Pinnacol v. Laughlin (Colorado)
For child support funds to be exempt from garnishment, the account into which they are deposited must comply with the provisions of the Colorado Uniform Transfer to Minors Act. When social security funds are comingled with other money, only the amount of funds that is clearly traceable to social security is exempt from garnishment. The parent in this case was awarded Social Security Disability. His employer had provided temporary disability during the award period and sought reimbursement. When the judgment wasn’t paid, the employer began garnishment proceedings. The parent argued his funds were exempt.
Read MoreMarriage of DePumpo (Colorado 2022)
Unrealized gains on an investment portfolio don’t meet the definition for child support income. However, equitable principles may apply. The definition of income includes income from rent. Depreciation can only be included if it is found to be an ordinary and necessary business expense, as defined in the child support statute. The parties filed for divorce. Specific to child support, the trial court calculated the mother’s income using her monthly salary and included an amount for unrealized monthly gains from an investment account. The trial court included depreciation expenses associated with rental properties in the father’s income. The mother appealed the final order, arguing the incomes were not correct.
Read MoreNakauchi v. Cowart (Colorado 2022)
Due process requires parents in direct pay cases receive advance notice of the entry of an income withholding order (IWO) for future child support payments. The mother, who paid her child support directly, filed suit against the county for violating her right to due process when it sent her employer an IWO without notice. The trial court agreed and entered a state-wide injunction requiring notice to obligors concurrently with the entry of an IWO for future support. The Mother appealed, arguing concurrent notice was inadequate to protect her rights. The County also appealed, arguing the injunction was unnecessary.
Read MoreIn re Marriage of Flanders (Colorado 2022)
A caretaker, who receives parental responsibilities in a dependency proceeding, doesn’t necessarily qualify as a psychological parent for the purposes of child support. A dependency order gave a grandmother parenting responsibilities for her grandchild and ordered the child’s parents to pay support. After beginning regular visitation, the father filed to modify the order and requested the grandmother be considered a psychological parent who could be ordered to pay support, citing In re Parental Responsibilities Concerning A.C.H., 2019 COA 43 (Co. Ct. App. 2019).
Read MoreParental Resp Conc ACB (Colorado 2022)
Due Process requires appointment of counsel for indigent parents when a governmental agency initiates a contempt proceeding and jail is a possible remedy. The child support office filed a contempt proceeding against the father. The petition sought a jail term for the father, which would be suspended based on payment of child support. Throughout the proceeding, the father notified the court he had no ability to pay support and requested appointed counsel. The trial court denied his request and found him in contempt. The father appealed.
Read MoreIn re Stradtmann (Colorado 2021)
Under Colorado statute, child support can be retroactive to the date of the parent’s separation, the date of the filing of the petition, or the date of service on the responding parent, whichever date is later. The final decree in this divorce case ordered child support retroactive to February 2019, the date of the parent’s separation. The father appealed this provision arguing this date didn’t comply with the statutory requirements.
Read MoreMarriage of Evans (Colorado 2021)
A property division can be re-opened upon the discovery of an undisclosed asset. Child support will be recalculated to reflect any change in a parent’s income from the new asset. In this post-divorce action, the mother petitioned to reopen the parents’ original property division. She found an undisclosed asset, the father’s ownership of a business. The magistrate agreed, allocated the asset, and modified the child support order based on additional income from the business. The father appealed, first to the district court, which affirmed, and then to the appellate court.
Read MoreIn the Interest of KLW and JLW (Colorado 2021)
The Colorado Uniform Parentage Act (UPA) does not allow for a child to have more than two legal parents. When there are two competing unrebutted presumptions, the court must decide which presumption controls based on the weightier considerations of policy and logic. The children in this case had three possible parents: their mother, CLF, who was in a relationship with their mother, and their biological father. The children were removed from their mother in a dependency and neglect action. CLF filed a motion to declare her as the mother of the children. Following a hearing, the juvenile court named the biological father as the legal parent, and CLF appealed.
Read MoreIn re Estate of Yudkin (Colorado 2021)
A common law marriage may be established by the mutual consent or agreement of the couple to enter the legal and social institution of marriage, followed by conduct that supports this agreement. All the circumstances must be considered to find the agreement. In this probate case, the husband died intestate. His ex-wife petitioned to be the personal representative of his estate. His “wife” sought removal of the ex-wife and appointment as the personal representative as his common law wife. The district court found no marriage existed under the test in place, and the common law wife appealed.
Read MoreIn re Marriage of LaFleur and Pyfer (Colorado 2021)
The recognition of the right for same-sex couples to marry in Colorado didn’t preclude couples from entering into common law marriages prior to that date. In 2003, Pyfer and LaFleur, a same-sex couple, exchanged rings and held a ceremony acknowledging their commitment. In 2018, Pyfer filed for dissolution of marriage. LaFleur argued they were not married as same-sex marriage wasn’t recognized in Colorado until 2014. Evidence showed that Pyfer had proposed to LaFleur and the men held a ceremony. Pyfer held himself out as married and listed LaFleur as his spouse on legal documents. Based on this evidence, the district court found the parties entered into a common law marriage and divided their assets accordingly. Pyfer appealed the property division, and LaFleur appealed the determination of a valid marriage.
