Recent Blog Posts

 Posted on June 30, 2016 in Property Division

When most people get married, they do so with the intention of sharing a life together. This usually means joint ownership of all assets and property, as well as shared responsibilities for incurred debts. During a divorce, as most people understand, the property that constitutes the marital estate must be divided equitably between the spouses. In some cases, though, determining whether a particular asset is part of the marital estate can be a little more challenging than in others. High-value assets like your marital home can be especially confusing if it was titled in the name of only one spouse. Is such a home considered marital property?

The Name on the Title

Determining if your home is marital property depends on several, fairly straightforward factors. Surprisingly to some, the name on the title means almost nothing in most cases. You and your spouse could have agreed to put just one name on the mortgage or title to obtain financial advantages. Such practices are fine and understandable, but have little bearing on the home’s status as marital or non-marital property.

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 Posted on June 29, 2016 in Divorce

When you were deciding whether or not to pursue a divorce, you probably thought about a number of things. Most likely, you considered who would get what property, how parenting arrangements would be handled, and the ways that you would make your life better after ending your marriage. You may not, however, have given much thought to the process of divorce, other than wondering how long it might take and how much it might cost. What about filing your petition for divorce? Did you know that you could have several options regarding where to do so?

County of Residence

According to the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act, proceedings for a divorce “shall be had in the county where the plaintiff or defendant resides.” The law does not require you to file in the county where you last lived as a couple; rather, you can choose either the county where you currently live or that of your spouse if you do not reside in the same county. It is possible, albeit unlikely, that the court could direct your case to a different county on its own discretion.

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 Posted on June 24, 2016 in Divorce

Divorces, like marriages, are as unique as the individuals involved. Some approach the process looking to extract a measure of revenge against a spouse who wronged them, while others just want the proceedings to be as smooth as possible. Regardless of what a person is looking to accomplish in divorce, virtually nobody wants the process to drag on for months. Once you have made the decision to end your marriage, there are some things you can do to help facilitate faster divorce proceedings.

Be Prepared

Before you file for divorce, it is important to get yourself organized. Inventory what you have, including furniture, investments, and any other property. Preparing a comprehensive list of what you have will allow you to develop a better understanding of what you want following the divorce. Deciding what you want includes more than physical property and cash; you also need to establish whether you should ask for spousal maintenance or primary parenting responsibilities for your children.

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 Posted on June 22, 2016 in Prenuptial & Postnuptial Agreements

Nobody likes to anticipate the end of their marriage, especially couples who are planning their wedding or are just about to get married. We all want to believe in true love, in a fairy tale happy ever after ending, and a perfect relationship. Many marriages are successful, but statistics paint a less pretty picture than we would like to imagine. Recent statistics reveal that in the United States, 50 percent of first marriages end in divorce, 67 percent of second marriages end in divorce, and 74 percent of third marriages end in divorce. In the unfortunate case of a divorce, lifelong assets collected by both spouses must be assessed and divided. If you are about to get married, but are concerned about potentially having to divide your assets if the marriage ends badly, a prenuptial agreement can provide you peace of mind. Below are a few major reasons to consider a prenuptial agreement.

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 Posted on June 15, 2016 in Divorce

Regardless of how you may have reached the decision to end your marriage, doing so is merely the first step in a process that could last for months and present many challenges. Once you have decided to pursue a divorce, it is crucial to begin preparations immediately. Going into your divorce proceedings without a solid grasp on your situation can have disastrous results.

Whether you are about to file your petition for divorce or have recently filed, you should begin to:

Save Money

No matter how much you think you will spend on your divorce, chances are good you will end up spending more than that. Putting aside money is important because you may need to cover court costs, attorneys’ fees, and other expenses associated with the process. You may also need to find a new place to live, which often incurs the cost of a security deposit and moving expenses.

Inventory Your Assets

During your divorce, you and your spouse will eventually need to divide your marital property between you. The first step in this process is understanding what you actually own. Take stock of your property, including everything you can think of that was acquired during the marriage, including furniture, vehicles, savings accounts, and retirement funds. You should also assign a reasonable value for each asset, employing professional help when needed for more complex valuations.

