In re Parental Responsibilities Concerning W.P.A.S.

The summaries of the Colorado Court of Appeals published opinions
constitute no part of the opinion of the division but have been prepared by
the division for the convenience of the reader. The summaries may not be
cited or relied upon as they are not the official language of the division.
Any discrepancy between the language in the summary and in the opinion
should be resolved in favor of the language in the opinion.

SUMMARY
January 22, 2026

2026COA4

No. 24CA1985, In re Parental Responsibilities Concerning
W.P.A.S. — Family Law — Allocation of Parental
Responsibilities — Attorney Fees; Appeals — Final Appealable
Order

A division of the court of appeals concludes that an order

allocating parental responsibilities in a proceeding that does not

involve a dissolution of marriage is final and appealable,

notwithstanding an unresolved request for attorney fees under

section 14-10-119, C.R.S. 2025, distinguishing In re Marriage of

Hill, 166 P.3d 269 (Colo. App. 2007).
COLORADO COURT OF APPEALS 2026COA4

Court of Appeals No. 24CA1985
Routt County District Court No. 21DR30033
Honorable Mary C. Hoak, Judge

In re the Parental Responsibilities Concerning W.P.A.S., a Child,

and Concerning Jonathan William Sanders,

Appellant,

and

Kristen Renea Andrea,

Appellee.

APPEAL DISMISSED IN PART, ORDER REVERSED,
AND CASE REMANDED WITH DIRECTIONS

Division VII
Opinion by JUDGE TOW
Lum and Moultrie, JJ., concur

Announced January 22, 2026

Anne Whalen Gill, LLC, Anne Whalen Gill, Castle Rock, Colorado, for Appellant

Belzer Law, Aaron B. Belzer, Ashlee N. Hoffmann, Boulder, Colorado, for
Appellee
¶1 In this allocation of parental responsibilities (APR) proceeding,

Jonathan William Sanders (father) appeals the permanent order

allocating parental responsibilities (APR order) concerning his child

with Kristen Renea Andrea (mother). Father also appeals the

district court’s award of attorney fees to mother under

section 14-10-119, C.R.S. 2025.

¶2 However, before we can address the merits of father’s

challenge to the APR order, we must first resolve whether he timely

filed a notice of appeal as to that order. This appeal requires us to

consider, for the first time in a published opinion, the application of

the rule of finality announced in In re Marriage of Hill, 166 P.3d 269

(Colo. App. 2007), to an APR order in a proceeding not involving a

dissolution of marriage. In Hill, a division of this court held that

orders in a dissolution of marriage proceeding are not final until all

matters are resolved, including any request for attorney fees under

section 14-10-119. Because we conclude that this rule does not

apply to APR proceedings unrelated to the dissolution of a marriage,

and because father’s notice of appeal as to the APR order was filed

well after the forty-nine-day window for him to appeal under C.A.R.

4(a)(1), we dismiss the portion of father’s appeal challenging the

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APR order. But because the district court made unsupported

findings when awarding mother attorney fees, we reverse the award

of attorney fees and remand the case for further proceedings.

I. Background

¶3 The parties have one child. In 2021, father petitioned for an

APR as to the child.

¶4 In her proposed APR, mother sought to relocate with the child

from Colorado to Ohio. The district court held a permanent orders

hearing as to parenting time and decision-making over multiple

days in July and August of 2023, and on August 21, 2023, the

court issued the APR order. The court found that it was in the

child’s best interests to relocate to Ohio with mother and created a

regular parenting time schedule for father. The court allocated

mother sole decision-making responsibilities.

¶5 Over the next few months, the district court held a series of

hearings on the parties’ financial circumstances for the purpose of

determining child support. On February 5, 2024, the court issued

a written child support order, requiring father to pay mother

approximately $1,800 per month.

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¶6 On that same date, the court issued a separate written order

requiring father to pay half of mother’s attorney fees incurred in the

case under section 14-10-119 and ordered mother to file a

corresponding affidavit of attorney fees. Shortly thereafter, mother

filed attorney fee affidavits; father objected, asserting that the

affidavits failed to address the reasonableness of mother’s attorney

fees. Neither party requested a hearing, and on September 25,

2024, the district court entered an award of attorney fees in favor of

mother in the amount of $79,822. Father filed his notice of appeal

on November 12, 2024.

