Colorado Family Law Laws

In the state of Colorado, a parenting plan is the document that the court ultimately will make an order of the court that determines when each parent will have their parenting time, what decision making looks like, what child support looks like, whether or not one parent can take the child tax credits in one year and all sorts of things regarding the child and children.

It’s very important to have a parenting plan because when there is a breakdown in the communication between the parents in the future, they have something to rely on, they have something that they can go and enforce in the court. It also gives the children a sense of stability.

The children may not be and should not be made aware of the parenting plan, however, when the parents are not fighting over issues and rely simply on a document that either they entered into through an agreement process or by a court order then the children really have – at that point – a worry-free life until something is modified in the court and a parenting plan is very important in that respect.

By: Scott Goldman

In El Paso County following a temporary orders hearing, and before you can have a permanent orders hearing, you’re required to have mediation. We do have an Office of Dispute Resolution who provides mediation services for the county, and you’re entitled to use them for your mediation, or you can hire a private mediator. If you have an attorney it will be their decision as to whether or not you use private mediation or you use the county folks.

A mediator is a paid individual, typically an attorney who’s very familiar, in our case with family law, and they would try to assist you. If you’re using an Office of Dispute Resolution for example, they have a two-hour mediation where you each pay a fixed fee for the two hours, and you and your attorney would be in one room, the other party and their attorney if they have one, would be in the other room and the mediator would sort of do shuttle diplomacy going back and forth between the two, trying to resolve any remaining case issues that have not been settled so far.

If you can reach a mediation, a mediated agreement, you can write it up, file it with the court and you may not even have to go to court after that for a final orders hearing. So mediation can be a powerful tool to help you resolve remaining issues in divorce cases.

By: Ray Chamberland

What is alimony based on in Colorado? Alimony, we actually don’t use that word here in Colorado. It’s the same thing, but we use the word maintenance. The reason we use the word maintenance is because it’s need-based here in Colorado. It’s not as if you just should have maintenance/alimony because someone’s at fault or someone’s been bad and they need to be punished.

Here in Colorado, regardless of how bad the other party is, you’re not going to be able to get alimony or maintenance unless you fulfill on what we now have as a formula or such. So here in Colorado, we have a formula. It went into effect at the beginning of 2014. It is a new formula. It doesn’t go into effect unless you’ve had at least three years of marriage.  If you are under three years of marriage, then the formula doesn’t apply. You might be able to get short term, temporary maintenance/alimony to tide you over until you get a job. But the formula itself won’t come into effect unless you’ve married a relatively significant period of time – three years. Once you hit that three year mark, the formula comes into effect and, whereas historically, we used to argue about maintenance all the time, now there’s less argument about it because judges like formulas.

Formulas make things easier. The maintenance formula itself has some complexities to it that are beyond this video, however suffice it to say, a thumbnail if you wanted to use it would be that the spouse that needed maintenance would probably get 40% of the other spouse’s salary minus – I don’t know if you can stick with it – minus 50% of the salary that the spouse who has less income already makes, and then the only question at that point is the period of time that you’d get the maintenance. It’s between a third of your marriage to half of your marriage, depending on how long you’ve been married. So the longer you’ve been married, the closer you’re going to get to the halfway point for the number of years that you would get maintenance.

For instance, if you’ve been married for (20) years, you’ll probably get maintenance for (10) years. And if you are a stay at home mother, let’s say, and you haven’t worked in years and years and years and you’re in your 50s, chances are you’ll get 40% of your spouses salary for that ten years. Now you can’t– I’m not promising that’s exactly right because like I said, there are many complexities to the statute and you’d have to come in a really sit down with me and really look for me to come up with what that maintenance formula will look like. So don’t take it as gospel. I’m just saying, that’s kind of a thumbnail sketch of how we do maintenance currently here in Colorado.

By: Leslie Matthews

In Colorado, when a parent wants to move out of the state, there’s a couple of different issues that arise as far as visitation is concerned and custody is concerned. The first thing to be aware of is that the state of Colorado, and really any state in the union, cannot force an adult to stay where they’re at. They’re free to move at any time that they want to move. The question is whether or not the children will be allowed to go with you.

Of course the court is looking at what’s in the best interest of the child or children. There’s a number of different steps that have to be taken to procure relocation if it’s after your divorce has been finalized, or after your custody matter has been finalized. It works a bit differently if it’s the initial case. These are all issues that are discussed in a consultation. But if the non-custodial parent objects to the substantially changing geographical ties with the parent, that’s a big consideration for the court to look to. You look to the children as well and their community, their friends that they would be leaving. There’s a whole host of factors that go into a relocation matter. It’s a very uphill battle even if you’re in the initial case in the first place.

