Denver Divorce Lawyer

Making the decision to file for divorce is one of the toughest situations many people will ever face, especially when there are children involved. People typically do not enter into a marriage without careful consideration, and the decision to end the marriage requires a similar level of consideration.

It doesn’t matter who initiated the idea of divorce. You now must figure out how to live with the changes this will entail for your life and for the lives of your children. In addition to the emotional turmoil involved, you need to make decisions about child custody and visitation, child support, asset and debt division, and spousal maintenance, that affect your life and your future. This is not easy to do without professional assistance, such as consulting with lawyers for visitation rights.

Colorado laws regarding divorce are complicated, and making mistakes can be costly.  Even if you and your spouse think you can agree on major issues, problems often pop up unexpectedly that create conflict and need to be resolved. Since your divorce settlement can affect you and your family well into the future, it can help to have an experienced divorce lawyer on your side to deal with all legal issues and guide you toward the conclusion you are hoping to reach.

Even amicable divorces often involve strong emotions that may make it more difficult to make the right decisions. A divorce lawyer can help guide you toward a mutually beneficial resolution.

Why Choose Us?

Learn How Our Divorce Attorneys Can Help You

There are many attorneys in Denver, and when going through the stress of divorce, you should find one who can provide the emotional support you need as well as handle the legal challenges that arise. Here are some reasons why we believe you should choose Price Family Law:

Experience

We are experienced and have proven track records and extensive backgrounds in family law. Founding attorney Trista Price focuses on high-asset divorce cases and legal matters involving complex business and financial issues, domestic violence, substance abuse issues, and mental health issues. Attorney Bria Burgamy has experience advocating for victims of domestic violence and assisting clients with child custody and divorce matters. We understand that many divorces are complicated and multifaceted, and we are prepared to help you with every element of your case.

Attention

When you work with Price Family Law, you aren’t just another divorce case. Because we recognize that every divorce is different, we provide personalized attention and craft customized solutions for each client. We care about our clients and treat them like family. You can read their testimonials to prove it.

Availability

Divorce is stressful enough as it is. However, when you have an extremely urgent question and your attorney’s office is closed, it only compounds the anxiety you’re already facing. To help ease our clients’ concerns, we are available 24/7 for emergencies.

Local Knowledge

We are local to Denver and familiar with the city’s family court system. That can be beneficial to your case for a number of reasons. For one, we are familiar with any city or local laws that may apply to your divorce. We also have built relationships with local judges and attorneys, and that often makes it easy to negotiate solutions.

Free Consultations

Choosing a divorce lawyer is a major decision. Divorce is a deeply personal matter, and you shouldn’t discount the importance of having an attorney you feel comfortable talking with. We understand that divorce is also often a time of financial stress, and you might understandably hesitate to pay a consultation fee for an attorney you may ultimately decide not to work with. As a result, we provide free, confidential, and no-obligation consultations to evaluate your case.

Contested vs. Uncontested Divorce in Colorado

If you’ve already started divorce proceedings, you might know that even relatively simple divorces require you and your spouse to make decisions on a number of important issues, including:

• Division of marital property
• Division of marital debt
• Child custody
• Child support
• Alimony/spousal maintenance.

If you and your spouse can agree on all of these issues, you may go forward with an uncontested divorce. This type of divorce still requires you to file certain paperwork, and retaining an attorney is still a good idea. However, because you won’t need to go through litigation and have a judge make a decision, uncontested divorces tend to be much more efficient and less costly than contested divorces. If you have an amicable relationship with your spouse, it’s worth trying to come to an agreement on important issues before assuming your divorce will need to be litigated.

However, if you and your spouse disagree on one or more issues and there is no hope of working them out between yourselves, a contested divorce is necessary. In a contested divorce, family courts will need to intervene to make decisions for you. If your divorce is contested, it becomes doubly important to have an attorney on your side. Your attorney will be able to look out for your best interests and work to prevent a resolution that disproportionately benefits your spouse.

Do Contested Divorces Automatically Go to Court in Colorado?

Contested divorces do not automatically go to court. Often, the court and your attorneys will encourage you to pursue mediation. This is where a trained, impartial third party sits down with you and your spouse (and usually your lawyers as well) to facilitate discussion and guide you toward making a decision. Mediators may not offer advice or issue rulings.

Mediation is generally less expensive — and less stressful — than litigation. However, if you cannot come to an agreement after mediation, it may be necessary to litigate your case.

How We Work for You

At Price Family Law, we know how important it is to get things right from the beginning. When you retain our divorce lawyers, we start working for you immediately.  We will:

Gather the Facts

We start the process by meeting with you to get details about your marriage, family, and financial situation. We invite all clients to schedule a free initial consultation with us to determine whether working with us is the right choice. Based on the facts and your unique circumstances for child custody, spousal maintenance payments, and division of property, we determine the best legal strategy for your divorce and start taking steps to move forward.

