Leonard Higdon | Denver Family Law Lawyer

• -Colorado Bar Association, Professionalism Committee
  -Colorado Bar Assoc. Family Law Section
  -Arapahoe County Bar Association
  -Colorado Bar Foundation
  -Minoru Yasui American Inn of Court
  -American Academy of Conciliation Courts

• Martindale-Hubbell Rated AV - Preeminent Highest Rating Possible
  AVVO Rated Superb

• Shtutman v. Dareuskaya (In re Estate of Yudkin), 478 P.3d 732 (Colo. 2021)
  When Viacheslav Yudkin died intestate, his ex-wife, Petitioner Svetlana Shtutman, was appointed personal representative of his estate. Respondent Tatsiana Dareuskaya sought Shtutman’s removal, asserting that she (Dareuskaya) should have had priority for that appointment as Yudkin’s common law wife. After many days of trial, the probate court found that although Yudkin and Dareuskaya cohabitated and held themselves out to their community as married, other factors weighed against a finding of common law marriage, including that the couple did not file joint tax returns, own joint property or accounts, or share a last name. The court of appeals reversed the magistrate’s order, concluding that the magistrate abused his discretion by misapplying the test for a common law marriage set out in Colorado v. Lucero, 747 P.2d 660 (Colo. 1987). Shtutman petitioned the Colorado Supreme Court for certiorari review. The Supreme Court concluded the trial court was unclear whether the magistrate found Yudkin and Dareuskaya mutually agreed to enter into a marital relationship. Further, the magistrate’s treatment of certain evidence, such as the fact that the parties maintained separate finances and property, and that Dareuskaya never took Yudkin’s name, may have been appropriate under Lucero, but did not necessarily account for the legal and social changes to marriage acknowledged in In re Marriage of Hogsett & Neale, 2021 CO 1 __ P.3d ___. The Court of Appeals' judgment was reversed and the matter ordered remanded to the probate court to reconsider whether the parties entered into a common law marriage under Hogsett.

• In Re: Marriage of Gwilliam
  Case remanded for new trial on relocation. Prevailed at hearing.

Leonard R. Higdon has been a Premium Member since April 22, 2015.
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