What Happens if a Domestic Violence Victim Doesn’t Show Up for C...
August 30, 2023 Domestic Violence
You've decided to take your domestic violence case to court and you've been granted a hearing. But now, for whatev...
Read full postBecause our families take precedence in our lives, family law is naturally a very important branch of the law. Family law tackles issues related to divorce, post-divorce modifications, child custody outside of divorce, prenuptial agreements, and well beyond. If you find yourself facing a family law concern, you are not alone – an experienced family law attorney in Littleton, Colorado, can help.
We turn to family law for all the following legal matters:
All of these matters can impact your life in many ways, so you always want to have the right co family law lawyers throughout the family law process.
While divorce is a primary element of family law matters, it is by no means the only concern. The terms of divorce – both within and outside divorce – are foundational to family law cases and include:
Colorado law addresses child custody in terms of parental responsibilities and parenting time – both of which are primary to parental rights.
Parental responsibilities encompass what many people think of as legal custody – or the responsibility of making the big-picture decisions that determine your children’s upbringing. You and your ex can hammer out these decisions between yourselves, but one of you may be afforded the right to break a tie if – after exhaustive negotiations – you remain at odds on the matter. Other options include:
The following are the kinds of decisions that are included in parental responsibilities:
Those decisions that we all face as parents on a day-to-day basis must be addressed by the parent who is there at the time. Finally, in emergency situations, the parent who is contacted first or who is on the scene is required to make any decisions that need to be made on the spot.
Parenting time sets the schedule by which you and your children’s other parent will divide your time with your shared children. If you need the court’s guidance on the matter, you’re very likely to receive one of its standard parenting time schedules, but if you and your ex are able to come to a mutually acceptable agreement, you can create whatever schedule works for you. When it comes to parenting time schedules, they all fall into one of only two basic options, including:
Parents who do not together remain financially responsible for their children, and child support is the state’s tool for ensuring that this responsibility is balanced between both parents. Many different factors go into the state’s child support calculation process, but the primary issues tend to be how much time the kids spend with each parent and each parent’s income. The parent who is the higher earner is often the parent who has the child support obligation.
As a married couple, you very likely acquired assets, and these are considered marital property, which must be divided between you fairly upon the divorce process. The matter of what is fair is determined by examining a wide range of factors that include issues such as the length of your marriage, the contributions each of you made to your marital property overall, each spouse’s overall physical and mental health, and much more. Factors that tend to make the division of marital property even more challenging include:
Separate assets are those properties that either of you brought into the marriage with you. If you were able to maintain the separate nature of these assets, they will remain yours, but if not, they are likely to be included in the division of marital property.
Alimony – or spousal maintenance – is not a foregone conclusion in any family law case. Alimony is only awarded in those instances when one spouse is financially burdened by legal separation to the extent that they are unable to support themself and when the other spouse is able to provide financial assistance. While a spectrum of factors guides alimony decisions, alimony – when appropriate – is generally awarded only for an amount and duration that allows the recipient to gain greater financial independence through either further education or job training.
It is important to address the matter of parental relocations by considering the primary fact that the court cannot prevent colorado residents from moving out of CO state. If that parent, however, has primary custody of his or her children, the court can transfer custody to the parent who is remaining in Colorado – if this is determined to be in the best interests of the children involved, according to the Colorado Family Law.
In other words, making a move out of state as the primary custodial parent of the minor child should not be entered into lightly, and unless it is predicated on factors that increase your children’s opportunities and support their best interests, it is unlikely to be greenlighted by the family law court.
If your grandchildren’s parents are no longer together, the State of Colorado will consider your request for visitation. While you have no specific legal right to see your grandchildren, the state recognizes how enriching the relationship between grandchildren and their grandparents can be for everyone involved. As such, the family law court will take your request for visitation into careful consideration – and will base its decision on the best interests of your grandchildren.
Colorado addresses what most people term prenuptial and postnuptial agreements as premarital and marital agreements, but the basics remain the same. These agreements amount to legal contracts that determine how certain divorce terms – or inheritance rights – will be addressed in the event of divorce (or one spouse’s death). Prenuptial agreements must be written prior to marriage, and they go into effect when the couple marries. Postnuptial agreements, however, are created and executed while the couple is married.
Prenups and postnups can address all the terms of divorce except the following:
Prenups are often implemented in second marriages when one party has a child from a previous relationship whose inheritance rights might be affected.
Both guardianship and adoption address the matter of acting as a child’s parent, but the legal ramifications vary significantly. If you become a child’s guardian, you take on all the rights and responsibilities of his or her parent, but the connection is temporary in the sense that the child’s parents retain all the legal rights, including the right to terminate the guardianship (if done through the courts). When you adopt a child, however, you become his or her parent, with all the rights and responsibilities that go with this role. Adoption is a complicated legal process that can take considerable time and effort to achieve.
Domestic violence refers to any of the following when perpetrated by one intimate partner against another:
Intimate partners include current spouses, former spouses, couples who are currently in a romantic relationship, and couples who were formerly in a romantic relationship. Domestic violence can focus on the intimate partner, on a family member of the intimate partner (such as a child), on a pet of the intimate partner, or on property that belongs to the intimate partner. The charge of domestic violence does not stand alone but is, instead, used as an enhancement for the underlying charge of violence, whatever that may be. A common example is misdemeanor assault as an act of domestic violence.
Chris Little at CNL Law Firm, PLLC, in Littleton, Colorado, is a practiced family law attorney who is well prepared and well positioned to help you handle your family law concern head-on. To learn more, please don’t wait to contact or call us at (720) 370-2171 for more information today.
CNL Law Firm, PLLC focuses on helping families regain peace of mind during legal circumstances.
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