Questions, answered the way I'd answer them in my office.

The legal minimum is 91 days from filing and service. Uncontested cases can land near it; contested cases with businesses or complex assets typically run many months longer, driven by valuation and disclosure. Details on the full sequence: Divorce in Colorado.

Probably not — most cases settle at or around mediation. But we prepare as though you will, because that preparation is precisely what makes settlement happen on good terms.

Often, yes — but not completely. Colorado court files are generally public, so privacy has to be planned from the beginning: private mediation where appropriate, careful use of financial exhibits, protective orders when justified, and settlement drafting that avoids filing unnecessary detail. The honest limits and the tools: Privacy & Discretion.

Less than people fear, more than zero. Filing starts the automatic injunction protecting assets and children, sets venue, and controls early tempo. If circumstances are volatile, the sequencing is worth a conversation before anyone acts.

Venue follows where you or your spouse lives. Arapahoe County (Greenwood Village, Cherry Hills Village, Centennial, most of Aurora) is the 18th Judicial District, heard at the Arapahoe County Justice Center in Centennial. Douglas County (Highlands Ranch, Lone Tree, Castle Pines, Parker, Castle Rock) became its own 23rd District in January 2025, in Castle Rock. Denver is the 2nd, Jefferson the 1st in Golden, Boulder the 20th. I appear in all five. Addresses and what to expect at each: Denver Metro Family Courts.

Three clocks start. You have 21 days to file a Response, 35 if served outside Colorado. Within 42 days both spouses exchange the mandatory financial disclosures under C.R.C.P. 16.2, a sworn financial statement with the documents behind it, whether or not anyone asks. And the court sets an Initial Status Conference within 42 days of filing, where I can ask for a temporary-orders hearing or a CFI. My office calendars all three the day you retain me; missing the first can mean a default. More: Divorce in Colorado.

From service, an automatic injunction binds both spouses (C.R.S. § 14-10-107): no transferring, hiding or borrowing against marital property outside the ordinary course of business, no taking the children out of Colorado without written consent or an order, no cancelling or changing insurance without fourteen days’ notice, and no harassing the other spouse. Nobody has to move out. If you own a business, “ordinary course” needs defining early; distributions, new debt or a changed bonus structure will all be examined later, and I would rather we decide them on purpose.

The court can enter temporary orders (C.R.S. § 14-10-108) for parenting time, support, maintenance, the house and the bills while the case is pending. In the south-metro courts the request is raised at the Initial Status Conference, sent to mediation, and heard by a magistrate two to four months after filing, usually in an hour or two. The schedule your children live under for months becomes the status quo, which is why I push to get the first one right. More: Temporary Orders.

Probably both. In Arapahoe and Douglas County, magistrates typically run the Initial Status Conference and hear temporary orders and many post-decree motions; a contested permanent-orders hearing goes to a district judge unless both sides consent to the magistrate. A magistrate’s ruling is challenged by a petition for review to the district judge on a short deadline (28 days for cases filed in 2026 or later), not by a direct appeal. Knowing who will hear which issue shapes how I present the case.

In practice, yes. Judges in both districts routinely order mediation before any contested hearing, often before temporary orders and again before permanent orders; Denver and Jefferson vary by division. The court’s Office of Dispute Resolution runs $75 per party per hour with a two-hour deposit; private mediators, including retired judges, cost more and are worth it in a high-asset or high-conflict case. I prepare for mediation as if it were the trial, because a well-prepared session frequently ends the case. More: Mediation vs. Litigation.

No — Colorado divides marital property equitably: fairly under the circumstances, with real judicial discretion. Equal happens often; it is never automatic. Start here: Property Division.

Usually not — courts typically award the company to its operator and equalize value through offsets or a buyout; the outcome turns on valuation, liquidity, and the overall division. The fight is the number and the structure: Business Valuation.

Through advisory guidelines for qualifying cases — combined annual adjusted gross income up to $240,000 under the current statute — with the court weighing statutory factors even inside the range, and advocacy and evidence controlling above it, which is where most of my cases live. The actual math, with a worked example: Spousal Maintenance.

