Ignacio, CO Divorce Law Firms & Lawyers

Property owned before your marriage is generally considered separate property and not divided in a divorce. However, in your particular case, it may be that your parents' gift could be considered a gift to both of you since they allowed her to put her name on the deed.Also, even if the gift were exclusively to you, you probably commingled it by putting that money into a jointly owned house. You could possibly make an equitable argument about it being yours, at least as to the initial payment; however, it's more likely that a judge would rule you had commingled it and thereby let it lose its status as separate property.

You might be able to get the court to give him less marital property because of this conduct. Most likely, you will each end up effectively paying half when you divide the matial property. If you have real estate and kids involved in the case, you really should at least be consulting with a lawyer about what you are agreeing to, your rights etc. I spend probably 33% of my practice fixing pro se divorce agreements. You should not be going it alone and it does not need to be expensive to have an attorney - I actually do many cases on a consulting basis and many others for a flat fee. Feel free to call me for a free initial consultation if you have questions. I hope this helps. 

You can fire your current lawyer and either hire someone else or learn enough to act as your own lawyer. This forum is not suitable to teaching you how to act as your own lawyer and the situation you describe would appear too complex to try and handle by yourself. Your lawyer has certain ethical obligations and it sounds like there may be some questions about whether he complying those obligations. A new lawyer should be able to better advise you about what to do.