Posted on September 14, 2020 in Child Custody

During the process of your divorce, it is important to reach a resolution on a parenting plan in accordance with your children’s best interests at the time. However, chances are that your life situation will change significantly in the years following your divorce, and the original parenting plan may no longer meet your children’s needs or your own. When this is the case, you should consider pursuing a legal modification to the parenting plan that better accounts for your family’s current circumstances.

Reasons to Modify Your Parenting Agreement in Illinois

After your divorce, you may modify a parenting time agreement at any time as long as you can demonstrate that the change is in your children’s best interests. Parental decision-making responsibilities, on the other hand, typically cannot be modified until two years after the original agreement was finalized, except in circumstances in which the children’s mental or physical health is at risk. Specific reasons to modify your parenting plan may include:

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 Posted on September 10, 2020 in Child Support

In almost every situation in which a child’s parents are separated, both parents are obligated to contribute financially to the child’s regular needs through child support. This includes expenses related to the child’s K-12 education, but it does not necessarily include expenses related to college or post-secondary education. For this reason, Illinois has special provisions in place that may require both parents to contribute to their children’s higher education even after they have reached the age of 18. As a parent, it is important to be aware of what you might be required to pay.

Calculating College Expenses in Illinois

In most cases, tuition and housing are the largest expenses associated with a college education. According to U.S. News and World Report, the average cost of tuition and fees in the 2019-2020 academic year was $10,116 for in-state students and $22,577 for out-of-state students at public schools, and $36,801 for students at private schools. The cost of room and board varies significantly depending on the college or university, but average costs in recent years come in at around $10,000 annually.

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 Posted on September 04, 2020 in Asset Division

When you decide to get a divorce, you may be surprised to learn that retirement accounts, including IRAs, 401(k)s, and pensions, are usually considered marital property and are therefore subject to division, regardless of whose name the account is under. This can be especially challenging for older couples who have often accumulated significant savings and are planning to retire in the near future. In order to protect your retirement savings, it is important to hire an experienced attorney who can help you minimize losses during the divorce process.

Keeping Retirement Funds Safe During the Divorce Process

With the assistance of an attorney, there are several actions you can take to protect your retirement savings in the event of a divorce, including:

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 Posted on September 01, 2020 in Prenuptial and Postnuptial Agreements

A prenuptial agreement can be a great option for marrying couples who want to ensure that their financial assets are protected. However, some couples are reluctant to pursue a premarital agreement, possibly because of the awkwardness of thinking about divorce before the marriage even begins, or possibly because they feel they do not have sufficient assets for a prenuptial agreement to be necessary. For some of these couples, it may become apparent after the wedding that an agreement would be beneficial. Fortunately, married spouses have the option of establishing a postnuptial agreement.

What Can an Illinois Postnuptial Agreement Address?

A postnuptial agreement is often beneficial when a couple experiences a significant change in their financial situation during their marriage, perhaps due to an inheritance, a career opportunity, or the establishment of a new business. A postnuptial agreement can address many of the same issues as a prenuptial agreement, including:

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 Posted on August 28, 2020 in Collaborative Law

If you are thinking about ending your marriage, you may have already started researching the ways you can resolve divorce issues such as child custody, property division, and spousal maintenance. You may know for sure that you want to avoid divorce litigation, but you may still be uncertain as to what type of alternative resolution method is right for your particular circumstances. Collaborative divorce is a process during which divorcing spouses work with their attorneys to reach a settlement on unresolved divorce issues using cooperative discussions and negotiations. This process takes place outside of the courtroom and is typically much less stressful and antagonistic than litigation. There are several situations in which using collaborative law to resolve divorce issues can be especially beneficial.

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 Posted on August 26, 2020 in Divorce

When most people hear the term “restraining order,” they assume that the order prevents physical abuse or stalking. However, this is not the only type of restraining order that may be necessary in an Illinois divorce. A temporary financial restraining order is one that protects a divorcing spouse’s financial assets from being misused, wasted, or hidden by the other spouse. In some states, an automatic financial restraining order is issued when spouses begin the divorce process. However, if you plan to divorce in Illinois, you will need to petition the court in order to gain protection through a financial restraining order.

