Child Support
Residency Requirements and Grounds for Divorce
Divorce is a court process to legally end a marriage. In Colorado divorce is called "dissolution of marriage" and court papers use this term instead of divorce. Colorado uses a no-fault divorce standard, so you don't have to prove blame or responsibility of one spouse to get a divorce. The only question for the court when a "standard" marriage is involved is whether the marriage is "irretrievably broken," meaning that there is no reasonable chance the spouses want to stay married.
Either you or your spouse must be a state resident for 90 days before filing for divorce. A divorce begins when one spouse files a dissolution of marriage in the county where the other spouse resides or in the county where the filing spouse resides if the other spouse has been served in the same county or is a non-resident of Colorado.
Under Colorado law, a divorce may be obtained by affidavit of either or both of the spouses if the following are true:
- There are no minor children and the wife is not pregnant or both spouses have lawyers and a separation agreement grants custody and child support
- There are no disputes
- There's no marital property or the spouses have agreed on the division of the marital property
- The non-filing spouse has been served
Dividing the Property
In Colorado, assets and debts acquired during your marriage called - "marital property" - are divided "equitably" upon divorce. This means division of property and debts should be fair and equitable, but not necessarily equal.
"Marital property" means all property acquired by either spouse after marriage except property:
- Acquired by gift or inheritance
- Acquired in exchange for property acquired prior to the marriage or in exchange for property acquired by gift or inheritance
- Acquired by a spouse after a decree of legal separation Excluded by a valid agreement
The court will consider various factors when making its equitable distribution, including the following:
- Contribution of each spouse to the acquisition of the marital property, including homemaker contributions
- Value of each spouse's separate property
- Economic circumstances of each spouse when property division takes effect
- Any increase or decrease in value of separate property during the marriage or depletion of separate property for marital purposes
State law provides property owned before marriage can remain the "separate property" of that spouse.
Be prepared with information on your property, including when you purchased it, an estimate of value, and details such as account numbers, serial numbers and so forth. You'll be ready to meet with a Colorado divorce lawyer and it can save you a lot of time and money.
Alimony
The fault of a spouse in causing a divorce may not be a complete bar to obtaining spousal support, but the cause of separation factors into a court's decision on awarding spousal support. Spousal support, when awarded, may be periodic or in a lump sum. An award serves to lessen the financial impact of divorce, not as punishment for a spouse's conduct.
A court can order alimony, as it deems reasonable, to either spouse, but only if needed. in. Awards typically aren't permanent. Courts consider these factors in deciding alimony issues:
- The respective ages of the spouses
- Assets Earning potential
- Duration of marriage
A court can order temporary maintenance while the divorce is pending. Most maintenance is ordered for a specific length of time. Modification and enforcement proceedings are possible.
Child Custody and Visitation
In Colorado, child custody is referred to as "allocation of decision-making responsibility" and "allocation of parental responsibility." Custody is awarded by the court based upon what is in the best interests of the child. It isn't given as a reward to one parent or as punishment to the other parent. Parental responsibility arrangement types include sole responsibility, joint responsibility or a combination of sole and joint responsibility.
In making a custody decision, the court will consider several factors:
- Age of the parent and child
- Physical and mental condition of the parent and child
- Relationship between each parent and each child
- Child's needs
- Parents' roles in child's upbringing and care
- Home where child will live
- Child's wishes if the child has age, intelligence and maturity to decide
Custody may be changed if there is a substantial change in circumstances and it would be in the best interests of the child.
When one parent is awarded custody of a child, the other is granted visitation rights. The court sets visitation rights if the parents can't agree on visitation issues. Visits are generally unsupervised and take place at the non-custodial parent's home.
Child Support
Generally, the non-custodial parent pays child support for a minor child. The court looks at the child's needs and the supporting parent's ability to pay. State Child Support Guidelines provide an amount of child support presumed as correct. There are child support worksheets to help you figure out support amounts. The support award may be increased or decreased if a material change occurs in the circumstances of either parent or the child.
A child support order can be modified if there has been a substantial change in circumstances, such as a big increase or decrease in either parent's income or the child reaching the legal age of majority and graduating from high school.
Questions for Your Attorney