What Does Filed CFI Mean in Your Custody Case?

When a Colorado custody docket shows “filed CFI,” it means a document connected to a Child and Family Investigator has been submitted in your case. That filing is almost always one of two things: a motion asking the judge to appoint a CFI, or the CFI’s completed investigation report. A Child and Family Investigator is a neutral professional the court brings in during contested custody and parenting-time disputes to look at your family, talk to the people involved, and recommend arrangements that serve the child’s best interests. The role is governed by Colorado Revised Statutes § 14-10-116.5.¹

What a CFI Actually Does in Your Case

A CFI is not an advocate. They do not represent you, the other parent, or the child. They work as an investigative arm of the court, gathering facts and making independent recommendations about custody and parenting time.¹ The exact scope is set by the judge’s written appointment order, so one CFI may be told to look at a single parenting-time dispute while another is asked to examine the entire family dynamic.

The Two Things “Filed CFI” Usually Means

Check the document name on the docket. If the filing is early in the case, it is almost certainly a Motion for Appointment of Child and Family Investigator, filed by one of the parents or the court on its own. Colorado’s Judicial Branch publishes a standard form (JDF 1317) for this purpose.² The motion explains why an independent investigation is needed and points to specific concerns about the child’s welfare or disputed custody questions.

If the filing comes later, closer to a trial or hearing date, it is likely the CFI’s report. That is the end product of the investigation and the document the judge will lean on when deciding custody and parenting time.

What Happens After the Motion Is Filed

Once the court grants the motion, it issues a written order spelling out what the CFI will investigate, when the report is due, and when the appointment ends. Within seven days of being appointed, the CFI must disclose to both parties, their attorneys, and the judge any family, financial, or social relationship they have or have had with anyone involved in the case.¹

If something in that disclosure concerns you, you have seven days to object. The court then either appoints a different CFI or confirms the original choice within seven days of your objection. If no one objects in that window, the appointment is automatically confirmed.¹ This early window is the simplest point at which to flag bias or conflict concerns. Miss it and the bar rises considerably.

What the Investigation Will Look Like

The exact activities depend on the appointment order and the complexity of the family, but most CFI investigations include some mix of the following:

Separate interviews with each parent about the child’s needs, routines, and concerns about the other household.
Age-appropriate interviews with the child, using open-ended questions and evidence-based protocols. If the child expresses preferences, the CFI must include those wishes in the report.¹
Home visits at each parent’s residence, sometimes with observation of parent-child interactions.
Collateral contacts: calls with teachers, therapists, daycare providers, and other adults who see the child regularly.
Review of school records, medical records, Department of Human Services files, criminal histories, or drug-testing results when relevant.³

Cooperate. Return calls, send requested documents on time, and be straightforward in interviews. The investigation phase shapes everything that follows, and a CFI’s impression of how you engage with the process can show up in the report.

What the Report Contains and When It Lands

The report is the written record of the CFI’s findings and recommendations. If the appointment order doesn’t set its own deadline, the report must be filed at least 35 days before the trial or hearing.³ That buffer gives both sides time to read it, talk with their attorneys, and prepare any challenge.

Expect the report to address each issue the court identified in the appointment order, describe the evidence the CFI gathered, and explain the reasoning behind each recommendation. Any custody or parenting-time preferences the child voiced must appear in the report.¹

CFI reports are confidential. Because they often contain sensitive medical, psychological, or educational information, the court keeps them suppressed in the case file. The CFI may share it only with the parties, their attorneys, or as directed by court order.³ Don’t send it to friends, relatives, or post excerpts online. That can lead to a court order violation.

What a CFI Costs and How the Fee Gets Split

As of August 2025, the maximum total fee a CFI can charge for one appointment is $3,309.⁴ Simpler cases cost less. The cap keeps the process accessible across different income levels.

The appointment order usually specifies how the fee is split between the parents, often reflecting each party’s relative income. If you genuinely cannot afford your share, the court may shift a larger portion to the other parent, but you have to raise it. Failing to pay as ordered can bring sanctions or a contempt finding, so flag financial concerns early rather than letting the bill go unpaid.

How the Judge Uses the Report

A CFI recommendation is not a court order. The judge has to weigh the report alongside testimony from the CFI, the parents, and any other professionals before adopting anything in it.¹ Even when a judge follows a CFI’s recommendations, the court is the one making the actual findings and issuing the ruling. Decision-making authority cannot be delegated to the investigator.³

In practice, though, reports carry weight. The judge asked for an outside look at your family precisely because courtroom testimony alone wasn’t enough. A thorough, well-reasoned report is hard to argue against without doing real work.

If You Disagree With the Recommendations

You are not stuck with a report you think got it wrong. The most direct tool is cross-examination. Both sides have the right to question the CFI under oath about methodology, the evidence they looked at, the sources they relied on, and the reasoning behind their conclusions.³ An attorney can press on gaps in the investigation, raise information the CFI missed, or question the reliability of a particular collateral source.

You can also hire a rebuttal expert to review the CFI’s work and testify about flaws in method or conclusions. That approach fits best when there are specific factual errors or when evidence appears to have been weighed in a lopsided way. Calling your own witnesses — teachers, therapists, family members — who can contradict parts of the report is another common move.

If the problem is a deeper one, such as bias or an undisclosed conflict, the seven-day disclosure objection described earlier is the cleanest fix. Once the investigation is underway, removing a CFI requires a motion with specific grounds, and courts set a high bar for granting it.

One Boundary Worth Knowing: CFI vs. PRE

A CFI cannot conduct psychological testing or order drug, alcohol, or polygraph testing unless the court specifically authorizes it. When a case genuinely needs that level of clinical assessment, Colorado courts appoint a Parental Responsibilities Evaluator (PRE) instead, typically a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist. PRE evaluations are more comprehensive and usually run from roughly $5,000 to well over $10,000, without the hard fee cap that applies to CFIs. If a CFI concludes partway through that testing is needed, the rule is to notify the court rather than attempt the assessment, and the court can authorize the testing or convert the appointment to a PRE.³

1
Justia Law. Colorado Revised Statutes Title 14 Section 14-10-116.5
2
Colorado Judicial Branch. Motion for Appointment of Child and Family Investigator (CFI)
3
Colorado Judicial Branch. Chief Justice Directive 04-08 Concerning Child and Family Investigators
4
Colorado Judicial Branch. Chief Justice Directive 04-05 – August 2025 Rate Increase