Colorado Child Support &
Parenting Planning Tools, and Colorado Court Forms
Moving through the maze of paperwork
and documents required
to meaningfully consider and discuss
Colorado
divorce issues and to prepare and file required Colorado court forms
is challenging, at best! We offer the following free tools,
Colorado divorce forms
and
parenting and child support planning resources to assist
you.
All of these are available here in
Adobe® Portable Document Format (*.pdf) formatting. If your
computer does not already have Adobe®
Acrobat Reader® to access these Colorado forms and tools, a link to download
the necessary Adobe®
software follows (this software is provided without charge by its
developer). This version of this software tool will allow you to view and
print, but not edit and save changes to these documents.
Colorado Divorce and
Paternity Topics Lists
The following is a list of general
topics we will likely discuss in mediation and/or the Court
would expect you to have resolved, as part of your Colorado divorce
or paternity case. (This is not intended to be an
exhaustive list covering all the issues we will need to
address in our work and include in your final Agreement.)
You may wish to review and organize your thoughts with
respect to these topics, in advance of our meeting.
But please, do not feel like you must
have discussed or resolved any of these issues before we
meet. Most couples need some help in understanding the range
of choices they have, and that is part of our job as the
mediator.
Moreover, it is often very helpful to
reserve your final thinking not only until after you have an
opportunity to hear from your spouse or co-parent of his or
her views, but also until you have learned from the mediator
of many other options that others have found workable with
respect to these issues.
The following Suggested Topics Lists may be helpful. Click on these
Colorado divorce planning tools, to review or print. (More
complete instructions to access these follow.)
Helpful Information to Assemble Lists
(Divorce, After-Divorce & Paternity)
Colorado law requires the timely
disclosure and exchange of certain basic financial
information, as part of a divorce, paternity or child
support or spousal maintenance modification case. Disclosure of a financial
circumstance or asset or debt does not, of course, control
your agreement with respect to that circumstance. It only
validates that your agreement was founded on good
information.
The following Helpful Information to
Assemble Lists provide you some
direction of what information is required to be disclosed or
is at least useful in streamlining our work together. Again,
it is not expected that you have ready access to all this
information and certainly, not when you first meet or begin
your work in mediation with us.
Click on these Colorado divorce
planning tools, to review or print. (More
complete instructions to access these follow.)
You may also wish to review our article
"Free
Credit Report Valuable at Divorce!" on the new federal law granting free access to your credit report. Updated credit report information can materially assist you
in managing and resolving all outstanding marital debt issues and concerns,
as part of your Colorado divorce or legal separation.
For Parents Only — Agreed Commitments Forms
Additionally, we
strongly encourage you, in preparation for your
Colorado divorce or for mediation of parenting issues, to complete the unique
and eye-opening questionnaire and
forms
which create a mutual list of Agreed Commitments
to your children.
Described, and with links, at our
On-Line Resources
page, these are offered without charge at the Up To Parents
(for divorced or divorcing parents) and
Proud to Parent (for parents never married to each other) nonprofit organization's websites.
Colorado Court
Forms
Well, you knew there were official
Colorado Court forms with divorce, child support, or
paternity cases,
right?
The basic
court forms, as developed by the Colorado State Judicial
Branch, are available
here in both Microsoft Word® and Adobe
Portable Document formats. (This is, of course, not a
complete list of all forms appropriate for all cases or
circumstances. See our
caution regarding working with Colorado divorce forms
below.)
Simply click on the appropriate
format and “open” to review, or right click to
“save” to your computer for
later use (saving the file to your computer is faster and recommended!). The Word® format variety of these
forms
can be
completed with your personal and family information and saved and/or
printed; but, of course, you must have
Microsoft Word®
software to use this format. The Adobe®
software is free.
You also may wish to review or print
out our article “10 Golden Rules for Completing Colorado
Divorce Forms,” as featured in
Divorce in Denver Magazine. (See our complete list of
Divorce in Denver Magazine articles.)
