Family Law, Divorce, Custody and Child Support Attorneys in Denver, Colorado

Point of No Return

Divorce lawyers have no business advising people – clients or otherwise – when a marriage has reached the point of no return. This is the realm of friends, family, pastors, priests and rabbis. Once a party has figured this out, then it’s time to see the lawyers – and not before.

But when the point of no return gets reached, we find new clients want to get the process underway immediately.  And that’s okay.  The first part of a divorce is often not the complicated part.  But Colorado law has several built in waiting periods that are, in part, designed to be sure this is what you want to do.  There is no “emergency” divorce, or other expedited process in Colorado.

The principle requirement for granting a divorce is a statement by one party, under oath, that a marriage is “irretrievably broken”. This sworn statement is required in the Petition and a finding by the court to that effect is required at the end. This statement is how you communicate to a court that your marriage has reached the point of no return.

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

 Loading ...

How Long Will it Take?

Since there is no “emergency” or expedited divorce process, the next question new clients often have is, “how long will it take?”  First, we explain that Colorado law has a built-in 90-day “cooling off” period during which no divorce can be granted by the Court.  So every divorce, no matter how simple, will last at least 90 days.

Beyond the 90-day waiting period, it’s impossible to predict how long any case might last, but there are several factors which can significantly impact the time your divorce takes.  Those factors include, but are not limited to:

• Jurisdiction
• Issues
• Willingness of parties to get divorced
• Level of organization of clients and lawyers

There are faster and slower places to file your divorce and, in most cases, you really don’t get to choose.  Generally speaking, your divorce will be filed in the county in which you and your spouse have resided for the past 90 days.  There can be a considerable difference in the efficiency of jurisdictions.

The type of issues will also radically impact the duration of the divorce.  For example, if there’s a dispute about parenting time that requires the involvement of a Child and Family Investigator, that CFI will usually require between 3 and 4 months, after their appointment, to investigate the issues and prepare a report.

Foot dragging is common in divorces.  If one party just isn’t ready to get divorced, they often identify “proxy” issues to slow things down.  By proxy issues, we mean arguments which appear to be over things like kids, child support, or even light bulbs, but which are actually just intended to delay the divorce.

The more organized a party and their lawyer are the more quickly a divorce can be accomplished.  The difficulty here is that one side may be very organized, turning in all their paperwork right on time, while the other party or their lawyer is always asking for more time or produces incomplete disclosures.

Even with these complicated issues, the nightmare of a 2-3 year long divorce is a rarity anymore.  Many judges draw a line in the sand at one year from filing but sometimes cases will go beyond even that.  If everything is perfectly smooth and really is all agreed to, you may be done in 4-5 months, but that’s just about the fastest you can expect in any case.

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

 Loading ...

Divorce Planning – A Question of Strategy

A completely different question – and one that is properly raised with an attorney – is how to I get ready for my divorce before filing?

There are many totally valid reasons for contemplating what the optimum time for filing a divorce might be. For example, many stay-at-home parents have limited resources and limited access to funds. These parents are deathly afraid of what will happen if the other spouse cuts them off after filing. Good divorce planning can help set them up with a degree of security.

Other times, a spouse may be physically abusive. The abused spouse must have a plan in place to protect themselves from the reaction of the abuser to being served with divorce papers. Tragedy after tragedy serves to remind us this is a paramount concern never to be taken lightly.

Also, one spouse might be in charge of all the financial records and might be anticipating a breakup by hiding assets or records. You never know what’s going to happen after a divorce is filed, but it’s not at all uncommon for records to go missing, bank account to dry up, and cash reserves to mysteriously disappear. Good divorce planning can head off this nonsense.

Generally, divorce planning involves establishing independence – financial independence, securing a place to live, and establishing personal security. The saying, “those who fail to plan, plan to fail,” still applies, even if were just talking about when to file for divorce.

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

 Loading ...