At Ciancio Ciancio Brown, P.C., in Denver, our Denver mother’s rights lawyers have considerable experience representing women in divorce and family law matters in Colorado. From pursuing spousal support and maintenance to protecting valuable business assets, we are prepared to protect the interests of women across the economic spectrum.
Even with a higher percentage of two-income households and more women than ever acting as breadwinners, there are still more divorce situations where women are the disadvantaged spouse in terms of financial resources, education, and career opportunities. For women facing divorce and an uncertain future, it is critical to have an experienced Denver divorce attorney capable of explaining their rights and acting on their behalf.
In some cases, your Denver mother’s rights attorney can help you negotiate a workable arrangement for child custody outside of a courtroom through a settlement agreement with your spouse. In most cases, a judge will sign off on a mutually acceptable settlement agreement unless they find it grossly unfair to one party. If you and your spouse can’t reach an agreement that works for you, we can encourage the courts to achieve their standard of acting in a child’s best interests by carefully highlighting important factors in your favor such as:
A mother’s rights attorney in Denver can also represent a mother’s rights and child’s best interests in matters of child support and spousal support when it’s appropriate, especially in cases where a mother put her own career goals and/or education on a back burner while caring for the children while a spouse focused on pursuing career goals.
Where most states once notably favored mothers in matters of child custody; today, Colorado and other states take a gender-neutral stance on parenting that doesn’t favor either mother or father for matters of child custody, or “parenting time.” However, because many more firms define themselves as aggressively pro-father in custody matters today, women may find themselves caught up in an imbalance of power—especially stay-at-home moms who weren’t the family’s primary breadwinner but were the primary caregiver for children.
In those cases, the 50-50 custody agreement that many law firms and courts push for in divorces in Colorado might be difficult for mothers to accept—not to mention the children and may not be in the best interests of the children. While family courts consider 50-50 custody as the ideal; ultimately, Colorado places a child’s best interests as their top priority. Mothers have the right to pursue a greater amount of parenting time and can successfully gain primary custody by proving that it’s in the best interests of the children of the marriage.
Denver’s law firm of Ciancio Ciancio Brown, P.C., understands how to effectively demonstrate how the schedule you propose for custody of your children is in their best interests in order to maximize your chances of achieving your desired custody outcome.
When a child is born to unmarried parents in Colorado, the mother automatically has full physical and legal custody of that child unless the parents have a signed legal agreement and/or a paternity test establishing the father’s paternity and parental rights. Unlike a father, who has no automatic legal rights to a baby when not married to the child’s mother, a mother has the benefit of producing a child from her body—automatically establishing full parental rights to the child.
When an unmarried father establishes their paternal rights through a voluntary or involuntary court order, the court handles matters of legal and physical custody of the child in much the same way it does for married parents who are divorcing and always strive to place a child’s best interest as their highest priority in all decisions.
Colorado is not a strict 50/50 child-custody state for divorced or unmarried parents, but instead strives to act in the best interests of the child in matters of custody—known as “parenting time” in Colorado. While in many cases, courts consider 50/50 custody ideal, it isn’t always in a child’s best interests and isn’t always appropriate based on the work schedule, career, and travel demands of either parent. Rather than 50/50 custody, Colorado strives to encourage frequent and continuing contact between a child and each parent. The state offers many suggestions for a variety of shared parenting time schedules.
In Colorado, a child’s biological parents have specific rights unless a court terminates those rights. Parents have the right to:
Courts terminate a mother’s parental rights only in circumstances where a court determines that it’s in the children’s best interests such as in the following circumstances:
While contentious spouses may threaten to have the other parent’s rights terminated, this is not an action any Colorado court takes lightly but requires serious consideration of a child’s best interests to decide.
The Colorado court’s obligation to make decisions in the best interests of the child in matters of custody also applies to child support obligations. For child support rulings, the court seeks to minimize the disruption to a child’s life by ensuring they maintain access to the same financial resources after divorce that they enjoyed during the marriage.
Even co-parents with shared 50/50 custody must still meet child support obligations from the higher-earning parent to the lower-earner, with a total monthly obligation also based on the following:
There are many online calculators for getting a rough idea of the likely child support obligation for children, but ultimately the decision is in the hands of a judge. A mother’s rights attorney in Colorado can help represent your interests and the best interests of the children in presenting your case for child support in either a settlement agreement with a divorcing spouse or in court.
When one spouse earns a significantly higher income than the other, the courts may issue an order for spousal support—sometimes called spousal maintenance in Colorado. A mother’s rights lawyer can help a divorcing mother obtain an order for temporary spousal support during the divorce process and a permanent order for support after the final decree. The court considers the following when making an order for spousal support:
Spousal support isn’t automatic in Colorado court. Unlike child support, a divorcing spouse must request an order for spousal maintenance. If you think an order for spousal maintenance is appropriate for your case, a mother’s rights lawyer can evaluate your unique circumstances and maximize your chances of achieving a favorable outcome in court.
In some circumstances, a divorcing mother was the primary breadwinner or higher earner in the family dynamic. A Denver mother’s rights lawyer can help protect what you’ve worked hard to earn during your divorce and also protect your rights to raise your children with the parenting time schedule that works best for your children and your specific situation.
Just as the courts protect a father’s rights to pursue a career and raise a family, mothers also deserve the same protections.
At Ciancio Ciancio Brown, P.C., we take the time to understand the situations women find themselves in and works to find solutions that meet their unique needs. Our representation goes beyond legal representation; we act as counselors for our clients who are able to guide them through all of their difficult family law-related situations.
From helping our clients rebuild their finances and gain the support they need to set out on their own to making sure they are able to obtain child support for their children, we offer full-service representation.
We strive to get our clients from a place where they are broken, scared, and uncertain about their future to a place where they are smiling, happy, and strong. Contact us today to schedule a case evaluation with our Denver mothers’ rights attorneys.
