Longmont · Boulder County · Weld County
See the schedule before you sign it.
A parenting plan is a promise your children live inside for years. Pick a schedule, tap any night to change it, and see exactly how many overnights and exchanges it means for each parent.
Starting pattern
Names
Example names shown. Everything stays in your browser.
Overnights a year are the two-week pattern scaled to 365 nights. Holidays, school breaks and vacations in a real plan shift these numbers. A tool for planning, not a court calculation.
Colorado's vocabulary
Colorado does not say "custody." Here is what it says instead.
- Parental responsibilities
- The umbrella term. It covers both parenting time and decision-making for a child.
- Parenting time
- The schedule. Which parent the children are with, and when.
- Decision-making
- Who makes the major decisions, such as education and health care, and whether parents make them jointly or one parent decides.
- Parenting plan
- The written document that sets out the schedule and the decision-making rules.
- Best interests of the child
- The standard. Court evaluators assist the court in determining the child's best interests, with the child's safety always paramount.
- 182 days
- For a Colorado court to make parenting orders, the children generally must have lived in Colorado at least 182 days, or since birth.
Sources: Colorado Judicial Branch, Parental Responsibility Evaluators; Divorce or Legal Separation.
When the court brings in an expert
Colorado Child & Family Investigators and Parental Responsibility Evaluators: who they are and why their report matters
Colorado Child & Family Investigator
Appointed by the court to investigate parenting time and decision-making issues. The investigator usually writes a report with recommendations about the children's best interests and may testify at hearings.
Parental Responsibility Evaluator (PRE)
A mental health professional the court may appoint to evaluate disputed parenting issues and file a written report to help the court determine the child's best interests.
Colorado Judicial Branch, Parental Responsibility Evaluators
Have an investigator's or evaluator's report? Get it reviewed by a lawyer who is a court-appointed Colorado Child & Family Investigator.
Attorney Liken serves as a Colorado court-appointed Child & Family Investigator. In a one-hour review and report he goes through the report with you: what it relies on, what it leaves out, and what you can do about it.
Your lawyer, start to finish
Attorney Charles E. Liken Jr.
Attorney Liken has written the kind of report a judge reads in a custody case, as a court-appointed Colorado Child & Family Investigator. He knows what investigators look for, and how to present your parenting in the facts a judge relies on.
- Former Colorado Deputy District Attorney
- Colorado court-appointed Child & Family Investigator
- 700+ government fraud investigations
- 30+ years in the legal field
- Licensed in Colorado
Questions
What parents ask first
General information, not advice for your case.
Can I take the children out of Colorado while our divorce is pending?
Not without the other parent's permission or a court order. Colorado's automatic court orders in a divorce or legal separation case, listed on the summons, say not to take the children out of the state without that permission.
What is the "right" schedule?
There is no single right one. Young children often do better with shorter stretches; older children often want fewer exchanges. Use the planner to compare how many exchanges each pattern creates.
Can a parenting plan change later?
Yes. Parents can agree to changes, and the court can modify parenting time and decision-making through a modification case. See the firm's guide to changing orders.
What if one parent wants to move away?
A move that changes the schedule usually needs agreement or a court order first. See the firm's relocation guide.
Will the court appoint an investigator?
Not in most agreed cases. When parents disagree on important parenting issues, the court may appoint a Colorado Child & Family Investigator or a Parental Responsibility Evaluator. Their report often carries real weight, so preparing for the interviews matters.
Talk it through
Bring your schedule to a 20-minute call
Build a schedule in the planner, then talk it through with Attorney Liken. No charge and no obligation.
Office telephone 303-406-2791
Office fax number 720-713-7147
Email charles@longmont.law
Office mailing address
The Longmont Law Firm, LLC
1601 29th St. Suite 1292
Boulder, CO 80301
Please do not send confidential details by email before we speak. Contacting the firm does not create an attorney-client relationship.