HOW DO YOU CHOOSE THE RIGHT CHILD SUPPORT ATTORNEY?
Choosing the right child support attorney starts with knowing what kind of case you have. From there, check that the lawyer is licensed and in good standing in Colorado, regularly handles child support matters, puts the fee arrangement in writing, and communicates in a way that works for you.
Some parents may not need a private lawyer at all. Colorado's county child support offices help set up, change and enforce support orders, with no application fee, although their staff do not represent either parent.
Below are practical points for choosing a lawyer, a short explanation of how Colorado child support works in 2026, questions to ask at a consultation, and free and low-cost resources in El Paso and Teller counties.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Finding the Right Child Support Attorney
- How Child Support Works in Colorado in 2026
- Questions to Ask a Child Support Lawyer
- Checking a Lawyer's License and Fee Terms
- Help From County Child Support Services
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Talking With a Colorado Springs Child Support Lawyer
- Sources
FINDING THE RIGHT CHILD SUPPORT ATTORNEY
Start With the Kind of Case You Have
Choosing a Colorado Springs child support lawyer is an important step toward making sure your child gets the financial support he or she needs. The lawyer you hire represents your legal interests in matters involving your children, your finances and your property. When selecting a child support lawyer, the very first thing to do is to determine the kind of action you are facing.
This could be a recent divorce or legal separation, a parentage case, a dispute over parental responsibilities, a request to change an existing order, or support that is not being paid. Some of these can also be handled through your county child support office rather than a case you file yourself.
Act Promptly
If you are facing one of these situations, it is time to act and find a lawyer who regularly handles Colorado child support cases. Communicating promptly is essential, because your lawyer needs to understand your situation and explain your options clearly and concisely. You want a lawyer who responds to your needs quickly.
Timing matters for a practical reason. Under C.R.S. 14-10-122, a change to child support generally applies only to payments that come due after the motion to modify is filed, so waiting can cost money, whether you pay support or receive it.
Comfort and Trust
A child support lawyer can offer guidance when you are going through a hard time financially. With your child's welfare at stake, make sure the lawyer you choose is qualified to practice in Colorado and is someone you feel comfortable with and can trust. You will be sharing pay stubs, tax returns and details about your family.
Keep in mind who the lawyer works for. A lawyer you hire represents you, not your children. In a dispute over parental responsibilities, the court can appoint a separate child's legal representative to represent the child's best interests under C.R.S. 14-10-116.
Your lawyer should be able to give the court accurate information about your child's needs when necessary. The Colorado support worksheet adds specific costs to the basic obligation, including work-related and education-related child care, the children's share of health insurance premiums, and extraordinary medical and other extraordinary expenses.
Experience With Financial Matters
When you are choosing a child support attorney, make sure he or she has experience with financial matters. Child support turns on income. C.R.S. 14-10-115 counts a long list of income sources, including self-employment income, and requires income to be documented with items such as pay stubs, employer statements and the most recent tax return.
If a parent is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed, support is calculated on that parent's potential income instead of actual earnings, with exceptions written into the statute. Disputes over what a parent earns, or could earn, are often the heart of a child support case.
Lawyers who have worked with parents in disputes over child custody, which Colorado law calls the allocation of parental responsibilities, know how challenging and frustrating those cases can be. Because every overnight now affects the support calculation, the parenting schedule and the support figure are closely linked, so look for a lawyer who can explain both.
Staying Calm in a High-Conflict Case
The ability to remain calm and level-headed is a necessity for parents who are seeking child support help, and it helps to have a lawyer who keeps the focus on facts and numbers. If you and the other parent have a very volatile relationship, be careful not to take steps that will make the situation worse.
Bankruptcy and Child Support
If you are considering filing for bankruptcy because late child support payments have left you struggling to pay your own bills, talk with a child support attorney first, and with a bankruptcy attorney before you file. Enforcement tools, such as income withholding through county child support services, may get payments flowing again.
Bankruptcy also does not erase child support. Federal bankruptcy law defines support owed to a child of the debtor, the child's parent or a government agency as a domestic support obligation (11 U.S.C. 101(14A)), and 11 U.S.C. 523(a)(5) excepts domestic support obligations from discharge; 11 U.S.C. 1328(a) applies the same exception in Chapter 13. A parent who is behind on support still owes it after bankruptcy.
Agreements and Payment Plans
There are many factors that decide who will be the appropriate child support or child custody lawyer for you, and our articles on child custody cover the parenting side. Look for a lawyer who has worked with parents whose concerns are similar to yours. If you and the other parent are having difficulty agreeing on support, or on a plan to pay support that is past due, your lawyer may be able to help you negotiate workable terms.
An agreement does not change support on its own. Colorado requires court authorization or administrative process action for every modification or amendment of child support (C.R.S. 14-10-115), so any deal you reach still has to be approved by the court or through the county's administrative process.
Modifications and Other Professionals
When your attorney is negotiating settlements and modifications of child support or maintenance (what many people call alimony), experience with similar cases helps. Your attorney should also know how to work with the other people involved in child support cases, such as county child support staff, accountants who review business income, and the court's family court facilitators. You can find more articles on child support on our site.