II. Father’s Appeal of the APR Order Is Untimely

¶7 Father filed his notice of appeal nearly fifteen months after the

district court entered the APR order and over nine months after the

entry of the child support order. Thus, before we can consider

father’s challenge to the APR order, we must resolve whether his

appeal of that order was timely. See Smith v. City & County of

Denver, 2025 COA 70, ¶ 12 (holding that an appellate court has an

independent duty to ensure that it has jurisdiction).

¶8 Accordingly, this court issued an order requiring father to

show cause why his appeal should not be dismissed as to the APR

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order and both of the February 5, 2024, orders1 because his notice

of appeal was filed more than forty-nine days after those orders.

After father filed a response to the show cause order, a motions

division of this court deferred consideration of his appeal’s

timeliness to the merits division.

¶9 We now hold that because father’s appeal was untimely as to

the APR order, we lack jurisdiction for appellate review and must

dismiss his appeal as to that order.

A. A Timely Notice of Appeal as a Jurisdictional Prerequisite

¶ 10 Our jurisdiction is generally limited to the review of final

judgments and orders, L.H.M. Corp., TCD v. Martinez, 2021 CO 78,

¶ 14; § 13-4-102(1), C.R.S. 2025; C.A.R. 1(a)(1), and once an order

or judgment is final, the timely filing of a notice of appeal is a

jurisdictional prerequisite for appellate review, In re Marriage of

Buck, 60 P.3d 788, 789 (Colo. App. 2002). Pursuant to

1 Although father listed the February 5, 2024, orders in his notice of

appeal, he asserts no challenge to either order in his opening brief.
We therefore deem his appeal of the February 5, 2024, orders to be
abandoned. See Armed Forces Bank, N.A. v. Hicks, 2014 COA 74,
¶ 38 (holding that an issue not presented or argued in the party’s
briefing was abandoned).

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C.A.R. 4(a)(1), a party has forty-nine days after the entry of a final

judgment or order in which to file a notice of appeal.

B. Attorney Fees and Finality

¶ 11 A judgment is typically final if it “ends the particular action in

which it is entered, leaving nothing further for the court

pronouncing it to do in order to completely determine the rights of

the parties involved in the proceeding.” Schaden v. DIA Brewing

Co., 2021 CO 4M, ¶ 46 (citation omitted). However, “[a] judgment

on the merits is final for purposes of appeal notwithstanding an

unresolved issue of attorney fees.” L.H.M. Corp., ¶ 2 (reaffirming

Baldwin v. Bright Mortg. Co., 757 P.2d 1072, 1074 (Colo. 1988)).

C. Discussion

¶ 12 Father argues that his notice of appeal, which was filed within

forty-nine days of the September 25, 2024, order awarding mother

attorney fees, was timely as to the APR order because there was no

final, appealable order or judgment for us to review until the court

had fully resolved mother’s request for attorney fees under

section 14-10-119.

¶ 13 In support, father cites Hill, 166 P.3d at 272, in which a

division of this court held that an award of attorney fees under

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section 14-10-119 is an “integral and substantive part of equitably

disposing of the parties’ assets and liabilities and dissolving the

marriage.” Therefore, the permanent orders in a dissolution

proceeding are not final for purposes of appellate review until an

attorney fee request under that statute has been resolved and

reduced to a sum certain. Id.

¶ 14 Specifically, Hill explained that “[w]hen considering a petition

for dissolution, a court must address several intertwined issues,

including parental responsibilities, child support, [maintenance],

and disposition of property. These are not separate claims; they are

issues that are part and parcel of dissolving the marriage.” Id. Hill

also observed that when equitably apportioning attorney fees under

section 14-10-119, the district court must consider the financial

resources of both parties, and therefore the court must “make

findings concerning [the parties’] relative incomes, assets, and

liabilities.” Id.

¶ 15 Hill further reasoned that an unresolved request for attorney

fees prevents finality in a dissolution proceeding because “when an

appellate court reverses a [marital] property division, the [district]

court must make a new property division, and, because the issues

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are ‘inextricably intertwined,’ it must also reconsider the award of

maintenance and the apportionment of attorney fees in light of the

new property division.” Id. (quoting In re Marriage of Antuna, 8 P.3d

589, 595 (Colo. App. 2000)).

D. Hill Is Inapplicable to APR Orders Outside of a Dissolution of
Marriage Proceeding

¶ 16 Mother argues that our supreme court implicitly overruled Hill

when it “reaffirm[ed] the bright-line rule [that a] judgment on the

merits is final for purposes of appeal notwithstanding an unresolved

issue of attorney fees.” L.H.M. Corp., 2021 CO 78, ¶ 2. Under such

a “bright-line” rule, the appeal of the APR order would clearly be

untimely. But we need not decide whether L.H.M. Corp. overruled

Hill because even if Hill remains good law, we conclude that it is

inapplicable to an APR proceeding that is unrelated to the

dissolution of a marriage.

