Practice Areas
Karuschkat Law has
specialized in family law for
over eighteen years. In fact,
that’s all we do. By focusing on
only one area of the law, we are
able to provide our clients with
up-to-date legal services that
go far beyond what general
practitioners are able to
provide.
Karuschkat Law is a team of
dedicated attorneys and family
law specialists that strive to
help our clients work through
the changes they and their
families are experiencing. We
represent individuals concerning
issues relating to the most
fundamental part of their lives
– their families. Whether it
involves divorce, custody,
support, adoption, juvenile
matters, or any other issue
relating to families, we have
the level of expertise, skill
and compassion our clients need
to get through the challenges
they are facing.
Click on a link below for an
overview of some of the various
legal issues that families may
face.
Divorce and Separation
Children
Divorce and Separation
Issues
Divorce
Colorado law refers to a divorce
as a “dissolution of marriage”.
That is, at the end of your
case, you will receive a Decree
of Dissolution of Marriage from
the Court saying that your
marriage has legally been
dissolved. There is only one
ground for divorce in Colorado –
one of you wants to be divorced.
Your spouse doesn’t have to
agree to “give” you a divorce –
if you or your spouse wants a
divorce, you’ll get one.
There is rarely a “winner” in
dissolution of marriage case
because both of you are going to
change your lives, perhaps where
you live, certainly who you live
with; and if you have children,
you’re going to spend time with
them differently as well. A
divorce is a death of sorts,
except the other person is still
alive.
Because divorce is a kind of
“death”, you might find yourself
experiencing a grieving process
that may have you spending time
with a jumble of emotions. This
is entirely normal – but it can
be enormously stressful and
painful to live through.
You may find yourself getting
“helpful” advice from all sorts
of people who have some
experience with divorce. It can
be hard to sift through all that
advice to determine what is real
and what isn’t, what is the law
and what is fiction.
While going through your
divorce, the law expects you to
make a variety of decisions that
will truly affect you and your
children's lives for a very long
time – and you’re supposed to do
all this while you are probably
experiencing a great deal of
emotional turmoil.
We realize you have enough to
do with just keeping your head
above water. A law firm
experienced in family law can
help you through the legal
process to safety arrive at the
conclusion of your case as
intact as possible. Whether your
spouse lives in Colorado, is
away in the military, or has
moved to another state, our
staff is equipped with the
know-how and skill to get you
what you need. Let us be that
law firm for you.
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Legal Separation
In a Legal Separation, you have
to do virtually all of the same
things you would need to do to
get a divorce, but at the
conclusion of your case, the
Court gives you a Decree of
Legal Separation, instead of a
Decree of Dissolution of
Marriage. At the end, you are
still married. We have had
clients pursue Legal Separation
instead of a divorce for
religious reasons, or to keep
health insurance intact.
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Common Law Marriage
Colorado recognizes common law
marriage. In order to have a
common law marriage, you
essentially have to “hold
yourselves out as being
married.” Some of the ways you
can “hold yourselves out as
being married”, are telling
people you are married, filing a
joint tax return, celebrating
wedding anniversaries, wearing
wedding rings and telling people
they are wedding rings, saying
you are married for purposes of
health, life or automobile
insurance, etc. Living together
for a certain period of time
does NOT make you common law
married.
If you are common law
married, you have to get a
divorce through the courts in
order to end the common law
marriage. It would be nice if
there was a “common law
divorce”, but there isn’t.
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Annulment
In Colorado, an annulment is
called a “declaration of
invalidity of the marriage”,
that is, a Court determination
that the marriage was never
valid. There are a variety of
reasons a marriage may be found
to be invalid. Some of them are:
the parties are underage; the
marriage was entered into as a
jest or dare; the parties are
closely related; one party lied
to the other about an essential
part of the marriage (such as
knowing you can’t have children
and telling the other person you
want to have children); etc.
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Alimony/Maintenance
Maintenance is the word used in
Colorado for “alimony” or
“spousal support”. When
maintenance is ordered, one
spouse must pay the other a
monthly amount of money to help
them support themselves. When a
couple breaks up, financial
difficulties can arise.
