Q: Online article to explain to ex-wife her obligations too chicken as the custodial and supported spouse regarding expense

A: If your ex-spouse is harassing you to share in expenses that you are not required to share in per the order of the court, you should probably hire a lawyer for one or two hours of work to draft and mail a letter to your ex-spouse. The letter should explain what expenses the court order requires each party to share in and to not share in. The letter should state that further communications from your ex-spouse about expenses not addressed by the court's order will not be responded to.

In general, if you pay your child support and maintenance (if any), if the party who is supposed to maintain and pay for health insurance for the children does so, and if you properly split up and pay the unreimbursed health care expenses (called "extraordinary medical expenses" in the Colorado law) for the children, then, unless the Court's order expressly orders you to split or pay another expense, you have met your obligations. Each court order, however, is different. The Court's order is the law in your case and you have to look to its words for exactly what your obligations are and are not. The Court's order can and often does alter what is "generally true" for your case. Read the Court's order thoroughly and make sure you understand what it says.

For example, if you entered into a parenting plan concerning the children, and that parenting plan got adopted by the Court as the order of the Court, then the words of that parenting plan define what your obligations to the children are. (This is also why, when you write a parenting plan, you "sweat the details" and make sure everything you want or don't want is spelled out in detail in the parenting plan. Parenting plans and even court orders that have vagueness or gaps in their wording invite conflict and disputes in the future when the two parties disagree about what the parenting plan or court order says.)

To advise you in detail about what your obligations are or are not, in your specific case, I would need to review the agreements (if any) you and your ex-spouse have entered into and I would have to review all of the court orders in the case that address the children.