Posted on March 16,2018 in Divorce

If you are planning to get divorced, you are probably wondering how you and your spouse’s property will be divided. Since Illinois is an “equitable division” state, marital property is divided equitably, but not necessarily evenly. While some states split marital property 50/50, Illinois courts have the freedom to award more marital property to one spouse than the other if such an arrangement is found to be fair. When the court is dividing marital property and debt, there are specific guidelines they must follow.

How Property Decisions Are Made

Illinois courts look at twelve main factors when making property division decisions in a divorce. The first factor is each party’s contribution. More specifically, the court must consider how each spouse contributed "to the acquisition, preservation, or increase or decrease in value, of the marital or non-marital property.” Each spouse’s income is considered as well the non-monetary contributions the spouses made to the marriage including homemaking and child-rearing. Courts will also consider any dissipation, or wasting or hiding of assets, when making decisions about property division. For example, a spouse who used martial funds to finance an affair during the marriage may receive less of the marital property. The value of the property which is assigned to each spouse is also taken into consideration.

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 Posted on March 14,2018 in Divorce

It is no secret that many marriages end as a result of infidelity. About 41 percent of married people admit to having either a physical or emotional affair. Even more surprising, 57 percent of men and 54 percent of women admit to cheating at some point in their life. When an affair is one of the factors which ends a marriage, it may affect your divorce, but not in the way you might think.

Illinois is a No-Fault Divorce State

Illinois has been “pure no-fault state” since the start of 2016. This means that the state does not require divorcing couples to state their specific reasons or “grounds” for ending the marriage through divorce. Before the 2016 change, grounds like adultery or repeated mental or physical cruelty could be used as the cause of the divorce. Today, those seeking a divorce in Illinois only have one ground for filing for divorce: “irreconcilable differences.” According to the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act, a judgment of divorce will be issued only if “irreconcilable differences have caused the irretrievable breakdown of the marriage and the court determines that efforts at reconciliation have failed or that future attempts at reconciliation would be impracticable and not in the best interests of the family.” For most couples, infidelity will not affect their divorce in any meaningful way.

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 Posted on March 08,2018 in Alimony/Spousal Support

Sometimes referred to as alimony, spousal maintenance or spousal support refers to payments which one spouse pays to the other to help them transition to life as a single person. Maintenance payments are generally made by the spouse with the higher income and paid to the spouse with the lower income.

The purpose of spousal support is to restrict any one-sided negative financial effects of a divorce by providing an ongoing source of revenue to a spouse who earns less than his or her partner. The rationale behind spousal support is that one spouse—often the wife, but stay-at-home husbands are more common than ever—may have chosen to sacrifice a career to care for the family. Someone who has been out of the workforce and suddenly gets divorced will need time to acquire new skills and employment support himself or herself. Maintenance may also be appropriate to help an economically-disadvantaged spouse maintain a similar standard of living as compared to the one established in the marriage.

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 Posted on March 07,2018 in Paternity

Child development experts have for years insisted that a child does best when both parents are an important part of his or her life. Save for instances in which a father is abusive or unable to care for a child, having a father in a child’s life is beneficial for children in many ways. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 24 million American children live without their biological father in the home. This puts them at an increased risk of becoming involved with criminal activity, dropping out of high school, becoming pregnant as a teenager, and abusing drugs and alcohol. Unmarried fathers in Illinois who wish to be involved in their children’s lives must first establish paternity through one of several recognized ways.

Voluntary Acknowledgment of Paternity Form

If the father and mother both agree on the paternity of the father, they may sign a Voluntary Acknowledgment of Paternity form (VAP). Conveniently, this form is available at hospitals, so many fathers sign it soon after the child’s birth. If a father does not sign the acknowledgement of paternity in the hospital, he still has the opportunity to do so later at any local registrar of vital records, Department of Human Services office, county clerk's office, or child support services office. The form can also be completed and witnessed at home, then mailed to the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services.

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 Posted on March 01,2018 in Mediation

Mediation is a method of negotiation which some couples choose to utilize when they are getting divorced. In divorce mediation, the couple and often their attorneys, meet with a third party called a mediator to discuss the details of ending the marriage. A mediator is not necessarily an attorney, nor will he or she give legal advice. The purpose of a mediator is to be a neutral third party who facilitates conversation and cooperation between the couples.