¶ 17 In a dissolution of marriage proceeding, the court must divide

the parties’ marital assets with the aim of “allow[ing] the parties to

disentangle themselves financially and provide[ing] some measure

of closure.” In re Marriage of Hunt, 909 P.2d 525, 540 (Colo. 1995).

In an APR proceeding that is unrelated to the dissolution of a

7
marriage, there is no division of financial assets. Instead, the

district court is primarily concerned with crafting a parenting time

and decision-making arrangement that serves the child’s best

interests. See § 14-10-124(1.5)(a), (b), C.R.S. 2025 (listing the

various factors on which the court shall make findings, and

consider, in accordance with the child’s best interests when

allocating parenting time and decision-making responsibilities); In

re Marriage of Barker, 251 P.3d 591, 592 (Colo. App. 2010) (best

interests are always the controlling factor for any parenting time

order). Thus, while the allocation of the financial burden of

attorney fees is “part and parcel of dissolving the marriage,” Hill,

166 P.3d at 272, it is not so integral to the process of allocating

parental responsibilities.

¶ 18 We acknowledge that during an APR proceeding, the court

considers the parties’ respective finances when crafting a

corresponding child support order, which is then intertwined with

and dependent upon the court’s determination of parenting time. In

re Marriage of Roosa, 89 P.3d 524, 528 (Colo. App. 2004). Yet, even

when determining child support, the court’s ultimate objective is to

act in the best interests of the child. See People v. Martinez, 70

8
P.3d 474, 478 (Colo. 2003) (recognizing that a child support order

should serve the best interests of the children).

¶ 19 In contrast, while a district court in a dissolution of marriage

proceeding must, if applicable, allocate parental responsibilities in

the child’s best interests, § 14-10-124(1.5)(a), (b), such a proceeding

also remains squarely focused on “equitably disposing of the

parties’ assets and liabilities.” Hill, 166 P.3d at 272; see In re

Marriage of Nelson, 2012 COA 205, ¶¶ 13-19 (holding that an order

resolving a post-decree motion to modify maintenance is final and

appealable notwithstanding unresolved section 14-10-119 attorney

fees because the issue before the court is not the equitable division

of the marital estate, but is instead whether a substantial and

continuing change of circumstances has made maintenance unfair).

¶ 20 Moreover, in a dissolution of marriage proceeding, when the

district court weighs the “inextricably intertwined” issues of the

marital property division and maintenance, those decisions then

inform the court’s allocation of attorney fees under section 14-10-

119. See Hill, 166 P.3d at 272; see also In re Marriage of de Koning,

2016 CO 2, ¶ 26 (“[A]wards of spousal maintenance and [section

9
14-10-119] attorney’s fees flow from the property distribution,

which is typically the linchpin of financial permanent orders.”).

¶ 21 But the same is not true in an APR proceeding unrelated to a

dissolution of marriage. APR orders are not financial; they allocate

parenting time and decision-making authority between the parents.

And although child support is financial, its primary purpose is to

provide “an adequate standard of support for [the] children.”

§ 14-10-115(1)(a)(I), C.R.S. 2025. It is different from property

division, maintenance, and attorney fees under section 14-10-119,

which are aimed at putting spouses on equitable financial footing.

Indeed, unlike a property division in a dissolution of marriage

proceeding — which, when reversed on appeal, necessitates the

district court’s reconsideration of section 14-10-119 attorney fees,

see de Koning, ¶ 26; Hill, 166 P.3d at 272 — we are not aware of

any legal authority suggesting that the reversal of an APR or child

support order requires the same.

¶ 22 In sum, given the differences between dissolution of marriage

proceedings and APR proceedings not related to the dissolution of

marriage, we conclude that the holding of Hill, 166 P.3d at 271-72,

does not extend to such APR proceedings. Instead, permanent

10
orders allocating parental responsibilities are final and appealable

once the intertwined issues of parental responsibilities and child

support are resolved, and an unresolved request for attorney fees

under section 14-10-119 does not prevent finality. See L.H.M.

Corp., ¶¶ 2, 23; Roosa, 89 P.3d at 528. Accordingly, the APR order

was final for purposes of appeal once the district court issued the

related child support order on February 5, 2024. Thus, father’s

November 12, 2024, notice of appeal, which was filed months after

the child support order, was untimely as to the APR order. See

C.A.R. 4(a)(1). We therefore lack jurisdiction to consider father’s

appeal of the APR order and dismiss his appeal as to that issue.

