Broomfield Child Custody Lawyer

Parents who are splitting up often must make important custody decisions regarding their children. If your spouse and you are undergoing a divorce, it is important to understand your rights as a parent. At Plog & Stein P.C., our Broomfield child custody lawyers understand this area of the law and can vigorously advocate for your right to a fair and appropriate custody arrangement. We represent people throughout the Denver metro area.

Family Law Attorneys Helping Broomfield Residents

The two main components of child custody are traditionally known as physical custody and legal custody. In Colorado, however, “physical custody” is actually referred to as “primary physical care” and “parenting time.” If the parents share almost equal amounts of time with the child, including overnight visits, that is considered a shared custody or parenting time arrangement. One parent will be considered the primary residential parental if the child spends the majority of overnights in his or her home. If the parents share equal time, neither is the primary residential parent in a parenting time sense. The amount of time each parent spends with the child can affect financial rights tied into child support and decision making rights tied into where a child goes to school.

Meanwhile, “legal custody” is known as “decision-making responsibility” in Colorado. As the name suggests, decision-making responsibility refers to a parent’s power to make important decisions regarding a child’s education, health care, religion, and more. This type of responsibility may be sole or joint. If a parent has sole decision-making responsibility, that parent has the right to make major decisions regarding the child without the other parent’s permission. In some instances, there may still be a duty to consult. If the parents have joint decision-making responsibility, both of them share the right to make important decisions for the child. As a result, these decisions must be made together.

The ideal goal is to come up with a parenting plan with the other parent that effectively meets the child’s needs. A parenting plan specifically allocates the time that each parent will spend with the child, such as where the child will spend a particular school vacation or the child’s birthday. A parenting plan requires both parents to agree to it. If you cannot agree on a plan, the court will determine a plan for you, based on what it considers to be in the best interest of the child. A child custody attorney in Broomfield can advocate for you in these situations.

In determining what is in the best interest of the child, the court may consider many factors, such as the child’s age and any medical conditions, each parent’s living situation, each parent’s pattern of involvement with the child, the child’s current living situation, the child’s wishes, any history of abuse or neglect, and the parents’ relationship with each other. The court is free to examine any factor that it deems relevant to the issue of custody.

While there is a presumption that frequent and ongoing contact with both parents is beneficial for a child, the court may order supervised or no visitation if it finds that a parent is a physical or emotional danger to a child.

Consult a Child Custody Attorney in the Broomfield Area

At Plog & Stein P.C., our Broomfield child custody attorneys understand that the stakes are high whenever the future of your children is being determined. We are committed to making every effort to obtain a parenting plan arrangement for you that will be fair and in the best interest of the children involved. Call us at 303-781-0322 or contact us online for a consultation session with a divorce attorney.

In addition to providing quality legal representation in child custody and parenting time cases, our Broomfield family law attorneys also advocate for clients in divorce, child support, and marital property division matters in Denver, Adams, Jefferson, and Boulder Counties.