Sometimes, one spouse will
require financial help from the
other to help them “make it on
their own.” Maintenance can be
ordered for a certain period of
time, or it can even be
permanent. How much will be paid
and how long it will be paid for
can be complicated. Some of the
things a court must consider
when ordering maintenance are:
- The spouse seeking
maintenance doesn’t have
enough assets to provide for
their reasonable needs
- The spouse seeking
maintenance is not able to
support themselves through
employment
- The spouse seeking
maintenance is taking care
of a child that needs that
spouse to stay at home
- The time necessary to
acquire sufficient
education/training to enable
the spouse seeking
maintenance to find a job
sufficient to support that
spouse
- The standard of living
established during the
marriage
- The age, physical and
mental condition of the
spouse seeking maintenance
- The ability of the other
spouse to meet their own
reasonable needs and to also
pay maintenance to the other
spouse
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Property/Asset Division
Generally speaking whatever
assets you and your spouse
acquired during the marriage
will be divided between you.
What seems fairly
straightforward in theory,
in reality can be one of the
most nerve-racking and
difficult parts of a
divorce. Who gets the house
and who pays for it? How do
you divide a 401K pension
plan when it’s in the name
of only one spouse? How do
you “divide” that favorite
painting? What about the
dog? You will keep the
assets you brought into the
marriage, however, any
increase in value of those
“separate” assets belong to
the marriage. For instance,
you had a house when you
married that was worth
$100,000, and since the time
you married, the value of
the house increased to
$300,000. You still own the
first $100,000, but the
$200,000 increase in value
belongs to the marriage. How
do you divide that asset?
-Back-to-Top- Debt Division
Today, most families have
debt, some a lot more then
others. When a couple ends
their marriage, the debts
don’t go away--they can
become a huge problem.
Sometimes debt, like a
credit card, may be in only
one spouse’s name, but the
debt was incurred for
something the whole family
benefited from. One of you
may be the kind of person
that spends, while the other
is a “saver”. Perhaps you
owe so much that it is
appropriate to consider
bankruptcy. We have seen
families in the past, where
it took virtually all of
their joint income to
support their family before
their separation-- and after
their separation, and paying
for two homes - they had to
figure out creative ways to
get all of their debts paid
on time.
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and Post-nuptial agreement
In Colorado, we call these
kinds of agreements “marital
agreements”. A marital
agreement may be entered
into before or after you get
married. These kinds of
agreements set out what you
and your spouse plan to do
with your assets if certain
things happen, such as
divorce. Problems can arise
if the marital agreement
wasn’t properly written; if
the agreement was grossly
unfair to one spouse; if one
spouse lied to the other
about certain things that
would have affected the
agreement; etc.
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Alternate Dispute Resolution
(ADR)
There are a number of ways
you can try and work through
the issues in your marriage.
Going to Court is one of
them-- and should be the
last resort. The more you
and your spouse work things
out the better off you will
be in the long run. Actually
most divorces “settle”
without going to court.
There are several methods a
couple can use to help them
reach a settlement. You and
your spouse can reach an
agreement yourselves, your
attorneys can negotiate on
your behalf to reach an
agreement, or you can agree
to participate in mediation
or arbitration. A mediator
is a trained professional
whose job it is to help you
find a position you can both
live with. A mediator does
not work for either of you
and isn’t on one side or the
other. Sometimes the couple
attends mediation together;
sometimes their attorneys
attend also. In arbitration,
you essentially have a trial
before a private judge.
-Back-to-Top- Children Issues
Custody/Allocation of
Decision-Making
Responsibilities
Generally speaking, there
are two types of “custody”:
legal custody, and physical
custody. Legal custody
concerns those who make
decisions for your children
about important things such
as religion, education,
non-emergency medical care,
extra-curricular activities,
etc. One of you may make all
these types of decisions, or
they may be made by both of
you. Physical custody refers
to which parents is “in
charge” of the children and
when. The parent that the
children are with on that
day, will make the regular
day-to-day decisions about
the children. Of course,
anytime a child needs
emergency medical attention,
you don’t need to consult
with the other parent before
you take the child to the
emergency room!
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Interstate Custody
Interstate custody refers to
the type of situation where
one parent lives in a
different state then the
other parent and there is a
dispute concerning the
children. In which state to
the laws apply? How do you
get the courts in the two
states to work with each
other to determine which
state will handle the case?
What happens if both courts
decide they each have the
right to handle the case –
and they enter different
orders? Interstate custody
issues are probably the most
legally complicated matters
you will see in a divorce.
If an attorney doesn’t have
experience with interstate
custody matters, don’t let
your case be their training
ground! We’ve done a lot of
these cases over the years
and the number is increasing
as parents continue to
relocate around the country
and around the world.