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 Posted on June 08, 2016 in Child Custody

If you are divorced or separated from your child’s other parent, you may face a number of challenges related to exercising your parental rights. It is often difficult for couples who have gone their separate ways to see eye-to-eye regarding their children, but that does not mean one parent is any less important than the other. Under Illinois law, you have a number of legal rights involving your child that cannot be taken from you without due process.

Parental Responsibilities

The Illinois legislature recently overhauled the understanding of child custody in the state, refocusing the law on the allocation of parental responsibilities rather than statuses and titles. Parents are no longer awarded sole or joint custody, and neither party assumes the title of custodial or non-custodial parent. Instead, each parent is assigned authority for specific responsibilities, which are divided into two primary considerations. The first is significant decision-making regarding the child, which includes education, health care, religious training, and extracurricular activities. The other involves each parent’s allocated parenting time, previously called visitation.

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 Posted on May 27, 2016 in Child Support

When you have a child, you know that you have certain responsibilities regarding his or her upbringing. When you have a child with someone to whom you are no longer married, it often becomes much more difficult to live up to those responsibilities. Orders of child support have become commonplace in Illinois and throughout the country, with most parents realizing their children deserve, at the very least, financial support from both parents, regardless of the marital situation. But do you know how courts in Illinois determine child support obligations? In most cases, the calculations are pretty straightforward.

Basic Child Support Guidelines

While either parent—and in rare cases, both parents at the same time—can be required to pay child support, the supporting parent is usually the one with less parental responsibilities or parenting time. Calculating a child support order begins with a baseline determination that is based on the supporting parent’s net income and the number of children being supported. A supporting parent is expected to pay:

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 Posted on May 25, 2016 in Property Division

In today’s society, nearly two-thirds of American married couples rely on the income of both parties. While not entirely gone, the idea of a single wage earner—primarily the husband in previous generations—providing for the entire family’s needs is quickly becoming a thing of the past. Whatever the reasons may be, such as failed economic policies, rising inflation, and other concerns, the change in the way a couple earns income has also led to a corresponding change in the approach to dividing property in divorce, if and when the time comes.

Income Disparity

Depending on the situation, it is very likely that the income of each spouse in a two-income marriage will be somewhat, if not drastically different. This is especially true if the couple has children, as one spouse may work a lower-paying job or reduced hours so as to be more available for the children’s needs. The end result is often one spouse making significantly more money than the other, contributing more directly to the family’s wealth and property.

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 Posted on May 20, 2016 in Divorce

Most divorce specialists say that withholding, an abusive behavior between spouses, is a quick way to destroy a marriage. How do you know if you or your spouse are withholding from each other? This behavior can take many forms, but is typically when one spouse stops communicating with the other, denies them of their time, or refuses to do something. There are a few common withholding behaviors, and it is important to recognize some ways you can correct them before they lead you to divorce.

Withholding Information

Anytime you keep a secret from your spouse you risk creating an emotional divide between the two of you. This type of withholding involves not sharing information with your spouse, be it financial information, what you do with your friends, different places you go, and so on. Over time, your spouse will likely come to feel as if they cannot trust you, and trust is key in any successful marriage. If you feel the need to hide things from your spouse, proceed with caution, as you risk damaging your marriage.

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 Posted on May 13, 2016 in Child Custody

The FBI believes that most of the thousands of children who go missing every year are abducted by a parent, usually a parent who has not been granted primary custodial responsibilities. In a significant number of these cases, authorities believe that the abducting parent had help from a third party.

Faye Yager, who founded Children of the Underground in 1987, freely admits that her organization is one of these third parties. During its heyday in the early 1990s, the group stole names from the birth certificates of dead people, advised runaway parents and their children to "leave everything behind," and concealed them in one of an estimated 1,000 safe houses. These parents (mostly women) were on the run from allegedly abusive current and former partners (mostly men) and the courts that supposedly turned a blind eye to their plights. The movement lost steam in 1998, when Ms. Yager faced 60 years in prison for alleged child kidnapping and child cruelty; the charges were eventually dropped when the children at issue returned to their father.

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