In order to effectuate a good relocation case, you need to have good facts behind it, not just “I think I can get a job” or “I think it will be better to live out there.” Courts really want to know the reasons for moving out there. If you have family out there, if you already have a great paying job, if you are forced to move for work– these are reasons to set forth before the court. But they’re not guarantees that a court would look to, or a court would grant your wish to relocate with the children. So it can have a fairly big effect on how that visitation is ultimately decided.

By: Scott Goldman

Mediation in the State of Colorado, whether it’s for a divorce case or a child custody case is ordered by the courts, nine times out of ten. And mediation is an alternative way for the parties to resolve their case. Being in full control of that agreement and not risking whether or not a judge or magistrate would go against what you ultimately think should happen.

Mediation can be effective, but it’s only as effective as you allow it to be. And so if you’re not in mediation with realistic expectations about your case. And with the mindset that you want to settle your case, then mediation frankly will not be effective. In order for mediation to be effective, also, both parties need to want to settle the case, and want to make realistic decisions about the outcome of the case that they would also get– that they would also be likely to get in a court setting as well.

If you go in to mediation, thinking that you’re going to get $10,000 worth of alimony a month, and the facts only support of $2,000 alimony rate. Or if you think you’re going to go into mediation and get full custody when the facts support a different custody outcome. Then those are the expectations I’m talking about, that would make mediation ineffective. So it’s very important to listen to your lawyer and make decisions about a realistic outcome so that mediation can be effective. And so you can settle your case with a better piece of mind.

By: Scott Goldman

When you get divorced, you have a number of pieces of paper that need to be sent in to the court. A divorce decree is all of that final paperwork put together that’s made an order of the court. So, that final paperwork would include your parenting plan, it would include your separation agreement, it would include any other orders of the court, and that package, all put together, is your divorce decree.

Now what you can do once you have your divorce decree is you can enforce it, so it becomes as I said an order of the court, meaning that if somebody doesn’t do what they’re supposed to do based on that paperwork, you can go to the court with a contempt motion or an order to enforce and it actually is a court order. So when you’re at the end of the divorce you have a divorce decree, you have your legal rights essentially handled.

By: Leslie Matthews

In the State of Colorado, child support can be modified when there’s a substantial and continuing change in circumstances. The first thing that is looked to is whether or not the amount of child support that’s currently being paid will change by greater than 10%. If somebody for example is paying $500 a month and they’re trying to reduce their child support, then their burden would be to show that the child support would go down by $50. And of course on the other hand, if the person who’s receiving child support is trying to increase the amount of child support that’s being paid at the end of the day. Then they would have to show that, that amount would go up by $50 for a $500 amount example.

As far as terminating child support, generally speaking, child support will terminate once the child turns the age of 19. However, if you have multiple children, at that time you should look at modifying your child support as well. Because once the first child turns 19, it does not automatically recalculate itself for when that particular event happens, and then base itself off of the remaining children. So you should file a motion to modify child support at that time.

Some other issues that you look at when modifying child support is the date at which child support would be modified back to. Generally speaking, child support is modified back to the date that you filed your motion to modify child support. However, if you can show that there was a mutually agreed upon exchange in parenting. Meaning, maybe you had a child for four overnights a week and now for the past year or two or whatever it is, that child has been living primarily with the other parent. You can go into the court and argue that there was a mutually agreed upon exchange. And so from the date that, that child started to live with you or the other parent, the modification should go back to that date. Which could be a lot earlier in time than the date in which you file your motion.

By: Scott Goldman

In the State of Colorado, an affair really doesn’t have an affect on alimony. Or the fancy term that we use in the law is maintenance. Colorado is a no-fault state so the judge or magistrate is not really looking to whether or not somebody had an affair to determine how maintenance will be determined.

And as a matter of fact, these issues need to be determined without any reference to fault. So the affair doesn’t play a role in that. In child custody, you could have some influence on that issue. If you have a parent that has had an affair and now has brought that other person around the children. And that person starts to act as though they’re parent to the child or children, that can have an affect on how child custody is determined at the end of the day. But overall, the mere fact that somebody had an affair, generally doesn’t play a role in how custody is determined.

By: Scott Goldman

Bill Moller here. Owner of the Moller Law Group. I want to take a moment now, just to talk about one of the areas that we practice in here at the Moller Law Group. We specialize in family law. What is family law? Family law is a pretty broad subject area, but essentially we handle divorce, child custody situations, child support, abandonment and things like that. If you need help, come see us.

Now, when you do, know that you’re going to get honest advice and sometimes you’re going to hear things that you might not want to hear. That’s because we have experience here at the Moller Law Group because you never really know what a court will do in a situation like yours because we’ve probably encountered it before. Now, every problem is unique and everyone has a different set of challenges, but because of the experience we have, we can help you map a route for your problem.

But, you do need to understand, in a divorce or a child custody battle, not everyone’s going to get everything they want. In fact, both parents are probably going to have to sacrifice a little bit. Here at the Moller Law Group, we’re candid, we’re fair, we’re honest and we also do a good job.

By: William Moller