Moran, Allen & Associates Family Law Attorneys
On This Page
- How We Work
- Divorce and Dissolution of Marriage
- Military Divorce
- High Net Worth and Complex Asset Divorce
- Uncontested Divorce
- Allocation of Parental Responsibilities
- Child Support
- Civil Protection Orders
- Post-Decree Modifications and Enforcement
- Family Law Appeals and Magistrate Review
- Additional Family Law Matters
- The Courts We Practice In
- Our Attorneys
- Our Paralegals and Legal Staff
- Two Offices, One Team
How We Work
A family law case is not a filing problem. It is a decision-making problem under pressure, and the quality of the decisions you make in the first sixty days tends to shape the rest of the case.
Moran, Allen & Associates Family Law handles the full lifecycle of a domestic relations matter: the initial consultation, the petition and service, disclosures under Rule 16.2, temporary orders, negotiation and mediation, contested hearings, and the permanent orders that follow. When a case needs to be tried, it is tried by the same attorney who prepared it.
Our attorneys work across both El Paso County and Teller County. Several came to this firm from prosecutorial offices, which means the team is accustomed to contested hearings, evidentiary objections, and cross-examination rather than paper practice alone.
We take a limited number of matters per attorney so that clients are not handed off. You will know who is handling your case, and you will know who will be standing next to you in court.
Divorce and Dissolution of Marriage
Colorado is a no-fault state. The only ground for dissolution is that the marriage is irretrievably broken, and the court does not weigh who caused the breakdown when deciding whether to grant the decree.
Two timing rules control the front end of every case. At least one spouse must have been domiciled in Colorado for 91 days before the petition is filed, and the court cannot enter a decree until at least 91 days have passed from the date both parties are before the court, whether by joint filing or by service on the respondent.
Colorado divides marital property under an equitable distribution standard, not a community property standard. Equitable does not mean equal. The court weighs contributions to the marital estate, the economic circumstances of each spouse at the time of division, and any depletion of marital assets. Property owned before the marriage generally remains separate, but any increase in its value during the marriage is typically marital.
Maintenance and the division of retirement accounts, equity compensation, and business interests are handled in the same proceeding. Getting the characterization right at the disclosure stage is usually what determines the outcome, not argument at the final hearing.
Learn more about divorce in Colorado Springs →
Military Divorce
Fort Carson, Peterson Space Force Base, Schriever Space Force Base, and the United States Air Force Academy put a large service-member and military-spouse population in our jurisdiction. These cases carry rules that do not appear in a civilian dissolution.
The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act allows a deployed or otherwise unavailable service member to obtain a stay of proceedings, which changes case scheduling in ways opposing counsel frequently mishandle. Military retired pay is divided under the Uniformed Services Former Spouses' Protection Act, and the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act imposed a frozen-benefit calculation for divisions entered after December 23, 2016.
One persistent misunderstanding is worth stating plainly. The so-called 10/10 rule governs only whether the Defense Finance and Accounting Service will pay a former spouse's share directly. It is not a threshold for whether retired pay can be divided at all.
Survivor Benefit Plan elections, TRICARE eligibility, base housing, and the interaction between a parenting plan and a deployment schedule all need to be addressed in the decree rather than left for later.
Learn more about military divorce →
High Net Worth and Complex Asset Divorce
When the marital estate includes a closely held business, professional practice, real estate portfolio, restricted stock, deferred compensation, or a pension with a long service history, the case turns on valuation and characterization rather than on argument about fairness.
We work with valuation experts, forensic accountants, and vocational evaluators where the record requires it. Tracing separate property into commingled accounts, identifying marital appreciation of a premarital business, and valuing goodwill in a professional practice are all issues that need to be developed through discovery, not raised for the first time at permanent orders.
Tax treatment matters as much as the headline number. An account with a stated balance and an account with the same balance and a deferred tax liability are not equivalent assets, and a division that ignores that difference is not actually equitable.
Learn more about high net worth divorce →
Uncontested Divorce
Where the parties agree on the division of property and debt, on maintenance, and on a parenting plan, the case can move through the court on the statutory timeline without contested hearings.
An uncontested case is still a case. The separation agreement and parenting plan become court orders, and a poorly drafted provision on relocation, tax dependency exemptions, retirement division, or the mechanics of a property equalization payment is difficult and expensive to fix afterward.