See Buck, 60 P.3d at 789.

III. Award of Attorney Fees to Mother

¶ 23 Father next asserts the district court abused its discretion

when awarding mother $79,822 in attorney fees under

section 14-10-119. While father does not challenge the district

court’s finding that he should be responsible for half of mother’s

attorney fees, he contends that the court’s determination of the

dollar amount of the attorney fee award was not accompanied by

11
sufficient factual findings and was otherwise unsupported by the

record. We agree.

A. Applicable Legal Standards

¶ 24 To ensure that a party does not suffer undue economic

hardship from the proceedings, a court in an APR proceeding may

order a party to pay a reasonable amount of the other party’s

attorney fees and costs based on the parties’ relative economic

circumstances. § 14-10-119; In re Marriage of Gutfreund, 148 P.3d

136, 141 (Colo. 2006). In addition to weighing the financial

resources of each party, the court must also consider the

reasonableness of the hourly rate and the necessity for the hours

billed. See de Koning, ¶ 26; In re Marriage of Aragon, 2019 COA 76,

¶ 9.

¶ 25 When assessing the reasonableness of the attorney fees that a

party seeks to recover, the court must typically calculate a lodestar

amount, which represents the number of hours reasonably

expended on the case multiplied by a reasonable hourly rate.

Aragon, ¶¶ 9, 15. The lodestar amount is a starting point and

carries with it a presumption of reasonableness. Id. at ¶¶ 15, 17.

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¶ 26 The court may adjust the lodestar amount based on factors

such as (1) the time and labor required; (2) the novelty and difficulty

of the issues involved; (3) the fee customarily charged in the locality

for similar legal services; (4) the experience, reputation, and ability

of the lawyer or lawyers performing the services; (5) the nature of

the fee agreement; and (6) the nature and length of the professional

relationship with the client. Id. at ¶ 15 (citing Colo. RPC 1.5(a)(1),

(4), (6)); see also Payan v. Nash Finch Co., 2012 COA 135M, ¶ 46 (“A

trial court should award attorney fees based on the prevailing

market rate by private lawyers in the community.”).

¶ 27 We review a district court’s decision to award attorney fees for

an abuse of discretion. In re Parental Responsibilities Concerning

M.E.R-L., 2020 COA 173, ¶ 33. A trial court abuses its discretion

when the court’s decision is based on a misapplication of law or is

manifestly arbitrary, unreasonable, or unfair. In re Marriage of

Young, 2021 COA 96, ¶ 7. We may not disturb the amount of fees

awarded unless it is patently erroneous and unsupported by the

evidence. See Yaekle v. Andrews, 169 P.3d 196, 201 (Colo. App.

2007), aff’d on other grounds, 195 P.3d 1101 (Colo. 2008).

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B. Discussion

¶ 28 After the district court determined that father should pay half

of mother’s attorney fees, mother filed attorney fee affidavits from

the two different law firms that had represented her during the

proceedings. The affidavits averred that mother had incurred

approximately $221,000 in attorney fees. While the affidavits

showed the hourly rate for each attorney and legal support staff

who worked on the case, they did not indicate how many hours

each individual spent on the case. However, mother did attach

billing statements as exhibits to the fee affidavits.

¶ 29 Father filed an objection, asserting that mother had failed to

demonstrate that the rates charged and time spent by her attorneys

were reasonable. Because neither party requested a hearing, the

district court ruled based on the written record. The court found

that while mother had submitted fee affidavits and billing

statements, she had failed to provide any of her attorneys’

engagement letters or fee agreements.

¶ 30 The court also found that the affidavits had failed to “itemize[]

the total number of hours spent on the case, either per attorney or

combined. Instead, [m]other’s attorneys have submitted a

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combined total of 299 pages of billing invoices.” Accordingly, the

court expressed frustration that it was “impossible for [it] to

calculate the lodestar amount” because the court was “not in a

position to add time entries over the span of [twenty-four] months

from [twenty-three] different people in two different law firms.”

Moreover, the court found that “[m]other’s attorneys have not

provided any evidence demonstrating whether their hourly fees are

based on the prevailing market rate by other lawyers in the

community” and had “failed to specify the nature and length of their

professional relationship with [m]other, failed to provide any

evidence in their affidavits regarding their experience, reputation,

and ability, and failed to specify whether their fee is fixed or

contingent.”

