Denver Office
1900 Grant Street, Suite 500
Denver, Colorado 80203
Phone: 303.837.0757

Aspen Office
1280 Ute Avenue, Suite 15
Aspen, Colorado 81611
Phone: 970.920.3150

Park Meadows Office
9000 E. Nichols Ave, Suite 120
Centennial, Colorado 80112
Phone: 303.837.0757

Facsimile All Locations:
303.839.9826

Child Support Attorney in Denver, Colorado

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Under Colorado law, every child is legally entitled to support from both parents, and both parents have a continuing duty to provide support to the child. Child support may be ordered in a dissolution of marriage, legal separation, declaration of invalidity of the marriage, or a paternity action. The right to receive child support belongs to the child, not to the custodial parent receiving the support on the child’s behalf.

Consult Our Denver Divorce Lawyer on the Details of Child Support Issues

In Colorado, child support is based on a statutory formula determined by a number of factors, including the financial resources of the parents and the child, the standard of living the child would have enjoyed had the marriage continued, and the child’s educational needs. When determining the appropriate amount of child support, the starting place is the gross (pre-tax) income of each parent. This includes not only income from employers, but also income from all income-producing sources such as retirement accounts, social security, and investments. Once the gross income of each parent has been determined, other factors must be considered as part of the formula, including daycare costs, healthcare costs, extraordinary medical expenses, support for children born outside of the marriage, and maintenance received by either spouse.

Because child support is formulaic, once the income of each party is determined, setting a child support amount is relatively simple. Under certain circumstances, however, a court may decide to deviate from the child support guidelines and formulaic number. Such circumstances include cases in which the court determines that a parent is voluntarily underemployed and cases where parents have exceptionally high incomes.

All child support orders are modifiable upon a showing of a continuing and substantial change in the circumstances of the parents or child. Generally, child support obligations automatically terminate when the child emancipates, which occurs at the earliest of the following events: the child turns 19, marries, joins the military, graduates high school, becomes self-sufficient, or dies.