Family Law Practice Areas

Clients involved in family law disputes in Colorado need both personal and professional support through times that are highly emotional, but require calm and reasoned decision-making. We provide clients with legal representation in the following areas of the law:

• Adoption
• Alimony, Spousal Support, and Spousal Maintenance
• Child Custody, Parental Responsibility, and Parenting Time Decisions
• Child Support
• Divorce, Dissolution, Legal Separation, and Annulment
• Domestic Abuse and Domestic Violence
• Juvenile Law and Juvenile Delinquency
• Marital Property
• Mediation

Adoption—Whether you are looking into adoption for the first time or have already tried other adoption avenues, our lawyers can answer all of your questions about adoptions in Colorado. We handle the following adoption-related proceedings in accordance with Colorado law:

• Stepparent adoptions
• Foreign adoptions
• Name changes
• Termination of parental rights

Alimony, Spousal Support, and Spousal Maintenance—Alimony or spousal support is support paid by a supporting spouse to a dependent spouse. The amount and duration of alimony or spousal support depends on a number of factors including:

• The length of the marriage
• The age of each spouse
• The health of each spouse
• Educational levels of each spouse
• The income of each spouse
• Standard of living the parties enjoyed during the marriage

We can help you determine whether alimony or spousal support is an issue in your situation and, if so, what amount and term would be fair to pay or to receive.

Child Custody, Parental Responsibility, and Parenting Time Decisions—Colorado no longer uses “custody” or “visitation” in its family law vocabulary but rather refers to child custody and visitation issues by the following terms:

• Allocation of Parental Responsibility
• Parenting Time and Decision-Making

Whatever the terminology, we handle all issues relating to the physical, emotional, and financial wellbeing of children in Colorado. Depending on the circumstances of the case, each parent is typically entitled to significant periods of parenting time with their children and input into major decisions affecting their children, including education, religion, and non-emergency medical procedures

Child Support—Child support is generally ordered by the court in situations in which a child lives with one but not both parents. All states, including Colorado, have guidelines by which courts determine child support. Courts plug numbers into the child support formula and come up with an amount of support that should be paid for the child or children. The child support guidelines are not an exact method of calculating child support in every situation, and parties can argue that because of special circumstances, a court should order more or less support than the guideline amount. Colorado bases child support on a formula that takes into account the parents combined incomes, overnights spent with a child, and a parent’s individual expenditure for health insurance and other extraordinary expenses. Also taken into account is whether a primary residential parent is a parent of a child of the parties under the age of thirty months old.

Divorce, Dissolution, Legal Separation, and Annulment—Divorce, or dissolution as it is called in Colorado, is the legal process by which a marriage is terminated. We handle all issues relating to:

• Divorce or dissolution of marriage
• Legal separation
• Declaration of invalidity, which is commonly referred to as an annulment

Domestic Abuse and Domestic Violence–-There is no excuse for domestic violence or domestic abuse. Domestic violence may involve physical, sexual, psychological, or emotional abuse. Domestic violence includes the following:

• Assault
• Sexual assault
• Reckless endangerment
• Kidnapping
• No contract orders
• Orders of protection
• Permanent restraining orders
• Temporary restraining orders
• Unlawful imprisonment
• Stalking

Juvenile Law and Juvenile Delinquency—When a juvenile is accused of a crime in Colorado, the legal process is very different than in adult court. The juvenile crime is called an act of delinquency and requires juvenile court intervention to deal with the delinquency. The following types of behavior often subject juveniles to juvenile court jurisdiction:

• Curfew violations
• Drug use
• Gang-related activities
• Running away from home
• Sexual misconduct
• Shoplifting and theft
• Skipping school and truancy
• Traffic violations
• Underage drinking

When dealing with a juvenile in Colorado, we handle adjudication hearings, certification and waiver hearings, disposition hearings, trials, probation, community service, school suspensions, and school expulsions.

Marital Property—Colorado is not a "community property" state but it is an "equitable division" state. That means that each spouse will be awarded what is fair under the circumstances. While that sounds easy enough, dividing a marital estate at the time of a divorce has become an increasingly complex process as the division of marital assets is no longer simply a matter of identifying and dividing real and personal property. Today’s divorce client requires the knowledge and expertise necessary to examine and evaluate issues relating to business interests, retirement accounts, pension plans, stock options, as well as an understanding of tax ramifications. When dividing a marital estate a court may consider the following:

• Length of the marriage
• Assets and debts of the parties
• Financial needs and liabilities of the parties
• Premarital orprenuptial agreements
• Separation agreements
• Tax consequences

We can assist you in determining what a fair settlement would be and in achieving that result either by negotiation or litigation.

Mediation—Most family law disputes, including those involving child custody, child support, and marital property can be resolved without going to court. As court dockets in Colorado have become more congested, there has been a greater focus on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) methods such as mediation. Mediation is a process in which a third-party neutral, whether one mediator or more, acts as a facilitator to assist in resolving a dispute between two or more parties. ADR and mediation provides a viable option for those who prefer to stay out of court and has many potential advantages for most Colorado families including:

• Reduced cost
• Efficient resolution
• Less emotional stress
• Control over the results