File Necessary Documentation

Once we have an understanding of your situation, we can file the initial petition for divorce or answer the petition from your spouse. You may need to file some or all of these forms:

• Case Information Sheet (JDF 1000): Provides basic information about the parties
• Petition (JDF 1011): Requests the divorce
• Summons (JDF 1012): Notifies your spouse of divorce proceedings
• Response (JDF 1015): Includes the other spouse’s response to the summons
• Sworn Financial Statement (JDF 1111): Includes each spouse’s income, assets, expenses, and debts
• Certificate of Compliance (JDF 1104): Certifies each spouse has provided their sworn financial statement to the other
• Property and Financial Agreement (JDF 1115): Tells the court how you will handle property division if you reach an agreement
• Parenting Plan (JDF 1113): Tells the court how you will share parenting duties if you agree
• Decree Without Appearance (JDF 1018): Tells the court you have reached a mutual decision and don’t need a hearing.

When you work with us, we will be able to tell you which forms you need to file, guide you through filling them out, and ensure each one is filed correctly and by the deadline. We also will review all divorce documents including orders for potential parenting classes and ensure you have all documentation necessary to bring or submit to the court.

Negotiate With Your Spouse’s Attorneys

As divorce lawyers, we don’t only handle litigation — we also represent you in negotiation and mediation if needed. Before jumping to mediation, we usually will start by negotiating with your spouse’s attorneys on any contested issues, including child custody, child support, and alimony.

In our years of experience in Denver’s family courts, we have built relationships with many other divorce lawyers. These relationships facilitate negotiation and make it significantly faster and easier to come to an agreement that benefits everyone involved.

Support You Through Divorce Mediation if Necessary

If negotiation is unsuccessful (or if you jump immediately to mediation), our attorneys can help. In divorce mediation, a mediator helps facilitate decision-making, but they cannot offer advice to either side. When you have an attorney present, you have someone who will advocate for your rights.

Represent You in Court at All Divorce Hearings

Typically, you don’t only have to appear once in court when you’re going through a divorce. When you work with us, you’ll benefit from having an experienced litigator representing you. We also can keep track of court dates to make sure you do not miss any important hearings.

We understand that going through a divorce can be an emotionally charged situation, especially if the divorce is contested, and that it can still be hard on you even if the divorce is uncontested. If you and your spouse had difficulty agreeing on decisions and behaving in a civil manner around each other during the marriage, these issues can continue during the divorce proceedings. Sitting across the table from your ex-spouse and trying to negotiate about child custody, spousal maintenance payments, and division of property can bring all those feelings back to the forefront.

Part of the compassionate service we provide involves helping to keep the emotions of the situation under control. Becoming argumentative during the divorce negotiations only ramps up the emotions, leaving both parties unable to reach a consensus. Having our team stand by your side during negotiations can tamp down the emotions, allowing everyone to focus on the facts in the case.

The divorce lawyers from Price Family Law can provide the guidance, information, and sense of comfort that comes with knowing all your issues will be addressed and all legal requirements are taken care of properly. Call us today at 720-615-1750 to get started with a free consultation.

Our Attorneys Explain Colorado Divorce Laws and Requirements

Colorado has numerous laws that govern divorce, and it’s important for you to understand them and what they mean for you and your family. The following are among the most important divorce-related laws and requirements you need to be aware of:

Grounds for Divorce

Colorado is strictly a “no-fault” divorce state, so no consideration will be made based on either spouse’s misconduct or fault in deciding whether to grant the divorce, how to divide property, or whether to award spousal maintenance (alimony). According to Colorado law, (Colo. Rev. Stat. §14-10-110(1) (2022).) the only legal ground for divorce is that the marriage is “irretrievably broken.”

In some cases, Colorado’s no-fault divorce laws can be advantageous — they often make the division of property more straightforward. However, if one spouse cheated or otherwise engaged in misconduct, the other spouse may be bitter that the behavior won’t lessen the assets the court awards them.

Residency Requirements and Other Stipulations

You or your spouse must have had your permanent home in Colorado for at least 91 days immediately before you file your initial divorce papers in order to get a Colorado divorce. If you have children, the children must have lived in Colorado for at least 182 days (or have lived there since birth if they are less than six months old).

Colorado also has a mandatory waiting period, even for uncontested divorces. You must wait 91 days after filing the petition together or after serving your spouse with divorce papers.

Property Division Requirements

Property in Colorado will be classified as either marital property (property acquired during the marriage, with some exceptions) or separate property. According to Colorado law (Colo. Rev. Stat. § 14-10-113(1) (2022)), courts will divide marital property based on “equitable distribution.” In other words, the court distributes property in a way that it deems fair — but this doesn’t always mean it will be evenly split. The judge will look at all relevant factors in the divorce case, including:

• The contribution of each spouse to the acquisition of the marital property
• The contribution of a spouse as a homemaker
• How long the marriage lasted
• Whether there were prenuptial agreements in place
• The ages of both spouses
• The economic circumstances of each spouse at the time the division of property is made
• Each spouse’s current earnings and earning potential.

For example, courts may award a larger portion of marital assets, including stocks and bank accounts, to the lower-earning spouse. If one spouse gave up a career to raise children, the courts also may award that spouse a more significant portion of the couple’s shared assets. However, because it is more difficult to re-enter the workforce after several decades than it is for a year or two, they are more likely to do this for longer-lasting marriages.

