Graham.Law Blog

The Colorado Court of Appeals recently issued a new contempt decision which somewhat wraps up the law already set forth in prior cases, but also includes a new twist – ability to pay means taking into consideration that the payor has assets he could sell to generate revenue. In Evans,…

You Have a Specific Parenting Time Order, Now What? Judges are reluctant to enter orders they know they lack the ability to enforce. And nowhere in family law is this more complicated than trying to issue specific parenting time orders over a teenager, who may well have his own ideas…

Court Cannot Issue Post-Decree Order to Modify Property Settlement After a divorce, can the court later issue an order for a spouse to refinance the mortgage on a residence awarded to her? Some orders can be modified after a divorce – we have a whole section of the Colorado Family…

Colorado law requires a court to divide the “marital estate” (i.e. all assets & debts) as of the date of the divorce itself, not the date of separation. (5). But what happens when a spouse engages in the dissipation of assets? But what happens when one spouse causes funds to…

On May 7, 2021, Governor Polis signed into law HB 21-1031, which modifies several statutes to clarify that trial courts still have jurisdiction to modify certain types of family law orders while a case is up on appeal. Normally, once a party has appealed a case, the trial court is…

Does Family Law Equate Confederate Flags with Nazis? Being a Nazi will hurt your child custody case, but how about having Confederate memorabilia? This is a highly charged issue I am not wanting to tread into, but since there is a real family law case garnering national attention, it is…

In a decision issued last month, the Colorado Court of Appeals upheld an award of attorney’s fees against a husband. In Bovino, the husband failed to appear at a temporary orders hearing. The trial court entered various orders, including awarding Wife’s attorney $35,000 in attorney’s fees from Husband for work…

This week, the Colorado Court of Appeals issued a ruling in a child custody case arising from El Paso County, finding that changing the primary residential parent is not a legal remedy for a parenting plan violation unless the court also finds endangerment. And the trial court cannot pay lip…

With the latest rounds of Covid-related stimulus checks, the federal government has now given most American families thousands of dollars. And since these funds are not regular tax perks, they almost certainly have not been addressed in divorce decrees, nor has there been time for appellate courts to provide us…

In a new decision, the N.H. Supreme Court issued a unanimous, and brief, decision holding that same-sex adultery are sufficient grounds for a fault-based divorce, just like heterosexual adultery. This falls into the category (to me, at least) of “who knew” for two reasons: With legal recognition of same-sex marriage,…