How Does Divorce Work in Fort Collins, Co?

Here is how divorce works in Fort Collins, Colorado. The first step in a divorce is to file the case. Generally, filing includes three documents: a petition, a summons, and case information sheet. The next step is to have the other party served with those documents. There are a couple of different ways to do that. You can either provide the documents for the party yourself, have your attorney do so and ask the other party to sign a waiver of service, or you can have the documents personally served by a process server. If the other party lives in Fort Collins, or anywhere in Colorado, then the opposing party has 21 days to file a response once they are served. If the opposing party lives outside the state of Colorado, they have 35 days to file a response.

Shortly after a divorce is filed, the court will schedule an initial status conference at the Larimer County Justice Center, here in Fort Collins. The initial status conference is designed to determine whether the parties have agreement on anything at that point and to make sure that the parties have done some of the things that they need to do, which I will discuss below. The parties will then be ordered to attend mediation and the next status conference will be set.

Once a divorce case is filed, there are two things that parties have to do. However, one only applies if the parties have children. Once any divorce case in Fort Collins is filed, the parties must complete financial disclosures, which involves filling out a sworn financial statement and providing certain documents to the other party. If there are children, the parties must take a parenting class. The parenting classes are mostly online now; it is three or four hours of sitting in front of a computer.