How to Be the Best Divorce Client

 Posted on September 02,2014 in Divorce

A legal proceeding like divorce is a team effort. It requires lawyers, paralegals, clerks, and legal secretaries to work together to all help reach the best outcome, and one of the key members of the legal team is the client themselves. Naturally, this can be a bit of a difficult adjustment for the client, since data from the United States Census indicates that the overwhelming majority of people going through divorce have never done it before.

Fortunately, this post highlights a few strategies that people can use to be more effective divorce clients like staying organized, taking an active role in the process, and keeping a level head. Divorce clients using these strategies can streamline and speed up the divorce process, which often means keeping their legal fees lower.

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The Importance of Qualified Legal Counsel

 Posted on August 29,2014 in Divorce

A recent spate of cases involving courts citing businesses for the unlicensed practice of law highlights the importance of using a licensed attorney during the divorce process. A recent case on this issue comes from the Ohio Supreme Court, but it is a problem that can occur just as easily in any other state.

State governments closely monitor the people who practice law to ensure that they have the training to competently represent others in court. Those who are not properly licensed and trained can end up making mistakes that cost their clients. That is exactly what happened in the Ohio case that ended up with the company making a mistake that left their client's divorce papers useless. Consequently, it is important for discerning people seeking a divorce to ensure that they use a properly licensed attorney if they want counsel during the process.

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Starting the School Year after a Divorce

 Posted on August 26,2014 in Divorce

According to divorce attorneys, the end of summer is a common time to start thinking about filing for a divorce. However, summer’s end is also a time for parents who have recently finalized a divorce to think about how it affects their children going off to school. Many parents choose to go through the meat of the divorce process during the summer, so that kids have time to adjust without also needing to deal with schoolwork. However, now that they are returning to their normal routine, parents need to be aware of what information the school needs, and they need to watch out for signs that their children may not be adjusting well now that they are back in school.

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Health Problems Associated with Divorce

 Posted on August 23,2014 in Divorce

Divorce can be a difficult process that affects many different parts of a person's life. The added stress can manifest itself in a variety of ways, such as adverse health effects if people going through a divorce are not careful. One study from the University of Arizona found that people in the midst of a divorce are prone to poor sleep, which may cause high blood pressure. Other experts have also noted other possible health issues, largely stemming from people's failure to take care of their bodies during the stressful event. This means that divorcing spouses need to be extra careful to maintain their healthy eating habits and ensure that they get regular exercise.

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New Bill Punishes Revenge Porn Cyberbullying

 Posted on August 19,2014 in Divorce

Illinois is in the middle of passing a new law that would criminalize a recent Internet trend. Senate Bill 2694 punishes people for “posting private material,” which in this case means the posting of sexually explicit photos or videos online without the person’s consent. The goal of this bill is to halt the use of “revenge porn,” a cyberbullying tactic where people post private pictures of their exes after a divorce or breakup as a means of getting revenge. If the bill passes into law, Illinois would join many other states, including California, Wisconsin, and Utah, in legislating against these sorts of invasions of privacy following the end of a relationship.

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Wives’ Education and How it Impacts Divorce Rates

 Posted on August 16,2014 in Divorce

The gender gap in education has been reversed. In recent years, women have outpaced men in earning college degrees and in graduate school enrollment. Some sociologists have noted this could be a potential problem for marriages in the future since old data showed marriages in which the wife’s education surpassed the husband’s were more prone to end in a divorce.

However, a new study being published in the American Sociological Review reveals that those concerns may be overblown. The study, performed by researchers at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and Northwestern University, examined marital success rates over the last 50 years and correlated them to the education levels of the spouses.

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Returning to College after Divorce

 Posted on August 12,2014 in Divorce

One decision several people make after getting a divorce is returning to college. This can be a beneficial way to get a fresh start in life. It can also be a good step to entering or reentering the workforce for spouses who opted to stay home and care for the children rather than working outside the home.

Returning to college after taking some time off has both benefits and challenges associated with it for the non-traditional student. Going to college is always a big decision, but that is especially true for those returning to college, so recently divorced potential students should consider their options carefully.

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How Siblings Affect Custody

 Posted on August 09,2014 in Child Custody

In divorces that involve children, the parents’ paramount questions are often related to custody and include concerns such as how custody is determined or the various types of custody. One common issue that arises when determining the answers to these concerns involves how siblings affect the custody process in general. Siblings’ relationships with each other can often be very close, and the existence of these additional close relationships may complicate the custody process.

Generally, there are two major concerns related to siblings and custody. These include whether the court will keep the siblings together and whether siblings are allowed visitation rights to the other siblings. Unfortunately, neither question has a concrete answer. Family law is a discipline with many unique scenarios. However, there are legal guidelines within which courts will work.

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New Study Finds Possible Explanation for Gender Imbalance in Divorce

 Posted on August 05,2014 in Divorce

A past post on this blog highlighted the disparate impact that divorce has on girls because marriages with firstborn daughters tend to end more frequently than marriages with firstborn sons. That post highlighted a study that posed a variety of sociological explanations for that gender gap, such as fathers feeling more obliged to provide a male role model for sons or parents’ inaccurate perceptions that girls are more costly to raise increasing stress within the marriage.

Now, a new study has discovered a possible biological explanation for the gender imbalance in divorce. This explanation is known as the female survival advantage. The female survival advantage is a term for the generally-observed fact that women appear to be more physically resilient and more likely to survive than men. This trait carries over throughout all stages of life. In fact, men have documented higher mortality rates for all ages from zero to 100.

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New Spousal Support Guidelines Await Governor's Signature

 Posted on July 30,2014 in Wheaton Divorce Attorney

One of the key portions of any divorce proceeding is the determination of spousal support, also referred to as alimony. This is the money that one former spouse pays to the other to support them as they transition back to their single life. The current system of calculating spousal support is based on a wide array of factors, including things like both spouses' incomes and property, the spouses' needs and earning capacities, the standard of living that occurred during the marriage, and the duration of the marriage. This has led to spousal support amounts being somewhat unpredictable at times.

Now, a new bill that is currently awaiting the governor's signature plans to reform that. The bill will not remove those factors from play entirely, but it will provide more concrete guidelines for judges to follow. The bill adds a new method of calculating support terms and the amount of time that the supporting spouse will be required to pay support, which will now be based on the length of the marriage. Additionally, the bill provides more strict mathematical formulas for calculating the amount of spousal support that a person will owe.

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