If you filed for divorce, family court mediation is, more than likely, coming your way. And that’s a good thing. Regardless of whether or not you’ve retained counsel, courts very often order mediation before you’re allowed to set the case for a final hearing. Most often, mediation is conducted by a trained mediator at a…
Splitting parenting time can be fertile ground for conflict Parties get fixated on percentages and the number of overnights, instead of cooperation and what may work best for the kids. It’s best to focus discussions on child-centered schedules. If you walk into court describing your kids like a pie to be divided, you’ll lose credibility…
Disputes regarding parental responsibilities are some of the most common cases that come through domestic relations courts. Most parents want to have involvement with their children, and most parents do what they can to expand their parental responsibilities. However, there are occasionally cases with other characteristics–whether there are instances of abuse, molestation, inappropriate behavior, drug…
When you hear people talk about issues involving children, you are likely to hear the word custody being thrown around pretty frequently. However, in Colorado, the term “custody” has essentially become a thing of the past. Instead, Colorado relies on the term “Allocation of Parental Responsibilities” when determining an appropriate “custody” arrangement for your child. But…
In an Allocation of Parental Responsibilities (“APR” for short) case or divorce with children, one of the biggest client concerns is spending time with their kids. The traditional term most used by people when thinking of this topic is custody. In Colorado, however, the courts no longer use this term as it carries some negative…
Divorce results in a big change in the family dynamic. While every member of the family is certainly impacted by these changes, kids often take the most time to adjust to the transition. Knowing this, Colorado family courts base their decisions involving children on what will be in their “best interests.” But what does this…
There is currently pending before the Colorado State Senate a bill that purports to “preserve the parent-child relationship in domestic actions.” As is often the case in politics, the title of the bill is incredibly misleading. It would, in fact, have entirely the opposite effect of what it claims. The bill claims to “protect” the…
We see signs of burnout in just about every child as summer break approaches. Parents are excited to get a break from the daily (and sometimes stressful) routine of school and homework. Kids are eager to get to sleep in, play more, and have less structure to their day. However… In the happy first days…
In many ways, Colorado is a testing ground for the expansion of marijuana use and many other states are watching closely to see how legalization affects cases like driving under the influence, underage drug use, robbery and violent crimes, and child custody fights. Both sides of the recreational use battle have their opinions and come armed…
To move out or not to move out, that is the question. You’ve made the decision to move towards ending the relationship. You’ve agonized, considered every possible resolution, but the only hope for happiness is to no longer be involved with your significant other. But the question remains: where do I go from here? Your first…
Oftentimes, courts start with the unspoken presumption that shared parenting time is in the best interests of the children. If both parents are able to exercise 3-4 days per week, want to spend that much time with their kids, and have an established relationship with them, then we often find that the burden for obtaining…