Divorce at Altitude: A Podcast on Colorado Family Law

Navigating Temporary Child Support During Divorce: Insights and Legal Perspectives Episode 205

Caitlin Geary

Welcome to another insightful episode of Divorce At Altitude, your go-to podcast for understanding the complexities of family law in Colorado. In today’s how-to session, hosted by Ryan Kalamaya, we delve into the crucial topic of child support, focusing on its initiation during the separation phase and the intricacies of temporary child support.

Episode Highlights:
- Understanding Child Support Initiation: Learn about the conditions under which child support obligations begin, guided by Colorado statute 14.10.115. We explore scenarios where both physical and legal separations influence the start of child support responsibilities.
- Temporary Child Support Explained: Discover how temporary child support functions during the divorce process. Whether Eric and Melanie Wolfe are living separately or together, this episode clarifies how child support accrual starts, the considerations for back support, and adjustments based on parenting arrangements.
- Practical Examples: Through the hypothetical case of Eric and Melanie Wolf, we illustrate various situations, such as trial separations and the impact of disparities in income or parenting time, that affect child support calculations during the interim period before final divorce decrees.

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Thank you for tuning in to Divorce At Altitude. We’re here to provide the clarity and guidance you need on your journey through divorce and child support challenges in Colorado.

What is Divorce at Altitude?

Ryan Kalamaya and Amy Goscha provide tips and recommendations on issues related to divorce, separation, and co-parenting in Colorado. Ryan and Amy are the founding partners of an innovative and ambitious law firm, Kalamaya | Goscha, that pushes the boundaries to discover new frontiers in family law, personal injuries, and criminal defense in Colorado.

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DISCLAIMER: THE COMMENTARY AND OPINIONS ON THIS PODCAST IS FOR ENTERTAINMENT AND INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES AND NOT FOR THE PURPOSE OF PROVIDING LEGAL ADVICE. CONTACT AN ATTORNEY IN YOUR STATE OR AREA TO OBTAIN LEGAL ADVICE ON ANY OF THESE ISSUES.

Ryan Kalamaya:

Welcome to Divorce At Altittude, a podcast on Colorado family law. I'm Ryan Kalamaya. Each week, along with my business partner and co-host, Amy Goscha, or an expert, we discuss a particular topic related to Divorce or co-parenting in Colorado. In addition, we have created a short series of lessons that will take you through the legal process of Divorce and answer your questions from simple to complex. Divorce isn't easy. The end of a marriage, especially when children are involved, brings a great deal of loss and change. We hope these practical tips and insights will help you on your journey to a new. And better life. This is a how to episode on when child support begins and temporary child support. Now, let's suppose that Eric and Melanie Wolfe file for a divorce but they're not yet separated physically separated. They're living in the same house and the bills are being paid and they have children. What happens in that scenario for child support? There's an interesting feature of 14. 10. 1. 15, which is the statute on child support. And it says that child support starts, the obligation begins upon the later of the filing of a petition for divorce or dissolution of marriage and or legal separation or physical separation of the parties. And so in that scenario neither Eric nor Melanie Wolfe are going to owe the other child support until they physically separate. Now, the counter is also true, and that is that if Eric and Melanie Wolfe if they physically separate, let's say they go through a trial separation Eric moves out, gets an apartment somewhere in Denver, and they have children and they are equally dividing or it doesn't really actually matter what their parenting arrangement is. Child support does not actually start until they file. And once they file or once Eric moves out then child support is going to begin to accrue and a party can either. a particular amount of child support. So if Eric is paying Melanie or paying the mortgage and giving her some money or access to the bank account so that she can pay for groceries and other things for the children, the court can take that into consideration in determining back support, but if Eric. It takes a different approach, a much more aggressive approach and just says, I'm not paying you everything, anything. We're going through a divorce and we're going to separate our finances. You're, on your own and there's a disparity between their incomes and, or there's a disparity between the amount of time that they're spending with the kids, then. Back support can start accruing. And so it's going to start upon that date when they either physically separated or the petition was filed. Now, you can get into various arguments between Eric and Melanie Wolfe on how much Eric should pay. But Temporary child support is going to be provided through the duration of the divorce and or the action that is going to take place between Eric and Melanie. You'll take into consideration the amount of maintenance as we've discussed. Addressed in other episodes, you've you determine a party's income after the property that they're allocated in the dissolution is, split up, but you can't obviously do that in the temporary situation. There can be arguments. A party can file a motion for temporary orders or there can be a temporary agreement and that agreement on the amount of support can be different compared to what ultimately is ordered after the court. Eric and Melanie could change their parenting schedule. Eric could get more parenting time through the pendency of the divorce. So at the hearing, let's say a year later the situation could be drastically different. Melanie could be working by then and Eric could have the children more than he did when they first separated. So those. Various factors can be taken into consideration in determining temporary child support, but for now you should understand when it accrues and the various issues that are going to go into the determination of temporary child support. Thanks for listening or watching this short lesson on the Divorce Ude podcast. If you found this helpful, please leave a review or share with a friend. It does help for others that are going through or thinking about a Divorce in Colorado. If you want to find out more information, Please visit Kalamaya Law or Divorce at Altittude dot com and that's K A L A M A Y A law. Remember, this is educational information, it's not intended to be legal advice. Please consult with an attorney about the particulars of your case. We're happy to answer questions. Feel free to give us a call at(970) 315-2365.