A Child and Family Investigator in Colorado is a neutral professional appointed by the court under C.R.S. § 14-10-116.5 to investigate a disputed custody case and recommend parenting time and decision-making arrangements that serve the child’s best interests.1Justia Law. Colorado Code 14-10-116.5 – Child and Family Investigator If a judge has appointed a CFI in your case, that person will interview your family, look at your home, review records, and file a written report the court will rely on at your hearing.
What a CFI Is and Why One Gets Appointed
Either parent can ask the court to appoint a CFI, and a judge can also order one on their own.1Justia Law. Colorado Code 14-10-116.5 – Child and Family Investigator Appointments most often happen when parents cannot agree on parenting time or decision-making, and the judge wants an independent view of the family. Allegations of domestic violence, substance abuse, or child neglect are common triggers.
The court issues a written appointment order that defines the CFI’s scope: what to investigate, which issues matter, and when the report is due. The CFI can only look into what the order authorizes. The same person cannot serve as both the CFI and the child’s legal representative in your case.1Justia Law. Colorado Code 14-10-116.5 – Child and Family Investigator
A CFI can be an attorney, a licensed mental health professional, or another qualified individual on Colorado’s statewide eligibility roster. Each judicial district decides which roster members it will actually appoint.2Colorado Judicial Branch. Child and Family Investigators
Your Seven-Day Window to Object
Within seven days of appointment, the CFI must disclose to both parties, their attorneys, and the court any familial, financial, or social relationship the CFI has or has had with the child, either parent, the attorneys, or the judge.1Justia Law. Colorado Code 14-10-116.5 – Child and Family Investigator CFIs are barred from taking appointments where a conflict of interest or the appearance of impropriety exists.3Colorado Judicial Branch. CJD 04-08 Concerning Child and Family Investigators
You then have seven days to object. If someone objects, the court must either confirm the original appointment or appoint someone else within seven days. If no one objects on time, the appointment is confirmed automatically. Read the disclosure the day it arrives.
What the Investigation Looks Like
The CFI evaluates your family against Colorado’s best-interests-of-the-child factors in § 14-10-124, with the child’s safety as the top priority.1Justia Law. Colorado Code 14-10-116.5 – Child and Family Investigator Those factors cover each parent’s wishes, the child’s wishes if mature enough to express a reasoned preference, the child’s relationships and adjustment to home and school, mental and physical health, each parent’s willingness to encourage the child’s relationship with the other parent, history of involvement, geographic proximity, and each parent’s ability to put the child’s needs first.4Justia Law. Colorado Code 14-10-124 – Best Interests of Child The CFI also assesses whether parents can cooperate on major decisions about education, healthcare, and religion.
The investigation itself has three main pieces.
Interviews
Expect the CFI to interview both parents, the child in an age-appropriate way, and often teachers, therapists, pediatricians, and extended family. Questions will be open-ended, and the CFI will take detailed notes. The point is to understand each parent’s perspective and how the child actually lives day to day.
Home Visits
The CFI will visit each parent’s home to see the living environment firsthand: whether it is safe and suitable, and how the parent and child interact in a natural setting. Body language, warmth, discipline style, and the child’s comfort all factor in.
Document Review
School reports, medical records, therapy notes, police reports, and existing court orders are all fair game. These records can confirm or contradict what people say in interviews. A CFI cannot force anyone to cooperate, but they can report a refusal to the court, which can then order compliance.
