Practice Area · Children
Parental responsibilities in Colorado.
People still say “custody.” Colorado law says allocation of parental responsibilities — decision-making authority and parenting time — decided on one standard: the best interests of the child. These cases are decided on practical facts and credibility, not volume.
The Standard
Best interests, assessed practically.
Under C.R.S. § 14-10-124, courts weigh factors that are concrete rather than abstract: each parent's relationship and involvement with the child, the child's adjustment to home, school, and community, the parents' ability to put the child's needs first — and, notably, each parent's willingness to foster the child's relationship with the other parent. There is no automatic mother-or-father preference and no automatic 50/50 schedule — the court works from the child's actual circumstances and the statutory factors.
That last factor deserves underlining, because it quietly disciplines the whole case: a parent who wages war on the other parent is arguing against their own custody position. Firm advocacy and scorched-earth tactics are different things. I practice the first; the second loses these cases.
Who Informs the Court
The evaluator's report becomes the case's center of gravity.
In contested cases, the court often appoints a neutral — a Child and Family Investigator (CFI) or, in complex matters, a Parental Responsibilities Evaluator (PRE) — to investigate and recommend. The differences matter: scope, depth, cost, and the weight the report will carry. Selection and framing of that appointment is one of the most consequential moves in the case, and it happens early.
Preparing for an evaluation is not coaching — it's making sure the true picture of your parenting is visible: your actual involvement, your communication record, your home life as it really runs. The parents who do badly with evaluators are rarely bad parents; they're unprepared ones.
Credibility and the Record
These cases are won in the ordinary days.
Custody decisions turn on practical factors and credibility. The record you are building right now — every text to your co-parent, every pickup made or missed, every school event — is the evidence. I tell clients from day one: write every message as though a judge will read it, because one may. Steady, documented, child-centered conduct through the case is worth more than any argument I can make at a hearing — and it's the one part of the case only you control.
Common Questions
What parents ask when they're scared.
Is there a 50/50 presumption in Colorado?
No presumed schedule exists. Equal time is common where it serves the child — but the court builds the allocation from your family's actual facts: ages, school, work schedules, geography, and each parent's involvement. The schedule follows the child's life, not a formula.
Will my child get to choose?
A child's wishes are one factor, weighted by maturity — there is no magic age at which a child decides. Courts are careful with this, and so am I: putting a child in the middle of the dispute hurts the child and, usually, the parent who did it.
The other parent is telling the children things about me. What do I do?
Document it, don't retaliate through the children, and tell me. Courts take parental alienation of a child's relationship seriously in the best-interests analysis — and the disciplined parent's record is what makes that showing possible.
The rest of this chapter.
Parental responsibilities and parenting time under Colorado's best-interests standard, support that reflects real income, and the hard cases: relocation and custody across state lines.
- Parental Responsibilitiesbest interests, decided on credibilityYou are here
- Parenting Timeschedules engineered for real life→
- Child Supportthe 2026 guidelines, and owner income→
- Relocation & Move-Awaytwo doors, different rules→
- Interstate & International Custodywhich state decides, before what it decides→
- Custody for Executives & Business Ownersparenting plans for demanding careers→
- CFI & PRE Guidepreparing for the evaluator→
- False Allegationsdefending against abuse claims→
- Supervised Parenting Timewhen it is ordered, and how it ends→
- Colorado Custody Termsthe vocabulary, translated→
- Parenting-Time Schedulesthe common arrangements and their trade-offs→
Engagement
Your children get one childhood. The case should be handled like that matters.
A consultation is a scheduled working session — in person in Greenwood Village or by video — in which we go through your situation and I tell you what I would do. It is a paid meeting, not a free call and not a sales pitch; my assistant quotes the consultation fee when you schedule. There is no chatbot here: the contact form and the phone both reach my office, my assistant reviews every inquiry personally, and the meeting goes on my calendar. Please hold the confidential details until we have run a conflicts check.