Colorado Divorce and Family Law Attorney Blog

In a previous post, we shared that star basketball player Kobe Bryant and his wife Vanessa are in the process of a divorce. Their split is definitely a high-asset divorce, with Kobe making money still as a professional athlete and also off of advertising deals.

Because Kobe does earn so much in his professional life, the public was surprised to find out that the couple never created a prenuptial agreement. The marital contract would have allowed Kobe a method of asset protection, though perhaps he didn't and still doesn't see Vanessa as someone from whom to protect his, or their, property.

The head versus the heart: is it really unromantic to discuss prenuptial agreements? Recent high profile divorces remind us that the wealthy have their own problems with post-marital division of property. Katy Perry, for example, could lose half of her fortune to a marriage that lasted a year.

Their experience teaches the rest of us some valuable lessons.

When the heart governs prenuptial behaviors, the economic partnership is ignored, financially protective ground rules never established. Would you work for a month and then ask how much your paycheck is? There are certain financial facts we all should understand out of the need to be economically stable.

According to The Wall Street Journal, today it is more common for couples going through a divorce to discuss Social Security benefits during the property division process. But in the past, apparently that complex yet important discussion might not have been so common.

This could mean that those who have divorced in the past could have a valuable reason to revisit the financial details of their split. The reassessment could mean a significant difference in the amount of financial security that the least-earning partner could get out of the divorce.

Since the attack at an Arizona supermarket last year, nationwide attention has been paid to Representative Gabrielle Giffords. She was shot in the violent attack and sustained a serious brain injury as the result of the ugly incident.

The New York Times takes a somewhat new approach at discussing the incident and brain injuries in general. It can be easy to think of a brain injury as something like any other injury. Give it time and treatment and the victim will return to normal. But an injury to the brain is unique and can put a major strain on a marriage, sometimes leading couples to divorce after an accident has occurred.

When it comes to children, parents can sometimes get desperate. We don't know the truth about one extremely serious family law and criminal dispute from an out-of-state case, but the matter does highlight the drama that can come out of a child custody dispute.

Whether a family is in Colorado or North Dakota, a parent's desire to get their kids out of a divorce can be both admirable and blinding. Sometimes, parents will choose to tarnish the other parent's character in order to make him or herself out to be the most suitable parent. It's crucial that any tarnishing of a parent's character, however, comes from a place of truth.

There are many ways to define a parent. Some people have an easy time conceiving, and others go through a lot of expense and stress to become parents in alternative ways. Either way, it is most often a joyous occasion. But imagine you have your miracle, love and raise her the best you can. Nurse fevers. Dry tears. Hold tea parties. And one day it's gone, because a different type of law comes up out of the blue and declares she belongs with someone else.

For one family, this is exactly what happened because a birth father of an adopted girl is of Native American heritage, and, therefore, the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 applies. This law states that children of Native American heritage should be either kept with birth parents or placed in other Native American homes whenever possible. Fueled with this, the birth father took his child custody case to family law court and now has custody of the child.

In Colorado, a couple can get their divorce finalized in as short as 90 days after filing for divorce. While 90 days sounds relatively short to bring such a formal union to an end, to the people who really feel that they are stuck in an unhappy marriage, that timeframe could likely feel like a painful eternity.

At least one Colorado lawmaker wants to extend that eternity. Of course those who support his family law efforts believe that they are potentially saving some Colorado marriages and saving kids from the impact of divorce.

Divorce brings about a wide variety of feelings depending on the situation. Some are relieved to be out of a bad relationship and are excited to get on with their lives. Others are saddened by the loss of connection. And for some, there's a little bit of both of these feelings. But no matter how you look at your divorce one thing that you'll have to consider is the changes in your taxes.

If you were divorced in 2011, filing taxes in 2012 is going to look different. Making spousal support payments or receiving spousal support will affect your tax liability, as these payments count as income toward the recipient. Child support, however, does not count as income. Any taxes related to dependents default toward the parent who has custody most of the time, unless a waiver has been signed my the primary caretaker parent, so that the non-custodial parent is allowed to claim the child on their taxes.