Read MoreIn re Marriage of Hogsett and Neale (Colorado 2021)
A common law marriage may be established by the mutual consent or agreement of the couple to enter the legal and social institution of marriage, followed by conduct that supports this agreement. The court must consider all relevant factors to determine if the parties had an agreement. The same-sex parties in this case were in a relationship from November 2011 to November 2014. They never married even after that became an option in October 2014. The parties separated and filed a petition for dissolution of marriage. They mediated their issues and dismissed the petition without the need for a determination as to their marital status. Later, Hogsett sought retirement assets and maintenance. Neale objected, arguing the parties were not married. Hogsett filed a second petition for dissolution stating that the parties were married at common law.
Read MoreIn re the Parental Responsibilities Concerning M.E.R. and D.E.R.-L (Colorado 2020)
The Uniformed Services Former Spouses’ Protection Act (USFSPA) does not prohibit the inclusion of a parent’s veteran’s disability benefits as income for child support. The father filed a proceeding to allocate parental responsibilities for his two children. With respect to child support, the father’s income consisted of military retirement and veteran’s benefits. The trial court included both sources in the father’s gross income and set child support. The father appealed, arguing the veteran’s benefits shouldn’t haven’t been included in his income because the veteran’s disability benefits are not insurance benefits, aren’t taxable, and federal law prohibits the inclusion.
Read MoreIn Interest of EQ and JQ (Colorado 2020)
Only one court can set child support. The parents had two separate legal proceedings going on at the same time – one in juvenile court and a domestic relations proceeding. The juvenile court entered an order accepting the parents parenting responsibility agreement. Part of the stipulation was an agreement that child support would be addressed…
Read MorePeople in Interest of S.C.
The section of Colorado statute which adopted the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (UIFSA) gives parties the right to testify by phone. The state of Missouri asked the state of Colorado to establish paternity with respect to the minor child. The father lived in Colorado. The mother had an outstanding warrant for her arrest in…
Read MoreMarriage of Weekes (Colorado 2020)
Statutes operate prospectively unless the language indicates otherwise. A law is unconstitutionally retrospective if it infringes on a vested right. The father filed to modify his child support based on a physical change of custody that happened without a court order. Current Colorado law limits retroactive modification of child support to the five years prior…
Read MoreIn re N.J.C. (Colorado 2019)
Deferred compensation isn’t income for child support when a parent doesn’t have the ability to use the money to pay expenses. The mother and father were unmarried and had a child. The father, a doctor, took a new job, and the mother filed to modify child support. The father’s income consisted of a base salary…
Read MoreMarriage of Alvis (Colorado 2019)
The child support guidelines account for the first $250 of unreimbursed medical expenses. Neither party can be ordered to pay this amount. The parents’ divorce decree ordered shared custody of three children and set support accordingly. Under the guideline calculation, the father paid his share to the mother. A few years later, the father filed…
Read MoreTooker v. Tooker (Colorado 2019)
Non-discretionary educational benefits, such as tuition assistance and a book stipend, are not income for child support. The value of potential income is not necessarily income for child support. The mother filed to modify the father’s child support obligation. The father, a veteran, was receiving tuition assistance and a book stipend from the Post-9/11 Veterans…
Read MoreIn re Aragon (Colorado 2019)
A worker’s compensation lump sum is income for child support. To factor the lump sum into the parent’s income, divide the lump sum payment by the number of weeks the parent didn’t work. The parents, who have five children, filed for divorce. The father received a lump sum workers’ compensation payment due to a work-related…
Read MoreIn re ACH (Colorado 2019)
An established psychological parent, who has sought and obtained an allocation of parental responsibilities, can be ordered to pay child support. In this case, the mother had a child from a previous relationship. The mother and father had their own child. The mother and father separated and shared equal parenting time with both children. In…
Read MoreIn re Marriage Heine (Colorado 2018)
When parents voluntarily agree to a change in custody, the statute allows support to be modified back to the date of the change. A court has discretion to terminate or modify support for the obligor and establish support for the new obligor. The parents in this case voluntarily changed custody of their children several times.…
Read MorePeople in the Interest of D.C.C. (Colorado 2018)
Once a juvenile court declares a child dependent or neglected, the juvenile court has jurisdiction over all matters pertaining to that child, including paternity. The father appealed a juvenile court order dismissing him from a dependency and neglect action. The juvenile court dismissed the father based on a child support court order for non-paternity. The…
Read MoreIn re Marriage of Boettcher (Colorado 2018)
The highest amount of child support on the income schedule is not a maximum presumptive amount. If the parents’ combined income is more than accounted for on the schedule, support may be more based on an application of the statutory factors. The father in this case appealed a modified support order arguing that the highest…
Read MoreKann v. Kann (Colorado 2017)
Child support and spousal support arrears accrue in two ways, the unpaid principal amount and interest. In cases for collection of spousal support arrears, the defense of laches may apply regardless of the source of the arrears; however, the court reaffirmed its earlier decision in In re Marriage of Johnson, 2016 CO 67 (2016), that…
Read MoreIn re Marriage of Johnson (Colorado 2016)
The doctrine of laches is available as a defense to a claim for interest on child support arrears if the custodial parent has not timely pursued collection of the arrears. Allowing a laches defense protects the right of children to parental support and encourages timely enforcement of unpaid obligations. In this case, the father stopped…
Read MoreIn re Marriage of Gross and Gross (Colorado 2016)
When a parent voluntarily relinquishes parental rights, the obligation to support the child does not end until a final order of relinquishment is entered.
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