Colorado § 14-5-313 - Costs and fees.

§ 14-5-313. Costs and fees.

(a) The petitioner may not be required to pay a filing fee or other costs.

(b) If an obligee prevails, a responding tribunal of this state may assess against an obligor filing fees, reasonable attorney's fees, other costs, and necessary travel and other reasonable expenses incurred by the obligee and the obligee's witnesses. The tribunal may not assess fees, costs, or expenses against the obligee or the support enforcement agency of either the initiating or the responding state or foreign country, except as provided by other law. Attorney's fees may be taxed as costs, and may be ordered paid directly to the attorney, who may enforce the order in the attorney's own name. Payment of support owed to the obligee has priority over fees, costs, and expenses.

(c) The tribunal shall order the payment of costs and reasonable attorney's fees if it determines that a hearing was requested primarily for delay. In a proceeding under part 6 of this article, a hearing is presumed to have been requested primarily for delay if a registered support order is confirmed or enforced without change.

Source: L. 93: Entire article R&RE, p. 1592, § 1, effective January 1, 1995. L. 2003: (c) amended, p. 1253, § 21, effective July 1, 2004. L. 2015: (b) amended, (HB 15-1198), ch. 173, p. 552, § 22, effective July 1.

Editor's note: This section is similar to former § 14-5-116 as it existed prior to 1993.

COMMENT

Subsection (a) permits either party, i.e., as petitioner, to file without payment of a filing fee or other costs. This provision dates back to UIFSA (1992) when the term "unfunded mandate" was basically unknown.

Subsection (b), however, provides that only the support obligor may be assessed the authorized costs and fees by a tribunal. Federal law permits a state support enforcement agency to charge limited fees and to recover administrative costs from applicants for Title IV-D services, but many states have opted not to do so, or only to seek recovery from the obligor.

Subsection (c) provides a sanction to deal with a frivolous contest regarding compliance with an interstate withholding order, registration of a support order, or comparable delaying tactics regarding an appropriate enforcement remedy.

Related to Convention: art. 14. Effective access to procedures; art. 43. Recovery of costs.