Advantages of Mediation

Mediation has proved to be helpful to many couples going through a divorce. It is typically faster and less expensive to work out issues using a mediator than to work those issues out in court. Although, not every divorcing couple who uses a mediator to help them resolve their disputes avoids court. One of the biggest advantages to using a mediator is that both of the spouse’s needs and wants are considered. Both people will have input on the agreement and feel like their voices are heard.

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 Posted on February 27,2018 in Illinois divorce attorney

When two people enter into a relationship, the quality of that relationship is typically defined by how each person treats the other. Outside factors such as finances, children, and employment-related stresses certainly play a role, but the behavior of the individuals involved is usually the determining factor in whether the relationship lasts or not.

Science has long studied the link between hormones and human behavior, particularly in regard to how such hormones affect sexual relationships. High levels of testosterone in men, for example, have been regularly linked to attracting sexual partners and more aggressive sexual behavior. Relatively little research, however, has been conducted to examine how testosterone levels may affect other aspects of human sexual relationships. A new study from a research team in Canada sought to do just that.

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 Posted on February 22,2018 in Children of Divorce

If you are a parent, you probably spend a lot of time worrying about the health, safety, and happiness of your children. When a couple with children divorces, the parents main concern is often how the divorce will affect the children. How will they adapt to their new lifestyle? Will they become resentful of their parents? Although divorce is a difficult process for families to go through, research shows that boys and girls have a remarkable ability to adapt to a two-home family and even thrive in it.

Famous psychologist Constance Ahrons spent 20 years studying the effects of divorce on children. She found through her studies that about 80 percent of children whose parents divorce adapt to the divorce and lead contented, prosperous lives afterward. Most do not suffer permanent negative effects on their mental well-being, physical health, school performance, or social skills.

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 Posted on February 21,2018 in Divorce

Today, social media is quite literally everywhere. Television commercials, movie trailers, product labels, and even roadside billboards list Facebook pages, Twitter handles, and Instagram accounts for people, brands, and companies. Of course, this is simply a reflection of the culture itself, as most of us know at least a few people who are quick to share virtually any experience to their social media feeds. When a person is going through a divorce, however, social media can present some unexpected dangers. If you are a regular user of social media networks, there are some things you should keep in mind during the divorce process.

Image Matters

Social media sites are appealing because they allow users to create sort of an alternate version of themselves. For example, a person’s Instagram account is likely to show photos of the user looking his or her best or celebrating an accomplishment. Rarely does someone post embarrassing stories or unflattering images. While most of us expect there to be some disconnect between a person’s social media persona and real life, the distinction can be especially problematic during a divorce. The biggest problem is the absence of context.

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 Posted on February 16,2018 in Child Custody

Members of the United States Armed Forces are well trained to expect the unexpected at all points in their careers. However, sometimes the unexpected can affect not only them, but also their spouses and children. Receiving new orders sometimes happens very abruptly, with a minimum of time to make arrangements before shipping out. If you have custody of your children, you may have to act fast to avoid running into trouble.

Your Right to Speak Is Protected

Some spouses will try to file for a parental responsibilities hearing during a deployment or while you are awaiting orders, thinking that with your life in flux, you will be in no position to challenge their wishes. However, in 1940, Congress passed a law now known as the Servicemembers’ Civil Relief Act (SCRA), and SCRA grants an automatic stay of any civil proceedings, usually lasting 90 days, but a judge may extend the stay if they believe that it is in the best interests of the child to do so. The rationale is simple: a soldier, especially a soldier deployed on active duty, is almost never in a position to respond appropriately to such an important document as a custody pleading.

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 Posted on February 14,2018 in Prenuptial Agreement in Illinois

There was a time when many thought prenuptial agreements were only for rich celebrities or those who did not have faith in the longevity of their marriage. Today, people realize that prenuptial agreements are not only vital assets in the unfortunate event that a couple splits up or a spouse passes away, but are also tools which can help married couples manage their financial responsibilities while they are still married as well. When creating a prenuptial agreement, one must be careful to draft it in such a way that it holds up in court. Making certain mistakes within a prenuptial agreement can cause it to be considered invalid. In this case, the mandates set forth in the document will not be followed and the document will have been created in vain.

Dishonesty Regarding Assets

One of the major requirements of a valid prenuptial agreement is total transparency with regard to all assets, properties and debts. If a person enters into a prenuptial agreement but does not disclose all of his or her financial information or attempts to hide assets, the document may become useless. If a couple is divorcing and one spouse proves that the other was fraudulent in his or her financial reporting, the prenuptial agreement cannot be used to make decisions regarding spousal maintenance, property division, or family-owned businesses.

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