Your lawyer's job is to give the court the evidence it needs to apply Colorado's guidelines correctly to your family. That matters most when the other parent is trying to avoid paying support or to change support payments.
Under C.R.S. 14-10-122, a recalculation that produces less than a 10% change in monthly support is deemed not to be a substantial and continuing change, so ask your lawyer to run the numbers before you file. Our article on whether a Colorado child support order can be modified explains the process.
When a Parent Is Not Paying
There are many other aspects to consider when you are thinking about hiring a lawyer. If you or the other parent is not meeting the financial responsibility to support the children, look for a lawyer who handles enforcement or, if you are the one who is behind, who can explain your options before the debt grows.
The judge will not simply compare what each parent spends on the children. Colorado calculates support from the parents' combined adjusted gross income, estimates what would have been spent on the children if the family lived together, and divides that amount based on the physical care arrangements (C.R.S. 14-10-115).
A qualified child support attorney can help you anticipate the financial hardships that are likely to come up, and make sure the worksheet accounts for the responsibilities you have already taken on, such as child care or the children's health insurance. Our guide to Colorado child support orders explains how orders are paid and enforced.
HOW CHILD SUPPORT WORKS IN COLORADO IN 2026
A lawyer is more useful when you understand the basics. Under C.R.S. 14-10-115, the court orders either or both parents to pay support, and the amount comes from a statewide formula based on both parents' incomes, with adjustments for overnights, child care, health insurance and certain extraordinary expenses.
The formula changed on March 1, 2026, when the main parts of HB25-1159, signed May 31, 2025, took effect. The act updated the guideline schedule and replaced the old parenting time adjustment with a credit for every overnight. "Shared physical care" now means each parent keeps the children at least one overnight a year and both parents contribute to the children's expenses beyond child support.
The Judicial Branch's support worksheet, JDF 1821, carries a revision date of March 1, 2026, and the overnights entered on it must total 365. A 2026 law, HB26-1217, signed May 5, 2026, corrected cross-references in the guidelines without changing the formula.
An order entered before March 1, 2026 stays in effect until it is modified. In most cases support ends when the child turns 19, with exceptions such as a child still in high school or a written agreement; see when child support ends in Colorado. For the full calculation, including income, the low-income rules and deviations, read our guide to child support in Colorado.
QUESTIONS TO ASK A CHILD SUPPORT LAWYER
A consultation is your chance to learn how a lawyer works before you commit. These questions are a reasonable starting point:
- Are you licensed and in good standing in Colorado, and how often do you handle child support cases in El Paso or Teller County?
- Based on what I have told you, would the county child support office be a reasonable option for any part of my case?
- What documents should I gather? (Expect to be asked for pay stubs, recent tax returns, and child care and health insurance costs.)
- How will overnights under our parenting schedule affect the calculation?
- Is there a question about income, such as self-employment, overtime or a parent who is not working full time?
- How do you bill, what is the deposit, and will you give me the fee terms and the scope of your work in writing?
- Who else in your office will work on my case, and how quickly do you usually return calls and emails?
- What are the likely next steps and the timeline, and what could change them?
No lawyer can promise a particular result. The court applies the guidelines and decides disputed facts, so a candid explanation of the range of possible outcomes is more useful than a prediction.
CHECKING A LAWYER'S LICENSE AND FEE TERMS
License and Discipline History
You can look up any Colorado lawyer before you hire one. The Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel, an independent office of the Colorado Supreme Court, offers an attorney search on its website, coloradolegalregulation.com, where you can look up a lawyer's status and disciplinary history. A lawyer must have an active status and be in good standing to practice law in Colorado.
The same search covers Licensed Legal Paraprofessionals, who may provide limited legal services in specified family law matters. Our article on whether you need a divorce lawyer explains when that kind of limited help can fit.
Fees in Writing
Colorado's professional conduct rules require a lawyer to tell a new client in writing, before or within a reasonable time after starting, the basis or rate of the fee and expenses and the scope of the representation (Colo. RPC 1.5(b), as amended effective January 1, 2022). Changes to the fee must also be communicated promptly in writing.
The rules also limit contingent fees. In a domestic relations matter, a lawyer may not charge a fee that depends on securing a divorce or on the amount of maintenance, child support, or a property settlement in lieu of them (Colo. RPC 1.5(c), as amended effective January 1, 2021). Comment [6] to the rule adds that this does not prevent a contingent fee for collecting past-due balances under an existing support, maintenance or other financial order.
For typical billing methods, retainers and court costs, see how much a divorce lawyer costs in Colorado. The Judicial Branch's El Paso County legal assistance list also describes the county bar association's lawyer referral service and a fee dispute committee that arbitrates disputes over legal fees for free when both the lawyer and the client agree to arbitrate.
HELP FROM COUNTY CHILD SUPPORT SERVICES
Colorado Child Support Services, run through county offices, can help set up a child support order, establish parentage and enforce an existing order. Applying is free, and you can apply online through childsupport.colorado.gov or at your county office.