¶ 31 Yet, despite the shortcomings of mother’s attorney fee

affidavits and billing records, “for the sake of efficiency,” the district

court calculated a lodestar amount of $204,899 on mother’s behalf

based on her attorneys’ billing statements. In other words, the

court acknowledged that mother’s attorney fee request “[was]

deficient because [she] has not provided evidence or even a

statement as to the prevailing market rates” but nevertheless found

15
that the rates charged by her attorneys were reasonable for the

locality because “the Court has awarded similar billing rates in

analogous cases.” The court then reduced the lodestar amount by

twenty percent to account for the numerous deficiencies in mother’s

attorney fee affidavits.

¶ 32 As an initial matter, father argues that, given mother’s failure

to itemize the per-attorney hours spent on the case, the district

court erred by undertaking such an exercise on her behalf when

calculating the lodestar amount. We agree with father that the

burden of justifying attorney fees rests with the party seeking such

fees. Payan, ¶ 35. But we disagree with father that the district

court abused its discretion by using the numerous billing

statements that mother provided in determining the number of

hours reasonably expended on the case.

¶ 33 Though not every entry identified the specific attorney or

paralegal who took the action, each one described the task

undertaken, the time billed for that task, and the hourly rate billed.

(The billing records from one of the law firms identified the billing

individual by initials; the records from the other law firm did not.)

The accompanying affidavits identified the hourly rate charged by

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individual lawyers and paralegals. The court could properly glean

from these entries how many hours were expended and whether

they were reasonable. Thus, we cannot say that the court’s use of

this information to arrive at a number of hours reasonably spent on

the case was manifestly arbitrary, unreasonable, or unfair.

¶ 34 We agree with father, however, that the district court erred by

finding that the hourly rates charged by mother’s attorneys were

reasonable despite acknowledging that she had “not submitted any

evidence that the requested rates are in line with those prevailing in

the community for similar services by lawyers of reasonably

comparable skill, experience[,] and reputation.” See Payan, ¶ 16

(noting that, in reviewing a court’s attorney fee award for abuse of

discretion, we will not disturb the ruling unless it is unsupported

by the record). Indeed, the affidavits provided no information

whatsoever about “the skill, experience[,] and reputation” of the

billing individuals.

¶ 35 And while the court effectively took judicial notice of what

rates were reasonable based on its own experience with “similar

billing rates in analogous cases,” the court’s own experience as to

reasonableness was insufficient absent other evidence in the record.

17
See Roget v. Grand Pontiac, Inc., 5 P.3d 341, 347 (Colo. App. 1999)

(“It is improper for a trial court to take judicial notice of fees

charged in the community when assessing the reasonableness of an

award.”); L.D.G. v. E.R., 723 P.2d 746, 749 (Colo. App. 1986)

(holding that the trial court’s “general knowledge of the fees charged

in the community was [not] sufficient to support its award absent

any other evidence on that issue”).2

¶ 36 In sum, the record as it presently stands does not support the

district court’s order reducing the amount of fees to a sum certain.

Thus, we reverse the award of attorney fees and remand the case

for further proceedings. On remand, the court may, in its

discretion, take additional evidence as to mother’s request for

attorney fees. See In re Marriage of Mohrlang, 85 P.3d 561, 564

(Colo. App. 2003).

IV. Mother’s Request for Appellate Attorney Fees

¶ 37 Given father’s partial success on appeal, we reject mother’s

contention that the appeal was frivolous. Consequently, we deny

2 Because we are remanding the attorney fee issue, we need not

address father’s additional (and underdeveloped) contention that
the district court erred by arbitrarily reducing the lodestar amount
by only twenty percent.

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her request for appellate attorney fees under section 13-17-102,

C.R.S. 2025.

¶ 38 Mother also requests an award of her appellate attorney fees

under section 14-10-119, due to the alleged disparities between the

parties’ respective economic circumstances. Because the district

court is better equipped to determine the factual issues regarding

the parties’ current financial resources, we direct the district court

to address this request on remand. See C.A.R. 39.1; In re Marriage

of Schlundt, 2021 COA 58, ¶ 54.

V. Disposition

¶ 39 The portion of father’s appeal concerning the order allocating

parental responsibilities is dismissed. The order awarding mother

$79,822 in attorney fees is reversed, and the case is remanded for

further proceedings consistent with this opinion. On remand the

district court shall address mother’s request for appellate attorney

fees under section 14-10-119. Those portions of the judgment not

challenged on appeal remain undisturbed.

JUDGE LUM and JUDGE MOULTRIE concur.

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