Colorado Family Law Laws

One of the most difficult questions to answer for anybody is how much does a divorce cost, and then how long does it take? In the State of Colorado, there’s tons of different factors that go into a divorce. And a lot of the issue with cost is where are we going to settle and where are we going to fight? What we can never control is the fight that the other side is going to bring up. And we also can’t force the other side to settle. And if they’re not going to settle, and we have to introduce other factors into the divorce, that necessarily drives the cost up.

From that standpoint, it’s very difficult to tell somebody what their divorce will cost. As far as how long it takes, in the State of Colorado, earliest that somebody can be divorced or that two parties can be divorced is the 91st day after the respondent is served with the paperwork. Or the 91st day after both parties file together. The issue though is that courts are constantly backed up with litigants going into court and fighting about custody and things like that. Depending on the jurisdiction you’re in, your divorce could take a year and a half. It could take eight months. Count on the case taking longer than the 91st day when there are genuine fights about anything within your case.

By: Scott Goldman

Winning full custody of your child or children is a very difficult thing to do in the state of Colorado. The courts look at the issue from what’s in the best interest of the child or children. From the start, it should be in the best interest of the child or children to have both parents involved in their lives.

However, when you look at other issues that come into play– maybe one parent is moving out of the state of Colorado and can’t have a true parenting plan that wouldn’t necessarily allow them to have 50-50 parenting time. That would allow one parent, should the children remain in Colorado, to have a majority of the parenting time. But to completely eviscerate the other parent’s rights as far as parenting time is concerned really need to show the court that the other parent is an unfit parent and that they endanger the children either physically or emotionally to the point where sole custody is the only option left.

By: Scott Goldman

If you’ve decided that you’re going to get divorced, the very first issue you ought to ask yourself is whether or not you need an attorney, or can you handle it yourself. If you have limited assets, you’ve been married for a very short period of time, and there is no children involved, you may be able to get a divorce without the help of an attorney.

One of the things I do when I’m talking to people, is to help them with that analysis and decide whether they even an attorney or not. The problem with doing it yourself, even under the circumstances I’ve described, is there is a great deal of paperwork, it must be completed properly, there has to be a fair exchange of financial information, and then you are going to have to make at least a couple of appearances in court.

Many people are intimidated by that, and even if they have limited assets in the divorce and it’s been a short term marriage without children, they prefer to have the help of a professional who does it every day. But that’s a decision each individual’s going to have to make.

By: Ray Chamberland

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

What is divorce in Colorado? Well Colorado divorce is a process. It’s a series of steps that will help folks and their marriage. In fact, we don’t even call divorce, divorce in Colorado. We call it a dissolution of marriage. In a dissolution of marriage, what the court will do is go through five basic areas and help people get divorced.

Although at times it may not seem like it’s helpful, it’s really getting the job done for you if all the steps are followed and followed correctly. First step is to do an initial status conference, at least in El Paso County. Some of the other counties may do things slightly differently. But it’s an initial meeting with the court where deadlines are set and times are set for exchange of information and determination whether or not it’s going to need any experts in the case.

The next step would be a settlement conference. Generally, that’s if both parties have an attorney, it’s the attorneys and the parties. If only one party has an attorney, obviously there could be three of you attempting to settle, or just the two of you if you don’t have attorneys. At a settlement conference, if you can reach agreement on all issues then you can write it up, submit it to the court, and often only have to go to court maybe one more time. If you’re not successful at a settlement conference, we often have what’s called a temporary orders hearing.

At a temporary orders hearing, each side presents its case for how assets should be divided, how parenting times should be arranged if there’s kids involved, and who’s going to be paying for what debts and perhaps who’s going to be living in the marital home if there is one. That is all for temporary purposes. That lasts from the time of the temporary orders hearing up until you have a final orders hearing.

Before you can have a final orders hearing, you’d be required in most instances to have mediation. Mediation is with a paid mediator who assists the couples in trying to reach agreements. If you can reach agreement on everything or on some things, again, you write them up, submit them to the court, and those issues are resolved.

Any remaining issues, which could be all of them, go to court for a final orders hearing. That’s a fully contested hearing often where both sides take very adverse positions and eventually the judge decides all the issues. In a nutshell, that’s divorce in Colorado.

By: Ray Chamberland

Hi. My name is Bill Moller and I love to backpack. Before I start any trip, however, I research about the area in which I’ll be walking. I turn to other, more experienced people, who know the area, to help me map my route.

Life can be the same way, often we are confronted with unknown territory and need someone more experienced to help us know which way to go. If you are confronted with divorce, bankruptcy, the death of a loved one, or starting a new business, or need to plan for your future, I can help.

My name is Bill Moller, and I’m an attorney in Colorado. I am here to help provide you the information you need and walk beside you through some possibly difficult paths that may come your way. Please feel free to call me at (719) 687-2328, and I can help you map a route for your journey through the legal maze.

By: William Moller

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

An uncontested divorce is the best kind of divorce, to be honest with you. It means that there’s nothing that you’re fighting over, that you have to court for, and have a judge make a determination on. In other words, you’ve gone through your divorce process, but you and your spouse have been able to reach agreement on all of the important factors in your divorce. That includes your parenting plan, all of the issues surrounding how you’re going to deal with the children, all of the issues surrounding child support, maintenance, if that’s important in the case. And you’re able then to go to court with your final agreements and the judge essentially is going to just agree to what you’ve agreed to, unless there is something completely onerous or wrong with it.

In most cases, the judge will rubber stamp what you’ve agreed to. You may or may not have to go in and see the judge for a final hearing, that depends on whether or not you have attorneys, and whether there are child issues involved. But in most cases you’ll be able to avoid going to court altogether and your divorce agreement will become an order of the court just as written. And that would be an uncontested divorce. A contested divorce means that there’s something that you’re going to have to have the judge decide, and you’re going to have to go to court to have the judge decide that. And that the distinction between the two.

By: Leslie Matthews

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