Posted on August 30, 2021 in Divorce

Alimony, spousal maintenance, and spousal support are all terms used to describe the financial assistance an individual provides to his or her spouse during or after divorce. In Illinois, you can request temporary spousal maintenance while your divorce is ongoing through a “temporary relief order.” You may also receive payments after the divorce is complete. However, spousal maintenance is not guaranteed, and many divorce cases conclude without a spousal maintenance order. Read on to learn about how, why, and when spousal maintenance is awarded in Illinois.

How Can You Get Spousal Support?

Spousal maintenance may be awarded to a spouse if the spouses agreed to maintenance in a valid prenuptial or postnuptial agreement. The spouses may also reach an agreement on the amount and duration of maintenance payments during settlement negotiations in their divorce. Lastly, a spouse may request maintenance by filing a petition with the court.

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 Posted on August 27, 2021 in Child Custody

Many parents who are thinking about ending their marriage have the same concern. They wonder, “How often will I get to see my kids if we divorce?” If you are thinking about divorce and you live in Illinois, it is important to understand how the state handles visitation. It is also important to know the vocabulary Illinois courts now use to describe parenting duties. In Illinois, the term “visitation” is no longer used to describe the time that a child spends with each parent. Visitation has been replaced by the term “parenting time.” Read on to learn about how parenting time decisions are handled in Illinois divorce cases.

How Much Parenting Time Does Each Parent Get?

Parents have the right to design their own parenting plan and submit it to the court for approval. As long as the parenting plan serves the child’s best interests, the plan will be approved and formalized into a binding court order. The parenting plan contains important information about how parents will make major decisions such as where the child goes to school, as well as the parenting time schedule. Some parents decide to split parenting time nearly equally. Others create a plan in which the child lives with one parent on the weekend and the other parent on the weekdays.

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 Posted on August 16, 2021 in Family Law

Domestic violence affects the lives of millions of people every day in the United States, and Illinois residents are no exception. If you or a loved one has experienced domestic violence or abuse, you may have questions about protection orders. In Illinois, an Emergency Order of Protection is often issued on the same day that it was requested. It prohibits the subject of the order from contacting or coming near the petitioner and may also contain other provisions such as a provision requiring the subject to surrender his or her firearms. An order of protection also helps to create an official record of the abusive person’s behavior. However, many abuse victims fail to get this important and potentially life-saving protection because they do not know if what they experienced was technically abuse under the law.

Can I Get an Order of Protection If the Abuser Never Physically Harmed Me?

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 Posted on August 12, 2021 in Divorce

We typically think of marriage as a romantic partnership. However, marriage is also a legal relationship. When a married couple divorces, they will need to follow certain procedures to dissolve the legal marital relationship. If you are thinking about getting divorced in Illinois, you may wonder what the process entails. For example, you may wonder what the legal grounds for divorce are in Illinois, or whether there is a waiting period before you can file for divorce. The better educated you are about the divorce process in Illinois, the better prepared you will be to end your marriage on your terms.

Illinois is a “No-Fault” Divorce State

Sometimes, well-meaning friends and family members give inaccurate and outdated divorce advice. One reason that this happens is that laws are always changing. Prior to January 1, 2016, Illinois had two options for divorce: fault-based divorce and no-fault divorce. Fault-based grounds were things like infidelity or abuse. However, Public Act 99-90 eliminated all of the fault-based grounds for divorce in the state of Illinois.

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 Posted on July 20, 2021 in Asset Division

Most couples buy a home at some point in their marriage. The family home is often the most valuable asset a couple owns, and the prospect of figuring out how to divide it in a divorce can be daunting. Fortunately, Illinois courts have established means of handling property division during divorce, and homes are no exception.

Who Gets to Keep the House?

Sometimes, it is necessary for a divorcing couple to sell the family home and divide the equity. However, it is common for one spouse to keep the home. Which spouse that will be may depend on a variety of factors, including each spouse’s financial situation, employment, and personal preferences. If there are children involved, the parent who is given the most parenting time may get to keep the home. The spouse who leaves the home may be able to recover their share of the home’s value in one of several ways.

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 Posted on July 13, 2021 in Asset Division

Retirement funds, such as pensions and 401(k) accounts, are often a substantial issue in an Illinois divorce. For a couple who have earned average incomes throughout the duration of their marriage, retirement accounts can make up the majority of their accumulated wealth. As such, spouses are often concerned with the impact of a division of retirement savings as a consequence of their divorce.

In our last post, we discussed the impact of divorce on Social Security benefits. Here, we will examine the way that retirement accounts are handled in a divorce.

401(k) and Contribution Plans 

Unless spouses signed a valid prenuptial agreement stating otherwise, 401(k) plans with contributions during the marriage are considered marital property and may be subject to division. Though contributions from before the marriage may remain non-marital assets, contributions during the marriage belong to the marital estate.

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 Posted on July 06, 2021 in Divorce

There are many factors to consider during your Illinois divorce, and one that is frequently overlooked is how Social Security benefits are handled. Social Security benefits are more complicated than other retirement assets like a 401(k), because federal law prohibits assigning, dividing, or garnishing Social Security benefits. This means that state courts cannot even consider Social Security benefits in the division of marital property, because dividing and allocating them–even by anticipating a larger future benefit for one spouse and allocating marital property to the other spouse accordingly–would contradict federal law.

However, that does not mean that you are not entitled to your own Social Security benefits according to your former spouse’s benefits. Federal law does allow for certain circumstances in which a divorced wife or husband of an insured person is entitled to Social Security benefits based on their former spouse’s work record.

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 Posted on June 28, 2021 in Asset Division

Once a couple knows their marriage is over, spouses preparing to divorce in Illinois can become very competitive and hostile. One tactic a spouse might employ in an effort to get revenge, pay less future spousal support, or otherwise get the upper hand in the divorce, is to hide assets and sources of income.

This tactic is more common in high asset divorces, when a couple’s financial picture may be complex and one spouse may manage many or most of the assets, leaving the other spouse in the dark. Finding hidden assets and income that one spouse tries to hide from the other may even require the help of a professional with a special set of skills. Here are several things to keep in mind if you think your spouse may be hiding assets.

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 Posted on June 21, 2021 in Divorce

When you are in the middle of a divorce, there can be so many things to manage and negotiate that the custody of a pet may not immediately come to mind. However, if you are like most pet owners, your dog or cat is part of your family, and you care deeply about its well-being. You should be sure to understand your options for ensuring that your pet remains in your life after the divorce.

Illinois Law Regarding Pets in a Divorce

In January of 2018, Illinois law changed to treat pets more like children, giving couples the option to share custody of their pets after a divorce. Prior to this law, pets were considered regular property like a house or a car. This meant they would have to be divided up along with all the other assets and given to one spouse or the other. The spouse who was not awarded ownership of a pet had no legal recourse to do anything and was left to deal with their loss.

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 Posted on June 15, 2021 in Divorce

One of the most common but least discussed challenges of divorce is the loss of a shared social group. Adding to the sense of loss from a divorce, friends may pick sides, and precious relationships may be lost.

However, life does go on after divorce, and divorced individuals do make new friends and start meaningful relationships. Adjusting to a new lifestyle may be difficult, but it is important. Here are some tips for building friendships after divorce.

• Go to a place of worship – If you’re religiously inclined (and even if you are not), a house of worship can be a great place to meet people and make new friends. Religious communities will often have organizations designed to help single, divorced, or widowed members meet people within their age group. You can also take part in events like potlucks and holiday celebrations, so you do not have to be alone on days you used to spend with your spouse.

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