For parents going through a divorce, the most crucial and potentially heart-breaking part of the process is the parental time agreement. Even the best of agreements means that both parents will not be spending as much time with their children as before. This can be emotionally difficult for both children and spouses as they come to terms with the reality of divorce. Unfortunately, the stress is compounded by the necessary complexity of laws surrounding the rights and interests of children.
To help ease the pain and stress of understanding parental time, The Harris Law Firm has compiled a list of articles and resources intended to help parents understand these difficult laws. Articles include how to initiate a modification to parental time agreements (include establishing them or refuting them), how child support works, and how to conduct custody agreements in different states. We hope these resources answer your questions, allowing you to move forward confidently and with clarity.
Child Support & Parenting Time
An important issue for courts in a divorce or custody matter is child support , or the cost of raising the children until they are each nineteen, or otherwise emancipated. In Colorado, child support is considered a right of the child; therefore, the courts may not recognize an agreement between the ...
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Child Support & Parenting Time
In this time of economic change, many people are losing their jobs and benefits. They may be wondering how they will pay their rent, mortgage, and grocery bills, let alone their child support . If you've suffered a significant change in life circumstances, you may qualify to file a petition to ...
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Child Support & Parenting Time
Custody disputes involving parents and children who live in different states can present a variety of complex issues under the law. However, much of the confusion surrounding interstate custody actions and relocating with kids after divorce was clarified after the adoption of the Uniform Child ...
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Child Support & Parenting Time
The child custody decision is often the most contentious aspect of divorce because in many cases, both parents want to be the primary caretaker of the children. While many people believe the mother will automatically get custody of minor children that is not always the case. In fact, in recent ...
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Child Support & Parenting Time
Collecting child support often becomes the most contentious aspect of a divorce. A party may not move across state lines in an effort to avoid payment of child support. However, in order to enforce a child support order in another state, a court must establish the proper authority prior to act. ...
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Child Support & Parenting Time
Child support is probably the number one issue that brings couples back into the courtroom over and over after their divorce is final. In recent years, many state legislatures have focused their attention on ensuring minor children receive the support they need following the divorce of their ...
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Child Support & Parenting Time
When an absent parent wants to resume parenting time with a child, it can create emotional turmoil for everyone involved. The parent may have lost contact with the child as a result of a disruptive life event, including substance abuse or addiction, a mental health breakdown, or an affair. ...
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Child Support & Parenting Time
Summer is a good time to review your parenting plan to see which parent, or if both parents, are to decide which school the children should attend and who is to register the children. If one parent has "sole decision making" regarding the education of the children, then it is usually that parent who ...
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Child Support & Parenting Time
When one of the divorced parents moves, and takes the children a great distance away, the non-custodial parent faces the difficult choice of only seeing the child a few times a year, or giving up his or her job and moving. But now, thanks to modern technology, there is another option available ...
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Child Support & Parenting Time
Unpaid Support Payments About half of all annual child support in the U.S. goes unpaid. According to the National Child Support Enforcement Assn. in Washington, D.C., only $13 billion, or 56%, of the $23 billion due was collected for fiscal year 2000. Methods of Obtaining Payment There are many ...
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Child Support & Parenting Time
In July of 2005, the Governor signed into law a revised version of the statute that detailed the duties and responsibilities of “either [the] representative of the child or [the] special advocate.” The revision of the law separated the individuals appointed to those positions and gave them ...
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Child Support & Parenting Time
The Colorado Clean Indoor Air Act that went into effect at 12:01 on July 1, 2006 means many businesses are now officially deemed smoke free. The implementation of this law coincides with the United States Surgeon General's statement about environmental tobacco smoke, often called second hand smoke, ...
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Child Support & Parenting Time
Step parents are often at their wits end about how to handle parenting issues when they are not obtaining the support of, or have communication with, the former spouse. This kind of situation can be extremely challenging for all concerned. When one of our senior lawyers was asked about these kinds ...
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Child Support & Parenting Time
Joint Parental Decision-Making Although one parent may be the primary parent, Colorado law generally states that both parents share in the decision-making responsibilities for the children following the dissolution of marriage. This means that the parent who the children are staying with at the time ...
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Child Support & Parenting Time
In Colorado custody cases, one of the first determinations the Court will make is where the children will reside most of the time. Terms used to describe the parent with primary custody include: “primary residential parent” or “primary care parent.” Because each case is unique, the definition of ...
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Child Support & Parenting Time
When speaking about divorce and child custody, it’s only natural to speak of a parent’s “visitation” time with his/her children. In Colorado, however, the term “visitation” was removed from the statutes and replaced with “parenting time,” which refers to how the time with the kids will be divided ...
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Child Support & Parenting Time
With any divorce that involves children, the best interests of the children must always be the number one priority of all parties involved. Ex-spouses must put aside their personal differences when it comes to their children; regardless of how much you may dislike your ex, you must remember he/she ...
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Child Support & Parenting Time
Child Custody Modification When a child custody/parenting time agreement is reached in a divorce proceeding, it’s not always set in stone. For many families, changes must be made to a child custody/visitation agreement due to job changes, re-marriages, and geographical relocations. Sometimes, the ...
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Child Support & Parenting Time
Income can be imputed when one parent is not employed because they are begin supported by a new spouse In order to determine the amount of income to be used in the calculation, you would obtain the highest income they ever received, the income from their most recent job, or you could use minimum ...
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Child Support & Parenting Time
In re Marriage of Parr & Lyman , 240 P.3d 509, 512 (Colo. App. 2010) Rule: Medical marijuana use is not necessarily endangerment Facts: Father agreed to a parenting plan with a UA requirement to ensure he didn’t use marijuana. A week after he signed the parenting plan, and the same day the judge ...
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Child Support & Parenting Time
Updated 1/26/2021 Taxpayers who are going through a divorce or a marital separation often have questions about the tax ramifications associated with the receipt of maintenance and/or child support payments. Before filing your taxes, it is important to fully understand the tax laws and tax ...
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Child Support & Parenting Time
In the State of Colorado, there is no statute that references a specific age when a child can determine the parent with whom they wish to live. A parent can file a motion with the Court requesting that a child's wishes be considered by the Court, but there is no guarantee the Judge will rule in ...
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Child Support & Parenting Time
Colorado Child Support Laws: What's Covered? In Colorado, divorcing parents are directed by statute to divide between them all the expenses of their children in proportion to their incomes. There are two categories of expenses to which this proportion applies: basic and extraordinary. 1 - Basic ...
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Child Support & Parenting Time
Many parents involved in custody disputes struggle with the question of whether they should relocate out of the state of Colorado. Whether a parent is forced to relocate due to employment or chooses to relocate to be closer to family, it is important to consider the right time to request your ...
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Child Support & Parenting Time
How a Parent's Disability Impacts Child Support Payments Disability and Child Support Payments When a parent who has been ordered by the court to pay child support becomes disabled, the obligation to support pay child support remains in place until the order is modified by the court. Does the parent ...
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Child Support & Parenting Time
Many people assume that eighteen years old is the age at which children are emancipated. However, in Colorado, children are emancipated at the age of nineteen. Therefore, parents have to honor their child support obligation until each child reaches the age of nineteen. Defining Emancipation ...
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Child Support & Parenting Time
