Author: Carl O. Graham

An interesting brand new unpublished decision from the Colorado Court of Appeals reversed a trial judge who found that the marital residence allegedly gifted to the wife during the marriage by her parents was the wife’s separate property. Under Colorado law, property acquired during the marriage is presumptively a marital…

Can a father file a case to establish Colorado paternity before the child is actually born? The Colorado Court of Appeals recently approved of that practice, however to the extent the father’s goal is to try to get parenting set up before birth, that is not a realistic goal. And…

What is Military Disability Retirement? The military way of life can be hard on its members, not just for those who deploy to hostile fire zones, but even the regular training is rigorous, or may result in injuries due to training accidents. There are a number of military disability retirement…

It is important to show respect for the court, and that includes the judge presiding over your case. Not only does that judicial officer have great power over the pending matter, but the judge is a symbol of the rule of law in our nation. We’ve written previously on the…

Any family law attorney will at some stage have initiated or defended against a motion to restrict parenting time, which is what Colorado calls an emergency custody proceeding. While most child custody motions move at a normal judicial pace, a motion to restrict is addressed almost immediately, with a same-day…

Divorcing couple battles over frozen embryos. This is a legal headline family law attorneys have seen repeatedly throughout the years, and with the expansion of IVF technology, courts are trying to lay out coherent rules to follow for disposition of frozen embryos in a divorce. Three years ago we wrote…

Colorado is one of a shrinking minority of states which recognizes common law marriages. But going into the marriage is easier than dissolving it – there is no such thing as a common law divorce in Colorado. People may figure that they entered into a common law marriage without going…

If you have to litigate a case involving child support arrears, you are going to wish the payments went through the Colorado Family Support Registry, or FSR for short. The registry is a state agency which receives child support and alimony payments from the obligor (that’s the parent or spouse…

Family law decisions at the U.S. Supreme Court are rare, since domestic relations law is almost entirely governed by state law, not federal law. But there are enough areas of federal interest (military retirement, Hague Convention international child custody issues, and ICWA, or the Indian Child Welfare Act) that we…

We’ve written about this before – simply proving that the other side failed to pay court-ordered support is not sufficient for contempt of court. The court must also find that he had the ability to pay during the time he failed to pay, and, just as important, that he has…