Posted on March 16, 2017 in Divorce

When it comes to divorce, Illinois law defines marital property as any assets or debts that either spouse acquired during the marriage. Assets the spouse owned prior to marriage are generally considered separate, non-marital property. However, it is possible for separate property to be reclassified as marital property through a legal doctrine known as “transmutation.”

Court Refuses Husband's Request for Reimbursement of House Payment

What does transmutation involve exactly? Here's an illustration from a recent Illinois divorce case. A could divorced after 28 years of marriage. The couple owned a home that they purchased in 1999. The husband made a $20,000 down payment for the house, which represented the proceeds from the sale of various items personal property that he owned prior to his marriage.

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 Posted on March 14, 2017 in Alimony/Spousal Support

Long-term spousal maintenance, or alimony, is designed to help a spouse who was in a lengthy marriage and is unable to earn an independent living following divorce. An Illinois court will consider a number of factors in deciding when and how much alimony to award. A judge may also subsequently modify an award if there is a change in financial circumstances.

For example, if the spouse receiving maintenance suddenly experiences an increase in his or her income, the court may reduce the ex-spouse's obligations. In this context, “income” can refer to any money received by the spouse. It does not necessarily mean taxable income as defined by the Internal Revenue Service.

Court Reduces Maintenance Due to Family Gifts

Consider a recent illustration of that point from an Illinois appeals court. Several years after his divorce became final, an ex-husband asked the court to either reduce or terminate his alimony obligations to his ex-wife due to a change in financial circumstances. The court, after its own review, agreed to a reduction, citing in part a series of “unexplained deposits” to the ex-wife's bank account totaling more than $72,000.

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 Posted on March 09, 2017 in Divorce

Stock options are among the trickier assets to deal with in a divorce. Unlike outright owning stock in a public company, which is easy to value based on market prices, stock options represent a right to purchase shares of a business at some future date. When one spouse has stock options as part of his or her compensation package, the other spouse may not be aware of these options or how they actually work.

Understanding Stock Options

The basic idea behind stock options is relatively simple in theory but can be rather complex in practice. For instance, assume an employer grants an employee the option to purchase 1,000 shares after the employee has worked at the company for five years. Once the option vests, the employee is guaranteed the right to purchase the option shares for a fixed price, regardless of their actual market value. So, if the options were granted at $5 per share, that is how much the employee would pay, even if the stock is now worth $30 per share.

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 Posted on March 07, 2017 in Divorce

A common concern in divorce cases is that one spouse may be hiding assets from the other. In the past, hiding assets might have involved stashing cash in a safety deposit box the other spouse does not know about or transferring an investment account into the name of another family member. In the digital age, however, there is another method an unscrupulous spouse might employ—using marital assets to purchase Bitcoins.

Hiding Money in Digital Wallets

You may have heard of Bitcoin and similar digital currencies without understanding exactly how they work. Essentially, Bitcoin is an independent financial network that allows individuals to send electronic payments to one another. These payments are expressed in units of “Bitcoins,” which are not physical currency but rather the product of a complex encryption algorithm. This is why Bitcoin is often called a “cryptocurrency.”

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 Posted on February 28, 2017 in Child Custody

Child custody disputes often provoke the most heated battles between parties. When it comes to allocating parental responsibilities, the best interests of the children sometimes take a back seat to the stress and anxiety of the parents. Especially when raised in the midst of an already contentious divorce, the resolution of parental responsibility issues may be delayed by weeks, months, or even years.

All of this can take a toll not only on parents and children but the courts as well. Next door to Illinois in South Bend, Indiana, a local newspaper recently reported on how much time family courts consume dealing with child custody disputes. The report indicated that statewide, Indiana courts take 39 minutes of a judge's time for “the average divorce case without children.” In contrast, if children are involved, the judge will spend nearly four times as long—259 minutes on average—dealing with the parties.

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 Posted on February 23, 2017 in Divorce

Nobody wants to be trapped in a failed marriage. Depending on where you live, however, getting a divorce may not be so easy. Consider a recent story from the United Kingdom where a 66-year-old woman is fighting in an appeals court to obtain a divorce. The woman previously told a family court judge in England that she has been “desperately unhappy in her marriage for many years” and there was “no prospect of reconciliation” with her estranged husband.

Despite that, the judge refused to grant a divorce, dismissing the wife's misery as routine complaints “of the kind to be expected in a marriage.” If the appeals court does not reverse the family judge's decision, the wife will have to live separate from her husband for a period of at least five years before she can finally receive a divorce.

Illinois Is a Pure “No-Fault” State

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 Posted on February 21, 2017 in Child Custody

Determining parental responsibilities (previously referred to as child custody) is often the most contentious issue in an Illinois divorce. It is common practice for a court to award one parent primary residential responsibilities while requiring consultation with the other parent over major decisions affecting the child's living arrangements, health care, education, and other matters. In many cases, the court will also direct each parent not to disparage the other to the children or take any action designed to interfere with their respective parent-child relationships.

Mother Loses Custody Due to False Allegations, Refusal to Seek Therapy

This is important because the court may reconsider and alter custody arrangements if one parent actively tries to undermine the other. In extreme cases, the court may transfer sole decision-making authority from one parent to the other. A recent case from Cook County illustrates the type of circumstances where this can happen.

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 Posted on February 16, 2017 in Divorce

Thanks to social media and a host of smartphone apps, it is now possible to essentially track your every movement throughout the day. This can be a dangerous thing, especially if you are in the midst of a divorce. Information gleaned from a Twitter or Facebook account—or even location data from a partner's mobile device—can be used as evidence against you in court.

French Lawsuit Says Uber App Bug Caused Spouse to Suspect Cheating

Many people enjoy a false sense of privacy when they use a social media account or app. They assume that just because they use a password to log in, that means their data is hidden from a spouse or any other party. That is not always the case. Virtually all software contains bugs that may be exploited, and, in some cases, a person's unfamiliarity with the software may lead to the accidental disclosure of potentially damaging information.

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 Posted on February 14, 2017 in Alimony/Spousal Support

In an Illinois divorce, the court may award long-term maintenance, or alimony, to either spouse based on a number of factors. Long-term alimony is generally appropriate when one spouse is unable to earn an independent living. Depending on the case, spousal maintenance may last for a set number of years or continue indefinitely until either party dies or the recipient remarries.

Defining Alimony for Tax Purposes

As a general rule, the Internal Revenue Service considers alimony to be a form of taxable income. This means the receiving spouse must report all maintenance payments for the year on his or her federal income tax return (usually Form 1040) as part of his or her gross income. Conversely, the spouse who pays alimony can deduct it from his or her own gross income.

There are several conditions that must be met for alimony to be considered taxable income:

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 Posted on February 09, 2017 in Divorce

Many Illinois divorces are caused—at least indirectly—by adultery. When a person discovers their spouse is cheating, they understandably hurt and angered. In some cases, the jilted party may want to seek (legal) revenge against the person who stole their spouse. But can you actually pursue legal action against your spouse's lover? Historically in Illinois, the answer was yes. Illinois long recognized two torts known as “alienation of affection” and “criminal conversation.” Also known as “heart balm torts,” these are basically civil claims for adultery brought against a third party.

Illinois Abolishes “Heart Balm” Torts

In 2015, the Illinois General Assembly rewrote the state's divorce laws. As part of these reforms, the legislature also abolished future lawsuits for alienation of affection and criminal conversation. However, parties may still pursue these claims based on acts that took place prior to January 1, 2016, the date the new divorce laws took effect.

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