Denver Child Custody Lawyer
Denver Child Custody Lawyer. Are you going through a divorce and need to solve your child custody disagreements? Nicholas Family Law has an experienced Child Custody Lawyer who has been helping people through child custody laws in Douglas County for 30 years.
In Colorado, Child Custody is also called Parental Responsibility. It consists of Parenting Time (Visitation), which is the amount of time each parent will have with the children as well as decision-making. Decision-making consists of one or both parents being designated to make important decisions about the children. In all Colorado divorces, legal separations, annulments, or paternity cases involving children, the “best interests of the child” are considered by Colorado courts in determining Colorado child custody, visitation, and relocation. The deciding standard is the best interests of the children and not the parent. Under any Child Custody law in Douglas County, both parents are supposed to have an equal opportunity of obtaining primary child responsibility.
Child Custody Attorney Colorado
Major Decision-Making
In Colorado, the parent who has the child at the time a decision is to be made is the one who makes that decision. This is true for all ordinary decisions, such as, bedtime, whether they have to eat their green beans, etc. However, Colorado recognizes that a few of the decisions are really important. Because these decisions are important, the parties need to decide which parent will have final say for which major decision or whether the parties will make these decisions together. If they cannot agree, our child custody lawyer in Douglas County can help you decide which parent makes which decision.
The major areas are: religion, education and medical care. There really isn’t usually much to argue about in these areas because most parents are compatible as to religion or they wouldn’t have ever been married. Nearly every parent wants their child to have the best education and the best medical care available.
A court is an arm of the State. Therefore, the court can run into Constitutional problems if it tries to dictate the religious upbringing of a child. A court usually allows each parent to expose the child to that parents religion during the time spent with that parent. In that situation there really isn’t any need for one parent or the other to be designated as the parent who will make all religious decisions.
Most of the time the parties will agree on a good education for the child. There are some circumstances where one party may be designated to make final decisions, such as which public school the child will attend, or, in the right circumstances, whether the child will attend a private school.
Either parent always has the right to designate emergency medical care for a child and to make emergency medical decisions for the child. Where an emergency is not involved, the parties may agree to jointly make such decisions. Otherwise, one of the parents will have to carry this burden as a decision-maker.
Call our Denver Child Custody Lawyer of Douglas County today to Schedule a Consultation at 303-522-4552, or contact us online.