Posted on January 21, 2016 in Finances and Divorce

In some cases, the division of the couple’s financial assets in a divorce can extend to accounts that a person may consider to be a personal benefit, such as a retirement account. Under Illinois law, a divorcing spouse may be entitled to part of their spouse’s retirement account in some cases. Just as there are rules and guidelines as to the division of marital property, there are rules and guidelines when it comes to the division of retirement accounts.

The Illinois law on the dissolution of marriages holds that pension benefits and other retirement plans that were acquired after a marriage and before a legal dissolution or declaration of invalidity of the marriage are marital property. As such, retirement benefits are divided under the same rules as other marital property between the parties, regardless of which party worked and had the retirement payments deducted from their pay. The determination of the value of a retirement account or pension benefits is done according to the Illinois Pension Code, which recognizes this qualification of pension benefits as marital property.

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 Posted on January 19, 2016 in Child Support

When child support is ordered, the payments are based on the income of the parent who is ordered to pay it. Income is considered from different sources, and a percentage is calculated based on Illinois law and the number of children involved. However, this does not mean that the amount will always be affordable to the parent, and the law allows a parent who loses employment or other forms of income to appeal to a court to seek lower payments. If a parent fails to seek modification of the child support after losing income, they may end up getting behind and owing arrearages on the child support.

Arrearages owed on child support do not go away. A parent may be ordered to keep paying child support based on arrearages long after the children have reached their eighteenth birthdays. While this feels unfair, especially since the child is not likely to be receiving the support payments directly, it is important to remember that the arrearages payments are not new support payments; they are meant to cover child support that the parent was supposed to be making in the past and never did. When making payments on arrearages, it is important to make sure that the calculations are done to reflect this and new child support payments are not added.

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 Posted on January 14, 2016 in Child Custody

Court ordered visitations after a court decides a custody issue is supposed to be made on the same basis as the custody issue; that is, visitation should be awarded if it is in the best interest of the child. However, even if the court finds that visitation is in the best interest of the child, it may also find that the visitation should be supervised.

Following changes to the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage law that took effect on January 1, 2016, Illinois courts will now refer to visitation as parenting time. Parents are usually encouraged to work out issues relating to their children before presenting an agreement to the court. In cases where the parties cannot agree, the court may make determinations regarding parenting time. In making this determination, both parents are presumed to be fit parents, and limitations on parenting time are not to be placed unless the court finds that granting parenting time will seriously endanger the child’s physical, mental, moral, or emotional health. The court may also consider how the parenting time would impact a child’s emotional development.

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 Posted on January 12, 2016 in Prenuptial and Postnuptial Agreements

As unromantic as it may sound, a marriage can be compared to a contract, with two people coming together and agreeing to form a partnership under certain terms. In some cases, when couples are contemplating marriage and even after they are married, they may enter into additional agreements to ensure their financial interests are secure in the event of a divorce. There are many reasons why couples may choose to enter into these prenuptial and postnuptial agreements, and there are numerous other concerns that they have to keep in mind when executing them. One important aspect of both kinds of agreements is the legal need for all parties to be aware of the assets at stake.

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 Posted on January 07, 2016 in Finances and Divorce

Not all parents agree that they need to contribute to their children’s educational expenses past the high school level. Some parents believe having a child work in order to pay for college expenses builds character, and for other parents, it is an expense they cannot afford. When parents’ divorce, the question of whether or not they will contribute to their children’s college expenses may be decided by a judge. In Illinois, courts can order parents to contribute to their children’s educational expenses, including college expenses.

Illinois law provides that in some cases, after receiving a petition from one of the parties, a court may award funds from a couple’s property or income, to be used for a child’s higher education expenses. If a parent is deceased, the court may order expenses to be paid from the parent’s estate. Generally speaking the educational expenses a court may order are for an undergraduate education, or for trade school. A parent who wishes to challenge a petition for college-related expenses has to show the court good cause why the petition should not be granted. If one parent has financial hardships, for example high personal student loan debt, they may argue that they should not be responsible for the child’s college expenses.

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 Posted on January 05, 2016 in Finances and Divorce

For individuals needing legal assistance but who are low on funds and assets, a contingency-fee arrangement can seem like the ideal way to secure quality legal representation. In a contingency-fee arrangement, the client agrees to pay the attorney a portion or percentage of the value of the recovery the attorney is able to secure for the client. In most contingency-fee arrangements, the client is not obligated to pay any attorney’s fees to the attorney if he or she is unable to recover any award or compensation for the client (although there may be certain administrative fees or other case-related costs the client is still responsible for paying.)

Obtaining quality legal representation during a divorce may seem too costly for some individuals. Can Illinois attorneys accept divorce or family law cases on a contingency-fee basis?

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 Posted on December 30, 2015 in Child Custody

Some divorces and child custody battles can become very contentious, and in these cases, a child’s interests may be served through the appointment of a representative known as a guardian ad litem, who is tasked with advocating solely for the child’s best interests in the proceedings.

Illinois law allows for the appointment of a guardian ad litem in any case that involves child support, visitation, custody, education, parentage, or general welfare of a child.  A guardian ad litem may be appointed by a court, sometimes as a routine procedure, or by request of any party in the proceedings.  A guardian ad litem is supposed to make recommendations through a written report to the court to help the court render a judgment that is in the child’s best interest.  In order to write the report and make recommendations to the court, the guardian ad litem is required to interview the child involved in the case, as well as the parents and any other available witnesses.  Either party can question the guardian ad litem in court as to the content of their report.

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 Posted on December 29, 2015 in Child Support

Enforcing a child support order when you and the supporting parent both live in the same state can be a hassle in and of itself. When the supporting parent moves to another state, the process can become even more confusing. Luckily, thanks to the standardization of child support laws throughout the country, states will typically assist you in enforcing a child support order issued by another state if the supporting parent is found to be located in that other state. Likewise, if you move after having been awarded child support and begin to reside in a new state, that new state will be able to assist you in enforcing your existing child support order.

Assistance with Enforcement May Not Necessarily Mean Assistance with Modification

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 Posted on December 23, 2015 in Divorce

As part of the Illinois divorce process, if a divorcing party is not able to resolve all of the pertinent divorce-related issues present in their case, the case will proceed to a “trial.” This is not like the trials you may see on popular television shows: this trial will be in front of the judge assigned to your case, and will not be heard by a jury. The only people that will be present will be the parties themselves, the attorneys for each of the parties, and any witnesses the parties intend on examining for the purpose of helping the court decide the unresolved issue(s). Although a divorce “trial” typically lasts much shorter than a civil or criminal trial that is to be decided by a jury, divorce trials can nonetheless be equally draining and costly. So how do you know when you should attempt to settle your divorce case and when you should proceed with a trial?

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 Posted on December 22, 2015 in Child Custody

Marriages in which the spouses come from different faith traditions are now more common than ever. When such a couple first marries, religious-themed conflicts are often low because either the couple does not place a high priority on observing their families’ religious practices or the couple is eager to learn about their spouse’s religious heritage. In the latter case, this may lead to one spouse adopting the faith and religious practices of his or her spouse. When that same couple divorces, however, any differences that exist between the spouses’ differing religious beliefs and practices can become more prominent, especially when that couple had a child. It would be common for the divorcing parents to fight vehemently for the right to determine the religious upbringing of the child and to keep the child from exposure to the other parent’s faith traditions. How does a court decide which parent gets to determine a child’s faith?

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