Prohibiting Spouses From Certain Financial Activity During Divorce

Financial restraining orders are commonly utilized in high asset divorce cases, but spouses of any income level can benefit from this type of protection. A temporary financial restraining order may be used to prevent divorcing spouses from:

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 Posted on August 24, 2020 in Collaborative Law

With so many Illinois residents out of work or working from home due to the pandemic — and no real end in the immediate future — many couples are delaying divorce plans simply because of the expense. While it is true that the legal fees involved in a divorce can add up to thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars once the divorce is finalized, this should not be prohibitive to either of you, especially if you both know a divorce will help you and your family during this time of reduced/lost incomes and staying at home together more often than usual.

Collaborative Law as a Potential Cost-Saver

There are plenty of ways to make a divorce more affordable, including pursuing an uncontested divorce or determining whether the court may require the wealthier spouse to cover the other spouse’s attorney’s fees in a more fiercely litigated contested divorce or an otherwise complex divorce. In many cases, collaborative divorce can be more affordable than a divorce that involves litigation.

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 Posted on August 21, 2020 in Paternity

You might think being able to use science to determine paternity with absolute certainty through DNA testing would make family law cases much easier, especially when it comes to defining child custody, child support, and parenting time. However, the truth is that it can actually complicate things even more than intended. Here is how introducing DNA testing into the legal process has changed paternity, fatherhood, and father's rights:

Why Paternity Is So Complex, Especially Now With DNA Testing

Paternity has always been a complex issue, but before DNA testing, according to the law, it was relatively simple: if you were married, and your wife had a baby, you were considered the father. However, as many people know—and even knew then—it is rarely that simple in actuality. Now that medical technology has caught up with the dilemmas surrounding paternity, DNA testing has provided the courts with an exact, indisputable science to determine the identity of a child’s father.

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 Posted on August 19, 2020 in Asset Division

Over the course of a marriage, couples can accumulate a large amount of marital assets and debts, including homes, cars, savings accounts, businesses, investments, mortgages, and more. If you decide to get a divorce, the prospect of dividing property between you and your spouse may be one of the most daunting parts of the process. However, in many cases, division of property does not have to be an ugly fight. If you and your spouse are willing to communicate and cooperate, you may be able to reach an agreement that works for both of you through divorce mediation.

What Is Divorce Mediation?

Mediation allows divorcing couples to make collaborative decisions about the terms of their divorce agreement, including not only property division, but also child support, spousal support, and parenting time and responsibilities. A neutral, third-party mediator guides the discussion to promote constructive conversations and efficient resolutions, but you and your spouse maintain control over the outcome. Mediation may only be possible if you and your spouse are both interested in cooperative solutions, but when that is the case, mediation can save you the time, money, stress, and lack of privacy that you would face in a trial.

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 Posted on August 12, 2020 in Divorce

In the United States, the average outstanding student loan debt for people who attended college is over $30,000. For many, this makes student loans one of their largest sources of debt, perhaps second only to a home mortgage. In a divorce, if you, your spouse, or both of you have student loan debt, it may factor significantly into the settlement negotiations or litigation, since separating couples in Illinois are required to distribute both marital assets and debts. However, it may not always be obvious which spouse will be responsible for the ongoing repayment of these debts.

When Are Student Loans Considered Marital Property?

You might expect that after a divorce, student loan debt will stay with the person whose education the loan paid for, but this is not necessarily the case. If you or your spouse incurred student debt before your marriage, it will likely be considered non-marital property and thus not subject to division. On the other hand, if one or both of you took out a student loan to pursue education during your marriage, any debt remaining on that loan at the time of divorce will likely be deemed marital property, especially if the reason for pursuing higher education was to increase earning potential in a way that would benefit the marriage.

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