Colorado Divorce Forms
All Colorado divorces begin with filing
of a court form called a “Petition” (for Dissolution of
Marriage, or for Legal Separation),
and a simple “Case Information Sheet”. All Colorado
divorce-related cases end with the Court’s
signing a “Decree,” and — where there is also an order
for Colorado child support or spousal support (“maintenance”) —
an attachment to the Decree known as a “Support Order.”
A sworn statement of your financial
circumstances (including income and expenses, and assets and debts) now known as an “Sworn Financial
Statement” is also required in all Colorado divorce or
legal separation cases. Effective
March 1, 2006, this streamlined form replaces the much more
comprehensive former Financial Affidavit known formally as
the Affidavit With Respect to Financial Affairs (not so
affectionately called the "Big Bear"!) originally required as
part of the
many changes in Colorado divorce law
and process on January 1, 2005. (See our
article on the new Sworn Financial Statement for more
information.)
If you or your spouse have
-
stocks, bonds, mutual funds, securities
or investment accounts,
-
pension, profit sharing or other
retirement funds, or
- “separate property” — property acquired
prior to your marriage or by gift or inheritance,
you must also complete the single
page “Supporting
Schedules” and attach it to your Sworn Financial Statement.
Colorado law formally
requires the filing of a certificate affirming that each
party has disclosed to the other financial documents
required by Colorado divorce law. (And this is so, in
Colorado child support or spousal maintenance modification
cases as well.) Formally known as a
“Certificate of Compliance”, we have labeled that form
“Disclosures Certificate” here. For convenience, the list of documents required to be provided to each spouse
(we call this the mandatory “Disclosures List”) is provided
below as well. For more information on recent changes to
these forms, see our article on the
2005 changes to Colorado divorce law, process and forms.
Finally, if you have no children and
have resolved all issues in your Colorado divorce, you are
not required to appear in Court for a final hearing. (Unless
you conclude your case promptly, however, you may be
required to attend — as part of the 2005 changes to the
Colorado divorce process — a so-called “status
conference.”) Instead, you may file
a sworn statement that you wish the judge to review your
case without your appearing. This is officially called
an “Affidavit for Decree Without Appearance of Parties,” but
we have labeled that form “Nonappearance Affidavit” below.
Of course, as detailed earlier in this
website, we discuss these Colorado divorce forms with you,
in our
mediation process.
Click on these to review or print. (See
below for more
complete instructions to access these
Colorado
court forms for divorce.)
*Those Word® forms marked with an
asterisk have special fillable fields and offer automatic
calculations or template features (use the “Tab” key to move
between sections). Although we recommend use
of these forms, on some computers and
with some browsers, as you access these forms, you may be asked for a
password or login; simply “cancel”
to continue or to return to our website. (Of course, you may
wish to “save” your work on these special forms to your own
computer.)
Colorado
Paternity Forms
(and Allocation of Parental Responsibilities) - Never
Married Parents
NOTE: UNDER REVISION! (We
are updating these resources, given substantial changes in
Colorado forms and laws re parentage. Missing forms
are no longer appropriate.)
We also include an informational
brochure (regarding paternity in Colorado), and official
instructions outlining the process of establishing or
disclaiming paternity and of
seeking an
allocation
of parental
responsibilities (authority to make major upbringing
decisions, formerly called “custody”) for never-married
parents in Colorado.
We also include three Colorado paternity forms often
accessed by never-married Colorado parents - who desire to establish
court orders establishing their rights and acknowledging
their responsibilities
as parents. (We would prefer to describe these processes as
“parentage” or “parental responsibility” proceedings; but
they are commonly called “paternity” and “custody”!)
Again, as detailed earlier in this
website, we discuss these Colorado court paternity forms with you,
in our
mediation process.
Click on these to review or print.
(See below for more complete instructions to access these
Colorado paternity forms.)
*Those Word® forms marked with an
asterisk have special fillable fields and offer automatic
calculations or template features (use the “Tab” key to move
between sections). Although we recommend use
of these forms, on some computers and
with some browsers, as you access these forms, you may be asked for a
password or login; simply “cancel”
to continue or to return to our website. (Of course, you may
wish to “save” your work on these special forms to your own
computer.)
