Domestic Violence and Safety

This guide is for informational purposes only and is not legal advice. For decisions about your own case, consider consulting a qualified attorney — and if you are in danger, prioritize your safety first using the emergency resources below.

⚠️ If You Are in Danger Right Now

If you or your child are in immediate danger, call 911.

Colorado law gives you real, immediate tools to protect yourself and your children. A few things to know up front:

• If you already have a protection order and the other person violates any term of it — including by contacting you through a friend, family member, or other third party — call law enforcement immediately. Police are required to respond and to make an arrest when there is probable cause. You can also, separately, ask the court to hold the other person in contempt. These are two parallel paths, and using one does not block the other.
• Under federal law, a person subject to a qualifying protection order (one restraining them from harassing, stalking, or threatening an intimate partner or that partner's child) is prohibited from possessing or transferring a firearm. Violating this can be a federal felony, and Colorado law also requires the restrained person to relinquish firearms by specific deadlines.
• Document any contact or violation — dates, what was said, who was involved — and report it.

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If there is a credible safety threat, do not rely only on the automatic order that takes effect when a divorce is filed — seek an emergency or civil protection order in addition, because that order carries police enforcement that the automatic injunction does not.

The automatic injunction in a divorce case does prohibit either party from disturbing the other's peace the moment the case begins, and violating it can be contempt of court — but it is not a substitute for a true protection order.

Your Situation

You are dealing with one of the hardest things a divorce or custody case can involve: concerns about safety — whether physical violence, threats, child abuse, or the kind of ongoing control that Colorado law calls "coercive control." This matters legally because, in Colorado, when safety is in play, it changes the entire framework the court uses. Instead of simply balancing both parents' interests, the law directs the court to make the safety and well-being of the child and of the abused parent its first priority.

The stakes are high in both directions. Raising these concerns the right way — with specifics and documentation — can lead to protective conditions on parenting time, confidential addresses, supervised exchanges, and more. At the same time, these are serious allegations the court takes seriously, and the process requires evidence, not just assertion. This guide will help you understand what Colorado law requires, how judges actually handle safety concerns in practice, and the concrete steps you can take to protect yourself and your children.

What the Law Requires

Colorado law defines abuse broadly. Domestic violence includes not only physical assault but also threats, stalking, sexual assault, property damage, harm to animals, economic abuse, and coercive control — and conduct counts whether or not it ever rose to a criminal charge. Self-defense is specifically excluded.

Coercive control is a recognized legal term. It covers a pattern of threatening, humiliating, or intimidating behavior that strips away a person's freedom and sense of self — including isolating you from family and friends, controlling your money or movements, monitoring you through technology, constant degrading or name-calling, threats to harm you or your child or pet, threats of suicide used to control you, threats to publish private or explicit material, and threats involving your immigration status or documents. Economic abuse — controlling your access to money, assets, credit, or necessities — is also recognized. Knowing these terms helps you describe what happened using language the court recognizes.

Several core rules apply:

• Safety is the first priority. In any case affecting a child's care, the law declares the child's safety the court's first priority, and children have a stated right to be safe and to live in homes free of domestic violence and abuse.
• Protective actions are not held against you. If you left home or limited the other parent's contact to protect your child from abuse or from witnessing domestic violence, the law says that cannot be counted against you.
• The standard of proof is a "preponderance of the evidence" — meaning more likely than not. If the court finds by that standard that a party committed domestic violence, child abuse or neglect, or sexual assault, it must treat the safety of the child and the abused parent as paramount and must consider whether to restrict or prohibit that parent's time.
• Restrictions require a hearing and written findings. The court can restrict parenting time only after a hearing finding that the time would endanger the child's physical health or significantly impair emotional development, and it must put the supporting facts in writing.
• Protective parents are protected. The court cannot remove a child from a protective parent, or cut off that relationship, just to fix a strained relationship with the accused parent — and it cannot order "reunification" treatment that depends on cutting off the protective parent.
• Disclosure is required. When you file, Colorado law requires you to disclose prior protection or restraining orders between the parties — the case number, the jurisdiction, and the subject matter.

If the court does order unsupervised time despite abuse allegations (including a child's own accusation), it must explain on the record why that serves the child's best interests. And if the court finds domestic violence, it may order the offending parent into an evaluation and, if appropriate, domestic violence treatment at their own expense — treatment that must be real-time and delivered by a specially trained, licensed mental health professional (an anger-management class does not qualify).

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The guided wizard on this site will prepare and pre-fill the required disclosures and filings for you, including the disclosure of any prior protection orders — you don't need to track down and complete blank forms by hand.