We handle uncontested matters at a predictable cost and make sure the agreement you sign is the agreement the court can actually enforce.
Learn more about uncontested divorce →
Allocation of Parental Responsibilities
Colorado does not use the word custody in its domestic relations statute. The court allocates parental responsibilities, which is made up of two distinct components: decision-making responsibility for matters such as education, health care, and religious upbringing, and parenting time, meaning the schedule under which the child is with each parent.
The governing standard is the best interests of the child. The statute directs the court to consider the wishes of the parents, the wishes of the child where the child is sufficiently mature, the child's relationship with parents and siblings, the child's adjustment to home, school, and community, the physical and mental health of everyone involved, each parent's ability to encourage a relationship with the other parent, and the proximity of the parties' residences.
Where there are allegations of domestic violence or child abuse, the analysis changes and the court applies specific statutory findings before entering an order. Those cases require careful evidentiary preparation, and they are not well served by treating the parenting dispute as a scheduling negotiation.
Parental responsibilities can also be established between unmarried parents through an allocation proceeding, with or without a parentage action.
Child custody and parenting time → | Allocation of parental responsibilities →
Child Support
Colorado calculates child support under an income shares model. Both parents' gross incomes are combined, the presumptive support obligation is drawn from the statutory schedule, and the obligation is then apportioned between the parents.
Overnight counts drive the number. Once a parent reaches the statutory threshold for shared physical care, the calculation shifts to a different worksheet and the resulting figure can change substantially. Disputes over a handful of overnights per year are therefore frequently disputes about money, and they should be handled with that in mind.
Adjustments to the basic obligation include work-related child care, the child's portion of health insurance premiums, extraordinary medical expenses, and other children of either parent.
Colorado's child support guidelines were revised by HB 25-1159, with changes effective March 1, 2026. Orders calculated under the prior schedule may produce a different figure today. If your order predates that change, it is worth having the calculation re-run before you assume the number is still correct.
Learn more about child support →
Civil Protection Orders
Colorado's civil protection order statute governs orders issued to prevent domestic abuse, stalking, sexual assault, physical assault or threat, and abuse of an at-risk adult or elder. The process runs in two stages: a temporary protection order issued on an ex parte basis, followed by a hearing on whether the order should be made permanent.
The standard changed on January 1, 2025. The legislature repealed the requirement that a petitioner show imminent danger of further abuse before a permanent order could enter. A number of published attorney pages in this market still describe the old standard. If you are researching a protection order matter online, check the publication date of what you are reading.
A permanent civil protection order does not expire on its own. A restrained party may move to modify or dismiss the order, and for orders issued after July 1, 2013, the waiting period before such a motion may be filed is two years from the date of the order or from the denial of a prior motion.
Protection order cases carry consequences well beyond the order itself. They affect firearm rights, housing, employment, security clearances, and the parenting time allocation in any related domestic relations case. They are frequently heard on short notice with limited time to prepare, which is precisely why they should not be walked into unrepresented.
We represent both petitioners and restrained parties.
Learn more about protection orders →
Post-Decree Modifications and Enforcement
A decree is not permanent in every respect. Child support may be modified upon a substantial and continuing change in circumstances, and Colorado applies a presumption that a change producing at least a ten percent difference in the monthly obligation meets that threshold.
Parenting time and decision-making are treated differently from one another. A parenting time modification is evaluated under the best interests standard, while a modification of decision-making responsibility faces a materially higher statutory bar. Relocation with a child is its own category, governed by a specific set of statutory factors and by Colorado appellate authority holding that the court may not simply presume either parent's position is correct.
Maintenance may be modifiable or non-modifiable depending on how the original agreement was drafted, which is one more reason the drafting stage matters.
Where an existing order is being ignored, enforcement runs through contempt proceedings, income assignment, judgment on arrears, and in parenting time cases a motion for enforcement with statutory remedies.
Learn more about post-decree modifications →
Family Law Appeals and Magistrate Review
Many domestic relations matters in the Fourth Judicial District are heard by a magistrate rather than a district judge. That distinction controls how an adverse ruling must be challenged.
Where a magistrate entered the order without consent of the parties, the remedy is a petition for review by the district court, and it must be filed within the deadline set by the Colorado Rules for Magistrates. District court review must be exhausted before the Court of Appeals has jurisdiction. Missing that step is one of the more common ways a meritorious issue is lost permanently.