Child Custody

Divorcing parents must come up with a parenting plan that determines parenting time (physical custody – the time children spend with each parent) and decision-making (legal custody – decisions on major issues such as health, education, and religion). Parenting plans are often very detailed. In addition to a basic custody schedule, they may include the following:

• Who the child stays with on major holidays
• The logistics of exchanging the child between parents
• How parents will divide the child’s expenses
• How the child will communicate with each parent
• How the parents will resolve any disagreements that arise
• How the parents will modify the agreement in the event of major changes (like one parent moving out of state).

If parents cannot agree, the courts will make these decisions based on what would be in the best interests of the child.  To determine this, the wishes of the child and parents will be considered, as well as other factors such as the child’s adjustment to home, school, and community and the proximity of the parents’ homes.

In addition to child custody, Colorado has guidelines that include detailed rules for deciding who must pay child support and how much those payments should be. Consulting a child support lawyer can help clarify these guidelines and ensure that all parties understand their responsibilities.

Spousal Maintenance

Spousal maintenance (alimony) is a payment that a higher-earning spouse makes to the other to ensure the lower-earning spouse can continue to meet their basic needs during or after divorce. In Colorado, neither spouse is automatically entitled to support, and, unless this is agreed upon by both spouses, the court will calculate the amount and term of spousal maintenance based on statutory guidelines and the facts of each case.

Sitting across the table from your ex-spouse and trying to negotiate about child custody, spousal maintenance payments, and the division of property can bring negative emotions to the forefront, leaving both parties unable to reach a consensus. This is why part of the compassionate service our child custody attorneys provide involves handling these issues and keeping the emotions of the situation under control. When you have our team stand by your side during negotiations, we can tamp down the emotions, allowing everyone to focus on the facts in the case and come up with the best resolution possible.

When Should You Get an Annulment Instead of a Divorce?

In some cases, your marriage can be annulled, or declared invalid from the start. Annulments are often faster than divorces, but unfortunately, you cannot use an annulment as a way to get around the challenges of divorce. For a marriage to be annulled, it must meet one of these criteria as set forth by Colorado law.

Inability to Consent to the Marriage

If one of the parties involved had some level of mental incapacity or was under the influence of drugs or alcohol, the marriage may be considered invalid and can be annulled. For example, if one party is highly intoxicated and the other convinces them to go to a Las Vegas wedding chapel, the intoxicated party could request an annulment.

Inability to Consummate

If one spouse was physically unable to consummate the marriage and the other spouse didn’t know this at the time of the marriage, that spouse may file for an annulment.

One Party Was Underage

If one party was legally too young to consent to the marriage and didn’t have approval from the courts or their guardians, the marriage could be considered invalid.

Fraud Was Involved

If fraud was directly involved in the decision to marry, the marriage may be annulled. For example, imagine you marry someone who claims to be dying from a terminal illness and says they don’t want to die alone. After you marry, they reveal they lied just to get you to marry them. In this instance, you would have a strong case for annulment.

The Parties Were Under Duress

If one party pressures the other or both parties are pressured by a third party, a marriage may be annulled. For instance, if two very young people are coerced by their families into marrying each other, they may annul the marriage if they choose to.

The Marriage Was a Joke

If someone entered the marriage as a joke or on a dare, the marriage may be declared invalid.

The Marriage Is Legally Prohibited

If a marriage is a case of bigamy, polygamy, or incest, it may be annulled.

FAQ

Our clients greatly appreciate the level of personalized service we provide. Once they choose to hire our divorce attorneys, they will have access to our team for asking questions or introducing concerns at any time. To get started, here are some answers to questions we hear most frequently:

Am I required to hire a divorce lawyer?

No, nothing in Colorado state law regarding divorce requires a person to hire their own divorce lawyer; however, hiring a divorce attorney can prevent costly mistakes and make the process run far smoother for you. You don’t have to worry about missing documents or trying to juggle work, family time, and defending your interests in the divorce. Let us help to guide you through this challenging process.

Won’t my ex-spouse’s attorney make sure everything goes smoothly?

No, if you don’t have your own divorce lawyer, your spouse’s divorce lawyer will only look out for his or her interests. Occasionally, your interests may align with your ex-spouse’s interests, but to truly be on a level playing field, you need to have your own representative on your side.

Will I have to pay both spousal maintenance and child support?

State law in Colorado treats these two types of payments separately, so some people must make both payments. Trust that our team will work as hard as we can to help you receive the most favorable financial judgments in cases like this without jeopardizing the future of your children.

Can you help me obtain an annulment?

Yes. We will need to prove that your situation matches Colorado’s legal requirements for annulment. Annulment is not always an easy judgment to receive, but we are ready to fight for your right to receive one.

Can Price Family Law help with my alimony judgment?

Yes. We can provide help for a high-wage spouse worried about alimony (spousal maintenance) payments, a spouse who stayed home with the children and now needs to work, and any situation between those extremes.

At Price Family Law, we take pride in our responsiveness to our clients. By listening to your questions and finding the answers for you, we learn valuable information about what is important to you during this process.