintenance. Where a couple has joint annual income of less than $75,000, there is an automatic temporary maintenance formula during the pending divorce case. Where annual income is higher you need a lawyer to present to the court whether maintenance is necessary and what a fair amount would be.
Permanent maintenance is something for the discretion of the court in conjunction with balancing property division and the statutory factors that include the basic financial needs for the spouse seeking maintenance - often determined by a court form-the Affidavit of Financial Affair, the level of economic benefit and lifestyle during the marriage and the ability of the paying spouse to afford to pay the maintenance. Rehabilitative maintenance may be orders for a specific period of time while a spouse receives education and training to get back into the workforce to support themselves.
We can make sure you get economic justice on maintenance issues.
Property
Colorado is an equitable division state. Colorado is not a community property state. This can be roughly translated as meaning that the property of the marriage is presumed to be subject to being divided equally subject to review under certain factors, which may adjust the division of the property.
Colorado law begins by dividing things into Separate Property and Marital Property. Separate property is property acquired by gift or inheritance and maintained in the form of separate property. Separate Property cannot be “commingled” or it becomes marital. This frequently comes up where a separate property house is sold to acquire a marital residence.
The definition of property is very broad. Property includes pensions and the value of a business. Business Appraisals are often an expense of divorce litigation. Military pensions and Public Employee (PERA) Pensions are subject to special rules but they are nonetheless counted as property in the divorce.
The factors that adjust the property division are set out in the statute, C.R.S. 14-10-112. The Courts take into consideration those factors making sure a dependent spouse has sufficient property to maintain themselves at a level enjoyed during the marriage. Those factors are:
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The contribution of each spouse to the acquisition of the marital property, including the contribution of a spouse as homemaker;
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The value of the property set apart to each spouse;
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The economic circumstances of each spouse at the time the division of property is to become effective, including the desirability of awarding the family home or the right to live therein for reasonable periods to the spouse having custody of any children; and
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Any increases or decreases in the value of the separate property of the spouse during the marriage or the depletion of separate property for marital purposes.
Common Law Marriage
Colorado has common law marriage and one of the few states with no specific
minimum time limit to establish common law marriage. Colorado instead looks at various factors. Therefore, “holding oneself out as married” may be sufficient. This may result in a finding of marriage where people have been listed as spouse on a ski pass, or health insurance, or other insurance or tax returns or on a hotel registry or when stated to others and not denied by the other partner. When this applies we will review this law with you.
Court Procedures
A divorce is started by filing a Petition with the Court. The Petition contains some basic information that we obtain from you in our initial interview. The Petition and a Summons must be served on your spouse by any person over 18 years of age, or they must sign a Waiver of Service. Some people want to file a joint Co-petition.
Certain information is required to be exchanged and provided by the Court. This information such as financial records, affidavit of financial affairs, W-2s, income information, tax returns is subject to filing Mandatory Disclosures with the opposing party and the Court. These are due a mere 20 days after starting a divorce.
Family Court Facilitator
Divorces in Colorado are a two-step process. Since 2004, the Colorado Court has a new Court Facilitator program to promote the non-adversarial processing of divorces. The Court Facilitator is not an attorney and not a mediator, but is a person to explain court procedures, make sure the parties are providing required information and paper work, to record agreements and determine if a hearing should be heard by a Judge. The Court Facilitator is a sort of gatekeeper on the process.
Every Divorce requires the exchange of information so you will have to fill out a Financial Affidavit, provide information for Mandatory Disclosures and be required to participate in Mediation. Divorces with children require you attend a Parenting Class.
Court
The second step of the process is before the Court. If the parties agree on everything this is a one time event. In the case of major disagreements there can be multiple hearings: Temporary Orders hearing, hearing on child support and maintenance or ultimately a Trial or Final Orders Hearing on all issues.
Ultimately a divorce is concluded with a Decree and if settled with a Separation Agreement and Parenting Plan or if a Final Orders hearing is held an Opinion and Order for Judgment of the Court.
Adoption
In addition to the difficult work of divorce we specialize in the joyful work of adoption. We can assist in foreign adoption and domestic adoptions, including private placement adoptions. We can be there for you from review of your adoption agency contract, to homestudy, to conclusion and issuance of that new birth certificate. |
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