Appeals from a district court order proceed to the Colorado Court of Appeals on a strict notice-of-appeal deadline. Appellate review is confined to the record made below, which means the outcome is often determined by whether the trial attorney preserved the issue, made the offer of proof, and obtained a ruling.
We handle appeals from our own trials and accept appellate and magistrate review referrals from other firms.
Family law appeals → | Magistrate order review →
Additional Family Law Matters
- Parentage and paternity actions under Colorado's Uniform Parentage Act, including genetic testing, establishment, and disestablishment
- Adoption, including stepparent and kinship adoption
- Prenuptial and marital agreements under the Colorado Uniform Premarital and Marital Agreements Act, including enforceability review of an agreement drafted elsewhere
- Common law marriage determinations, which Colorado courts analyze under the refined test adopted by the Colorado Supreme Court in 2021
- Legal separation and conversion of a separation decree to dissolution
- Grandparent and non-parent visitation and allocation proceedings
- Name changes for adults and minors
- Contempt and enforcement of existing family law orders
The Courts We Practice In
El Paso County. Domestic relations matters for Colorado Springs, Fountain, Monument, Palmer Lake, Falcon, and the surrounding county are heard at the El Paso County Combined Courts in downtown Colorado Springs, in the Fourth Judicial District.
Teller County. This is where local knowledge matters most and where out-of-area firms routinely get it wrong. Teller County's combined court sits in Cripple Creek, not in Woodland Park. There is no district courtroom in Woodland Park. A Woodland Park resident filing for dissolution or a protection order will be appearing in Cripple Creek, roughly 26 miles away by way of US-24 to Divide and then south on Highway 67. In winter that stretch of Highway 67 south of Divide is the part of the drive to plan around.
Knowing the docket practices of a specific division, and knowing which magistrate hears which matters, changes how a case is scheduled and how it is presented.
Our Attorneys
Michael Thomas Allen, Esq.
Partner
Mike Allen leads the firm's family law practice. He earned his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Oregon and his Juris Doctor from the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis in 2017, and he is licensed to practice in Colorado.
In private practice he has built a litigation and negotiation practice spanning dissolution, allocation of parental responsibilities, civil protection orders, and contempt proceedings. He has been selected by TESSA, the Colorado Springs domestic violence and sexual assault services organization, to serve as one of its protection order prosecutors, and he serves as municipal prosecutor for the City of Manitou Springs. He is a member of the El Paso County Bar Association.
"Transparency, creativity, and loyalty are my core values as an advocate. I view every case not as a case number but as a person with aspirations and a future that must be protected."
Please note:Attorney Michael Thomas Allen of Moran, Allen & Associates Family Law is a private family law attorney in Colorado Springs. He is not affiliated with, and should not be confused with, the elected District Attorney for Colorado's Fourth Judicial District, who has a similar name.
Michael Warren Moran, Esq.
Senior Partner
Mike Moran has practiced as a trial lawyer in Colorado Springs since 1994 and is a Southern Colorado native. He attended the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs and completed law school at the University of Denver.
From 1995 through 1998 he served as Municipal Court Judge for the City of Victor, Colorado. He sits on the First Appearance Committee at the El Paso County Combined Courts, which oversees the administration of misdemeanor cases in that jurisdiction, and serves as a Commissioner of the Alternative Defense Counsel organization in Denver, which oversees the appointment of court-appointed attorneys to indigent defendants.
He serves as a Mentor Lawyer for Teen Court at the Colorado Springs Municipal Court, has served on a University of Colorado Colorado Springs presidential search committee, and lectures regularly at the Colorado Springs Public Defender's Office. He has been handling protection order matters, on both sides, for more than three decades, and accepts protection order cases in El Paso, Teller, Fremont, Pueblo, and Douglas Counties.
Chelsea Hayes, Esq.
Family Law Attorney
Chelsea Hayes served in the United States Air Force beginning in 2003 as a Geospatial and Operations Intelligence Analyst before changing careers. She earned her Bachelor's degree in History from American Military University in 2016 and her Juris Doctor from the Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law in 2022.
She began her legal career as a Deputy District Attorney in the Fourth Judicial District, handling a wide range of criminal matters in the County Court division, and joined Moran, Allen & Associates in May 2023. Her practice covers family law and criminal matters. As an Air Force veteran and a current military spouse, she brings direct familiarity with the issues that arise in military divorce.
Ryan Skajewski, Esq.