One point worth knowing: the CFI must include in the report any information uncovered about domestic violence, child abuse (physical, sexual, and emotional), coercive control, and trauma, regardless of how they learned it, and even when the information came in as an accusation rather than proof.1Justia Law. Colorado Code 14-10-116.5 – Child and Family Investigator CFIs are also mandatory reporters and must report suspected abuse or neglect to human services, law enforcement, or the state hotline.5Justia Law. Colorado Code 19-3-304 – Persons Required to Report Child Abuse or Neglect
The Written Report and When It’s Due
The CFI produces a written report that lays out findings and recommends parenting time and decision-making arrangements. The child’s wishes must be disclosed if the child expressed any.1Justia Law. Colorado Code 14-10-116.5 – Child and Family Investigator If the appointment order doesn’t set its own deadline, the report is due at least 35 days before trial or the hearing, so both sides have time to review it and prepare.3Colorado Judicial Branch. CJD 04-08 Concerning Child and Family Investigators
The report carries significant weight, but it does not bind the judge. The court must consider it alongside testimony from the CFI, both parents, and any other professionals before adopting any recommendation.1Justia Law. Colorado Code 14-10-116.5 – Child and Family Investigator Judges do deviate from CFI recommendations when other evidence justifies it.
Confidentiality of the Report
CFI reports are suppressed records. They do not go into the public court file, and the CFI can only share the report with the parties, their attorneys, or as directed by court order.3Colorado Judicial Branch. CJD 04-08 Concerning Child and Family Investigators These reports contain sensitive information about medical history, mental health, substance use, and family dynamics, and the confidentiality also encourages witnesses to speak candidly. The CFI has no authority to produce the report in any other proceeding unless the appointing court specifically orders it.
What It Costs
As of August 2025, both attorney and non-attorney CFIs bill at $110 per hour, with a maximum fee of $3,309 for the investigation and report.6Colorado Judicial Branch. CJD 04-05 Court Appointments Rate Schedule If either party calls the CFI to testify, a separate fee of up to $500 covers testimony and preparation, and that fee must be paid within seven days of the request and no later than 48 hours before the hearing.3Colorado Judicial Branch. CJD 04-08 Concerning Child and Family Investigators
A judge can allow fees to exceed the cap by up to 50%, but only after the CFI files a detailed written motion explaining why the case requires the extra work. The court also decides how the parents split costs, and can adjust the allocation based on income differences. The specifics live in your appointment order.1Justia Law. Colorado Code 14-10-116.5 – Child and Family Investigator
Challenging the Report
Either party can request that the CFI testify at the hearing. That testimony is where the strength or weakness of the investigation shows: cross-examination can expose skipped interviews with key witnesses, an unbalanced reliance on one parent’s account, or factual mistakes.
Common grounds for challenging a CFI report include:
- Factual errors in dates, events, or other details, which you can correct with evidence.
- Bias or lack of neutrality, if the investigation appeared to favor one parent.
- Changed circumstances since the investigation closed.
If you disagree with the report, you can file objections and request a hearing. In some cases, the court will order a Parental Responsibilities Evaluator (PRE) to conduct a deeper review as a second opinion.
CFI Compared to a Parental Responsibilities Evaluator
Colorado courts can appoint a PRE instead of, or in addition to, a CFI. A CFI investigation is designed to be efficient and cost-effective; a PRE evaluation is more comprehensive.7Colorado Judicial Branch. Directive Concerning Court Appointments The differences that matter to you:
- A CFI can be an attorney, mental health professional, or other qualified person. A PRE must be a licensed mental health professional.8Justia Law. Colorado Code 14-10-127 – Evaluations and Reports
- A PRE typically runs more interviews, spends more time with parents and children, and can order psychological testing, psychiatric evaluations, substance use assessments, and risk assessments. A CFI covers similar territory with fewer tools.
- CFI fees are capped. PRE fees are not, and PREs are significantly more expensive.
Courts often use a CFI for moderately contested cases and reserve a PRE for situations that call for deeper clinical analysis, such as serious mental health concerns or sexual abuse allegations. If a CFI investigation proves inconclusive, the court can later appoint a PRE.8Justia Law. Colorado Code 14-10-127 – Evaluations and Reports
Filing a Complaint Against a CFI
If you believe your CFI violated professional or ethical standards, the complaint path depends on their background. Licensed mental health professionals can be reported to the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies, and attorneys can be reported to the Office of Attorney Regulation.2Colorado Judicial Branch. Child and Family Investigators A complaint is separate from objecting to the report itself; if your concern is with the findings or recommendations, that fight belongs in the family court hearing.