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Child Support
Child support is a monthly
amount of money one parent
pays the other parent to
help support the children.
In Colorado, our laws say
that it is each child’s
right to be supported by
both parents to the best of
their ability. Child support
is calculated using each
parent’s income, health
insurance costs for the
child; work-related day care
costs; and any other regular
extraordinary expenses for
the child. Some disputes
about child support are when
a parent is not being
truthful about their income,
is not working at their full
earning potential, is less
than candid about what
work-related day care
actually costs, wants to go
back to school to better
themselves, or when the
children spend a lot of time
at both parents homes. Child
support is often a
battleground for many
divorcing couples. It takes
skill and experience to
present your case in the
most beneficial manner to
get the result you need.
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Visitation/Parenting Time
In the past, we used the
word “visitation” when we
talked about children in a
divorced family living with
one parent most of the time
and visiting the other. The
word “visitation” seemed to
make one parent more
important then the other, so
the legislature changed that
term to “parenting time”. In
a divorce case, we try to
develop what is called a
“Parenting Plan”. A
Parenting Plan sets out how
you and your spouse will
continue to care for your
children even though you are
divorcing. A thoughtful,
well-written Parenting Plan
can be essential in avoiding
problems in the future.
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Relocation
In a relocation case, one
parent (usually the parent
who has the child most of
the time) wants to move with
the child to a new home that
is far enough away that the
parent remaining in Colorado
won’t be able to exercise
the parenting time they have
been granted through the
Court. Our laws provide that
if a move is contemplated,
the parent wanting to move
has to notify the other
parent of the move, the
reasons for the move, and
provide the other parent
with a proposed new
parenting plan. If the other
parent doesn’t agree, the
parent wishing to move will
have to ask the Court for
permission to relocate with
the child. Some of the
things the Court must
consider about whether it
should allow the relocation
are:
- The reasons why the
parent wants to relocate
with the child
- The reasons why the
other parent objects to
the move
- The history and
quality of each parent’s
relationship with the
child
- The educational
opportunities for the
child in Colorado and in
the new location
- What extended family
members live at both
locations
- What the advantages
are of the child
continuing to live with
the parent that wants to
move
- What impact the move
will have on the child
- Whether the Court
will be able to design a
reasonable parenting
time schedule if the
move is permitted
- Any other factors
that are relevant to
whether the move should
be permitted
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Adoption
In the adoption of a
child by a couple, a
stepparent, or an
individual, the Court
must make a
determination based on
several factors before
the adoption can take
place. The factors are
that the child must
first be available for
adoption, that the
person(s) seeking to
adopt the child is of
good moral character,
has the ability to
support the child, has a
clean criminal record,
is able to provide an
appropriate home for the
child, that the child’s
mental and physical
condition are
appropriate for
adoption, and that the
child’s best interests
will be served if the
adoption is allowed to
go through.
-Back-to-Top- Paternity
A mother/child legal
relationship is
established by virtue of
the woman giving birth
to the child.
Establishing a
father/child legal
relationship is more
difficult. Determination
of a father/child legal
relationship is usually
established by genetic
testing. However, there
are instances where a
father will be presumed
to be the parent of the
child even without
genetic testing. Some of
those instances are:
- When the child
is born and the
mother is married,
the child is
presumed to be the
child of the husband
- A man has
acknowledged that he
is the father of the
child in a written
document filed with
the court or
registrar of vital
statistics
- With the man’s
consent, the man was
named as the child’s
father on the birth
certificate
- The man receives
the child into his
home and tells
everyone the child
is his natural child
A father can
contest these
presumptions,
however, the facts
and circumstances of
the particular case
will need to be
brought to the
Court’s attention in
a well-reasoned
manner in order to
successfully set
aside the
presumption of
paternity.
-Back-to-Top- Grandparent Rights/Visitation
The law in the area
of grandparent
rights/visitation
has experienced
significant changes
in the last ten
years. First, there
must already be a
court case involving
custody of the
child. The law tells
the Court that it
must give the most
importance to
whether the parents
want the
grandparents to
spend time with the
child. Then
grandparents must
show through “clear
and convincing
evidence” that it is
not in the child’s
best interests to
have the
grandparents
excluded from
spending time with
the child. This
isn’t an easy burden
to meet, and may
require a certain
level of expertise
to obtain visitation
rights for
grandparents.
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