Only temporarily. Colorado imposes an affirmative duty of full financial disclosure in domestic-relations cases, and part of my job is making the other side's disclosure actually complete — then pressure-testing it. The other part is making sure you understand it: I walk you through the statements, the tax returns, and the business records, explain what each one means for your case, and lay out the steps we take next. Information asymmetry is a solvable problem; it's solved with process, not panic.

Then the disclosure rules become your leverage: a court can revisit a property division for a material misstatement or omission of assets, on a motion generally filed within five years of the decree. I have decades on valuation, forensic accounting and tracing, and years running businesses myself, and I use them: document requests, subpoenas, and depositions when needed. Suspicion isn’t proof, but it is a work plan. More: Hidden Assets.

The automatic injunction already bars either spouse from transferring, hiding or borrowing against marital property outside the ordinary course of business. When that is not enough, I ask the court for an accounting, a freeze on specific accounts, or a restraining order, and for money that has moved to be returned. Statements, transfers and dates, gathered quickly and quietly, win these motions. If money is already gone, the court accounts for it when it divides the property. More: Emergency Orders.

No presumed schedule exists in Colorado. Courts build the allocation from your family's actual facts under the best-interests standard: Parental Responsibilities.

A Child and Family Investigator (C.R.S. § 14-10-116.5) is a court-appointed neutral who interviews the parents, the children and the people around them and reports within two to three months; the private fee is capped at $3,309 plus $500 for testimony. A Parental Responsibilities Evaluation (§ 14-10-127) is a fuller study by a licensed mental-health professional, uncapped, over three to six months. Judges usually follow these reports; I recommend a PRE only when substance use, mental health or relocation is genuinely at issue. Custody Evaluations.

Colorado allows a motion to restrict parenting time (C.R.S. § 14-10-129(4)) when a child is in imminent physical or emotional danger. Once it is filed, the other parent’s time is limited to supervised contact and the court must hear the motion within 14 days. It is a powerful remedy with a consequence if misused — a motion the court finds substantially frivolous or vexatious means paying the other side’s fees — so I file it when the facts support it, not as leverage. More: Emergency Orders.

No — and protecting them from feeling they must is both good parenting and good strategy. A child's wishes are one factor, weighed by maturity; a child put in the middle is a wound the court notices.

Not unilaterally once a case or orders exist — relocation has its own demanding legal standard. If a move is even on the horizon, talk to me before plans harden: Parenting Time.

The guideline schedule now extends to $40,000 of combined monthly income under the 2026 amendments; above it, support becomes discretionary with a floor — and for owners, the real fight is what counts as income: Child Support.

Rates in line with senior trial counsel in Denver — I don't publish them, I don't play games with them, and we discuss the retainer plainly in the first conversation. What you're buying is senior judgment, direct access, and preparation most lawyers consider excessive. Whether the fight is over a business or over your children's week, that is what decides the outcome.

Because it is real legal advice, not a sales call: we go through your situation and I tell you what I would do. And once we have talked through your marriage in detail, I will not represent your spouse in it — a consultation takes me off the board for the other side. My assistant quotes the fee when you schedule, and the meeting goes on my calendar, not a call center's.

Yes. I keep the docket small enough to handle every matter personally, so the honest limit is my time, not the size of your case. If I can't give your matter the attention it needs when you call, I'll tell you, and where I can, point you to counsel I respect.

You're differently armed. Their model is leverage — layers of associates billing in parallel. Mine is one senior lawyer who knows every fact of your case personally, supported by exactly the experts the case needs. Thirty years in, I'll take that trade every time — and so should you.

Directly and carefully. Your client gets me, not an intake funnel, a prompt conflicts check, and candid feedback about fit. Your name travels with the referral, so I treat it accordingly. It flows both ways: every matter I handle generates work I refer out, the post-divorce estate-plan rewrite, forensic and personal tax engagements, settlement investment, refinancing, and I refer deliberately, to professionals whose work I have seen up close.