Colorado Child Support
Law - Worksheets and
Calculator
Finally, we include, with a caution,
the official and updated
-
Colorado child support worksheets
(so-called “manual” forms), and
-
an Excel® spreadsheet Colorado child
support calculator automatically calculating child support
payments according to the Colorado child support laws (the
“Colorado Child Support Guidelines”).
Careful!
There are some unofficial, miserably incomplete, inaccurate
or outdated “Colorado child support calculator” tools on-line, falsely promising to calculate
child support consistent with the Colorado Child Support
Guidelines laws.
Manual Child Support Worksheets
Click on these to review or print, but
note: the Adobe® version of these is a much larger
file, and “double-clicking” will take a long time to
download. (See below for complete and recommended Adobe instructions to access these
Colorado
child support forms.)
Electronic Child Support Worksheets - Excel® Calculator
|
"Electronic" Form |
FORMAT |
|
MS Excel® (*.xls) |
| Colorado Child Support
Calculator (Excel®) |
 don't doubleclick
the following large file; instead, Right Click & "Save Target" to
Your Computer Desktop! (once downloaded, then doubleclick
your copy to open with Excel®)
Colorado Child Support Worksheet Calculator (Spreadsheet).xls
|
This Colorado child support
calculator requires that you own Microsoft®'s Excel®'s
spreadsheet program, and that you enable use of macros in
its security settings. (Please also note: this tool is
created as one of the self-help resources hosted by the
Colorado Courts & Judicial
Department and we cannot assist with technical
support issues relating to use of this Colorado child
support calculator.)
Additional Colorado Child Support Forms Information
Although these forms and tools provide
valuable insight to the basic Colorado law of child support,
couples may consider a number of approaches in seeking fair
and equitable child support. Mediation can be an excellent
process to discuss and consider all options in this regard. Often there are many issues with respect to the information
required to be considered in the calculation of child
support in Colorado. In appropriate cases with written
findings, Colorado courts are not bound by the ordinary or
“presumptive” calculation of child support these forms and tools provide. Additionally, these tools do not seek to determine
spousal support (“maintenance”) — a separate
issue.
Colorado child support law recently
changed as well, and these tools and forms reflect these
changes.
See
our article
Colorado Child Support Law: 2008 Changes and other articles in our
Colorado divorce law information and mediation news —
“The Latest!” — section of this website (including
2003 Changes to Colorado Child Support Law).
We work daily in our mediation process
with similar tools optimized for divorce professionals
regarding support options (among the best is
Colorado attorney Bill Redak’s child support program). We cannot, however, assist you with
electronic mail or phone inquiries about these Colorado child support
forms.
The Colorado state laws website provides
further
information on use of these
forms for calculating Colorado
child support obligations and other domestic
law forms.
Caution with Colorado Divorce Forms:
Professional Assistance Advised
It is extremely helpful for parties to
get proper information from a Colorado divorce professional before
filing any of these or other Colorado court forms.
This is especially
important before
adopting a particular Worksheet’s purported calculation of
Colorado
child support obligations as appropriate in any given
case. Determining appropriate or equitable child support can
be a complex and daunting task, and the limitations of our
website's information (as described in our
Disclaimers and Notices page)
are very important.
Filing can trigger court obligations
sooner than you might anticipate — see our discussion in the
Frequently Asked Questions (Colorado Divorce & Mediation)
section of this website — so timing may be important, as
well. (Also, see our separate article on how
the choice of when to file and the
timing of divorce can have substantial income tax
consequences as well.)
A Colorado family law attorney can individually assist
you, or we can discuss these issues with your spouse, former spouse or co-parent
in
mediation.
To
download the FREE Adobe® Acrobat Reader®,
get Acrobat Reader® Version 9.0 Resources on this site are best viewed in
version 5.0 or higher.
To download Acrobat files to your computer without opening
them in your browser (recommended):
1. Windows Users "right click" on the link with
your mouse (Mac users hold down "options" key, and
"click-and-hold")
2. Select "Save Target As" or "Save Link
As" from the pop-up menu.
3. Give the file a name and make a note of the directory in
which you are saving it, then click "Save".
4. To view the file, open up Adobe Acrobat on your computer
and then open up the saved file from within Acrobat.