What Courts Typically Do

In practice, Colorado judges treat credible evidence of abuse as a heavy factor, but they weigh it alongside the child's relationship with both parents. A few realistic patterns:

• Abuse between adults, by itself, does not automatically end the other parent's time. Courts balance child safety against the child's ongoing relationship with both parents, and they look at the full picture.
• A finding of spouse abuse presumptively blocks mutual (shared) decision-making over the abused party's objection — unless the court specifically finds the parents can make joint decisions without confrontation and without danger. Even after a domestic violence finding, though, courts have in some cases allowed joint decision-making where the evidence showed it could be done safely.
• Courts consider mitigating steps. When a parent faces serious allegations, judges weigh their criminal record and any harassing conduct — but also any steps they've taken, like therapy, treatment, or parenting classes. Where serious crimes or endangering domestic violence are involved, the burden can shift to the accused parent to prove their parenting time is safe and in the child's best interests.
• Evidence comes from many sources. Courts can rely on testimony from the parties, experts, therapists, human services, parenting-time supervisors, school staff, and lay witnesses, plus documents like protection orders, arrest and conviction records, medical records, and victim-advocate letters.
• A Child and Family Investigator (CFI) appointed in your case can screen for domestic violence even without a separate order, and must include abuse information in their report regardless of how it surfaced or who raised it — even a child. Be aware, though, that a CFI without special qualifications can report the facts of abuse but may not be allowed to offer opinions on it, which may mean you need other evidence.

Outcomes range widely — from protective conditions and supervised time, to confidential addresses and limited contact, to shifts in decision-making — depending on the strength and specificity of the evidence. No particular result is guaranteed.

Step by Step: What to Do

1. If you are in immediate danger, call 911. Safety comes before paperwork.
2. Secure protective orders if you need them. You can seek an emergency or civil protection order, and you can do so as part of your divorce case or separately. The court keeps the power to issue protection orders even after a final decree. You may also want to learn about the range of emergency and protective orders available.
3. Gather and organize your evidence. Collect dates, locations, and exactly what was said or done for each incident — including coercive control, threats, stalking, and economic abuse, not just physical violence. Pull together any existing protection orders, police reports, medical records, texts, and victim-advocate letters. Careful documentation and evidence is often what makes the difference.
4. Disclose prior orders and allegations. Your filings must disclose prior protection orders and any prior abuse allegations. The guided wizard will prepare and pre-fill these filings for you so the correct information reaches the court.
5. Flag abuse before any mediation is ordered. If you've been a victim of physical or psychological abuse, tell the court before a mediation order is entered — there is an exception to the mediation requirement for abuse victims, but you need to raise it proactively.
6. If your child faces imminent danger, file to restrict parenting time. You can assert imminent physical or emotional danger and ask for an emergency hearing and temporary supervised time. A motion alleging imminent danger must be heard within 14 days, and during that window any parenting time must be supervised by a suitable third party or licensed professional. Be aware the court can order you to pay the other parent's fees if it finds the claim was substantially frivolous — so be specific and truthful.
7. State your grounds with particularity. A motion to restrict must spell out the specific grounds and reasons with detail; the court cannot deny it without a hearing based only on its own read of your credibility.
8. Consider whether supervised time or treatment conditions fit your case. After an abuse finding, the court can order supervised parenting time, protected exchanges, confidential addresses, and treatment conditions.
9. Cooperate fully with any CFI. Provide organized copies of all relevant orders and documents promptly, and make sure safety information reaches the investigator.

What Research Shows Can Help

The items available here focus primarily on Colorado law and court practice rather than social-science research, so there is limited research-based guidance to report. What the law itself reflects — consistent with the policy behind these statutes — is a recognition that children have a stated right to live in and visit homes free of domestic violence and abuse, and that protecting a child from witnessing or experiencing abuse is treated as a protective act rather than a mark against the protective parent. Beyond that, this guide does not have research findings to offer on this specific topic, and it would be better to speak with a qualified professional than to rely on claims not supported here.

What to Do Today

• If you are in danger, call 911 — and save the number for a local domestic violence service. After a divorce petition is filed, the court is required to advise parties about domestic violence services and resources; you can ask about safety planning support now.
• Start a written record today: for each incident, note the date, location, and exactly what was said and done. Save texts, photos, and any documents.
• Begin your filings through the guided wizard, which will prepare and pre-fill your divorce paperwork and the required disclosures of any prior protection orders.
• Gather your existing documents — any protection orders, police reports, medical records, and conviction records — into one organized file.
• If mediation might be ordered, note that you'll need to tell the court about any abuse before that order is entered, so you can raise the exception.

Related Issues to Be Aware Of

• Safety planning: Because leaving home due to abuse cannot be used against you in the best-interests analysis, you can prioritize getting to safety without fearing it will cost you in the custody decision. The court must connect you with domestic violence services, and if you're changing your name, abuse victims can request a waiver of the public-notice requirement to protect their privacy.

• Emergency and protective orders: You can seek a temporary order keeping the other party from disturbing your peace, or a full civil protection order, within your divorce case or separately — and the court can issue these even after your decree is final. If your child faces imminent danger, a motion to restrict must be heard within 14 days, with supervision in the meantime.

• Supervised parenting time: After an abuse finding, the court can require supervised time, protected exchanges, and restrictions on overnights. If your situation changes, a restricted parent can file to modify, which triggers a 35-day deadline for the court to act — and a parent with an out-of-state sex-offense conviction must undergo a Colorado evaluation before any contact order.

• Documenting problems and gathering evidence: Your specific, detailed record — exact dates, locations, and words — is what gives the court admissible evidence to act on. The court can also seal interview records, reports, and testimony where needed to protect a child.

• Attorney fees and court costs: If the financial imbalance between you and the other party is itself part of the control you've experienced, know that the court can order one spouse to contribute to the other's attorney fees based on financial resources — and this can be requested early, at the temporary orders stage, not only at the end.