Enforcement tools include income withholding, license suspensions, intercepts, credit reporting and court actions, according to the program's enforcement page. An order can also be reviewed for a possible change at any time; the request is made in writing to the county office handling your case, and a review can take up to six months.
There are limits. The application for services states that the program "represents the People of the State of Colorado" and that its staff are not the applicant's private attorneys. It also says the program cannot help with custody arrangements, parenting time or property settlements.
Federal law requires a $35 annual fee on a case where at least $550 has been collected in a year, but only if the person receiving support has never received Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (Colorado Works) benefits, according to the application. The fee is deducted from support paid to the receiving parent.
Other Free and Low-Cost Options
The El Paso County Judicial Building at 270 S. Tejon Street has a Self-Help Center in Room S101, where court staff can help with paperwork, procedural questions and next steps but cannot give legal advice. The El Paso County legal assistance list also names family court facilitators who work with divorce, legal separation and parental responsibilities matters before and after the decree.
In Teller County, the Teller County Courthouse in Cripple Creek has a self-represented litigant coordinator who can help you prepare for court. For advice about your own rights and choices, you need a private lawyer or, within the family law matters they are licensed for, a Licensed Legal Paraprofessional, because court staff do not give legal advice and county child support staff do not represent you.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How Do I Choose the Right Child Support Attorney?
Start by identifying your type of case, then confirm the lawyer is licensed and in good standing in Colorado and regularly handles child support matters. Ask how fees work and get the fee terms and scope of work in writing, and choose someone you can communicate with comfortably.
How Can I Check Whether a Colorado Lawyer Is Licensed?
The Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel, an independent office of the Colorado Supreme Court, offers an attorney search at coloradolegalregulation.com. You can look up a lawyer's status and disciplinary history there, and a lawyer must have an active status and be in good standing to practice in Colorado.
Do I Need a Lawyer to Get Child Support in Colorado?
No. You can apply to your county child support office, with no application fee (a $35 annual fee applies to some cases), and it can set up, review and enforce orders, but its staff represent the People of the State of Colorado, not you. A private lawyer can advise you about your own position, especially when income, parenting time or a divorce is in dispute.
Can a Child Support Lawyer Charge a Contingency Fee in Colorado?
Not a fee that depends on the amount of child support or maintenance, or on securing a divorce; Colorado's professional conduct rules prohibit those contingent fees in domestic relations matters. A comment to the rule does allow a contingent fee for collecting past-due balances under an existing support or maintenance order.
Does Bankruptcy Wipe Out Child Support?
No. Federal bankruptcy law treats child support as a domestic support obligation, and domestic support obligations are excepted from discharge (11 U.S.C. 523(a)(5), and 11 U.S.C. 1328(a) in Chapter 13), so past-due support is still owed after bankruptcy.
When Did Colorado's New Child Support Rules Take Effect?
The main child support changes from HB25-1159 took effect on March 1, 2026, including the updated schedule and a parenting time credit for every overnight. Orders entered before that date stay in effect until they are modified.
TALKING WITH A COLORADO SPRINGS CHILD SUPPORT LAWYER
If you are setting up, changing or enforcing child support, it helps to understand the numbers and your options before you decide on a path. Moran, Allen & Associates Family Law Attorneys works with parents in El Paso and Teller counties and can talk through your situation, including whether the county child support office may be a fit.
Call (719) 447-0762 in Colorado Springs or (719) 686-7554 in Woodland Park, or schedule a free consultation.
This article is general information about Colorado law as of October 2026 and is not legal advice. Laws, guideline schedules, court procedures and program fees change, so speak with a licensed Colorado attorney about your own situation.
SOURCES
- C.R.S. 14-10-115, Child Support Guidelines
- C.R.S. 14-10-116, Child's Legal Representative
- C.R.S. 14-10-122, Modification of Child Support
- HB25-1159, Child Support Commission Recommendations (Colorado General Assembly, signed May 31, 2025)
- HB26-1217, Correct Child Support Guidelines Statutory Cites (signed May 5, 2026)
- HB26-1217, enrolled text (amends C.R.S. 14-10-115 "as they will become effective March 1, 2026")
- Colorado Judicial Branch, JDF 1821 Support Worksheet (revised March 1, 2026)
- 11 U.S.C. 101, Definitions (Domestic Support Obligation)
- 11 U.S.C. 523, Exceptions to Discharge
- 11 U.S.C. 1328, Chapter 13 Discharge
- Colorado Supreme Court, Rule Change 2021(18), Colo. RPC 1.5(b) Fees in Writing
- Colorado Supreme Court, Rule Change 2020(30), Colo. RPC 1.5 Contingent Fees
- Colorado Child Support Services, Apply for Services
- Colorado Child Support Services, Application for Child Support Services
- Colorado Child Support Services, Enforcing Orders
- Colorado Child Support Services, Changing an Order
- Colorado Child Support Services, Frequently Asked Questions
- Colorado Judicial Branch, El Paso County Legal Assistance list (rev. July 23, 2026)
- Colorado Judicial Branch, El Paso County Self-Help Center
- Colorado Judicial Branch, Teller County Courts