What is a Family Law court?  Family law court in Colorado Springs, as its name implies, refers to legal cases related to family issues. Examples of family law court cases are: adoption, alimony, annulment, child custody and support, divorce, division of the marital property, domestic violence, prenuptial agreements, marriage, separation, legal separation, child abduction, kidnapping or child seizure, emancipation, abuse in the marriage, parental rights, paternity, juvenile, felonies, and similar cases related to family.

With Father's Day upon us my thoughts this week are with fathers and their special issues when dealing with Colorado child custody.  This article briefly highlights some history and current trends regarding child custody for fathers.

Summertime brings special access need for divorced Colorado parents and their children.  There are lots of special events and activities during the summer. Routine birthdays, family get-togethers, picnics, or special trips.  If conflicting events occur each summer then perhaps the children can participate with one parent this summer and the other parents next summer. If the events are once-in-a-lifetime opportunities than it would usually be wise for the other parent to give way and not force the children to miss out. The bottom line is that flexibility and cooperation serve the children so much better than confrontation and rigidity. Even parents who have not separated must negotiate with each other and make trade-offs when making plans for how to spend the summer. Each parent needs to place the children's best interests above all else and this almost always means making sure they maintain a close relationship with the other parent.

This article briefly highlights in an easy to read "Do's and Don'ts" format some important factors in Colorado divorce cases. 

In this day and age, Colorado Springs family relationships have become much more complicated due to the ever-increasing number of remarriages and blended families. Estate Disputes that arise have Second Marriages at the top of the list as a cause for this type of family law conflict. Even if that spouse has been married to the deceased for many, many years, there is an inherent friction between the new spouse and the first family. People from Colorado must plan carefully for what you can to do to provide for that second spouse, and yet provide for your children and grandchildren.

One of the monumental tasks I had to face after my financially devastating divorce was repairing and improving my credit score.  Not that it was a number any one would have been proud of before the divorce, but it did manage to occasionally qualify us for things we definitely couldn't live without, like a 72" plasma television at 29% interest and a new hunting dog.

When you apply for credit and you are sitting there with your fingers crossed, hoping for a positive outcome, your credit score is not where it needs to be.   I'm sure most folks probably realize this.  What they may not be aware of however, is a low credit score is a huge risk factor for divorce.

We are sometimes asked about annulment as an alternative to Divorce. Divorce Lawyers in Colorado Springs at The Marrison Family Law LLC handle the annulment or the divorce in Colorado. In other words, divorce law in Colorado Springs includes the potential of setting aside a marriage rather than ending it.

Colorado requires mediation, i.e. a settlement conference, in every divorce, unless the parties have reached a complete agreement on every issue, or unless there is domestic violence involved.   Formal mediation is a negotiation process with the assistance of a mediator, usually a lawyer skilled in the process of "getting to yes."