Family Law Attorney
Ryan Skajewski earned bachelor's degrees in Political Science, Law and Society, and Economics from Drake University in 2017, also studying at the University of Queensland in Australia, and received his Juris Doctor from the University of Kansas School of Law in 2021. Before law he worked as a divemaster, a mountaineering guide in Alaska, and a full-time firefighter and EMT.
He spent nearly five years as a prosecutor, serving primarily as the felony prosecutor for Teller County, where he handled matters ranging from traffic offenses through domestic violence and homicide. He joined Moran, Allen & Associates in April 2026.
He is a member of the American Bar Association House of Delegates, the Colorado Bar Association, the El Paso County Bar Association, and the Inn of Court. Locally he serves on the Woodland Park Advisory Board for Parks and Recreation and is a member of Teller County Search and Rescue.
Konnor Matthew Manley, Esq.
Family Law Attorney
Konnor Manley earned his Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Avila University in Kansas City in 2019 and his Juris Doctor from the University of Kansas School of Law in 2022, where he concentrated his studies on litigation and trial advocacy.
He began his legal career at the Fourth Judicial District Attorney's Office, where he tried traffic, misdemeanor, and felony matters to verdict. He joined Moran, Allen & Associates in October 2023 and handles family law, civil protection order, and criminal matters.
Justin Lindsay, Esq.
Family Law Attorney
Justin Lindsay served ten years in the United States Army as a Military Police officer, earning a Master's degree in International Relations and Statistics from the University of Oklahoma in 2015 through night school while serving. He holds a Bachelor of Science in History from Drexel University and earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 2024 with a Certificate in Trial Advocacy and advanced study in International and Comparative Law.
His prior practice included children and family intervention, civil litigation, real property disputes, and estate matters. He joined Moran, Allen & Associates in January 2026 and practices family law and civil protection orders. His service background gives him a working understanding of the command structures, deployment cycles, and benefits questions that shape a military family's case.
Kate Zacharias, Esq.
Family Law Attorney
Kate Zacharias earned her Bachelor's degree in philosophy from the University of Texas in 2018 and her Juris Doctor from DePaul University College of Law in 2021, where she served as Managing Editor of Lead Articles for the Business and Commercial Law Journal.
She began her career at Legal Services of Southern Missouri, focusing on individual rights, evictions, and federal housing law. She joined Moran, Allen & Associates in March 2025, and her practice is devoted to family law.
Our Paralegals and Legal Staff
Most of the work that moves a case forward happens between hearings. Disclosures, financial affidavits, subpoenas, exhibit preparation, and court filings are handled by a paralegal team that knows the local clerks and the local filing requirements.
Ashton Baker, Senior Paralegal. Ashton holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Colorado Denver and completed the paralegal program at Arapahoe Community College. She spent five years at the Fourth Judicial District Attorney's Office, rising to Lead Legal Assistant for the County Court division and receiving an Award of Excellence before joining the firm in 2022. Profile →
Talina Malhani, Paralegal. Profile →
Mattea Correll, Paralegal. Profile →
Stella Johns, Legal Assistant. Stella is pursuing an Associate of Science in Paralegal Studies and works with the attorney team to keep client cases moving efficiently through the court system. Profile →
Two Offices, One Team
Colorado Springs
220 E Costilla St
Colorado Springs, CO 80903
(719) 447-0762
Woodland Park
300 Sunny Glen Ct, Unit 307
Woodland Park, CO 80863
(719) 686-7554
We serve clients throughout El Paso County, including Colorado Springs, Fountain, Monument, Palmer Lake, and Falcon, and throughout Teller County, including Woodland Park, Divide, Green Mountain Falls, and Cripple Creek.
Schedule a Consultation
Bring what you have. A recent pay stub, a list of accounts and debts, any existing court orders, and a short written timeline of what has happened will let us give you a realistic assessment in the first meeting rather than a general one.
Useful Outside Resources
- Colorado Judicial Branch self-help center: forms, filing fees, and instructions
- Colorado Revised Statutes Title 14, Domestic Matters
- Colorado Revised Statutes Title 13, Article 14, Civil Protection Orders
- HB 25-1159, child support guideline revisions effective March 1, 2026
- TESSA of Colorado Springs
- Colorado Supreme Court Office of Attorney Regulation attorney search
This page provides general information about Colorado family law and is not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Outcomes depend on the specific facts of each case.