Posted on May 08, 2018 in Mediation

Going through a divorce can be one of the most stressful things a person ever endures. According to the American Institute of Stress, divorce is second only to the death of a spouse in terms of the stress it brings to a person’s life. Although some couples will simply not be able to divorce without court intervention, preventing courtroom litigation can significantly reduce the emotional and financial costs of a divorce. For couples that are able to at least partially cooperate, mediation may be the best way to end their marriage fairly and civilly.

Mediation Puts More Control in the Hands of the Spouses

If your divorce ends up in litigation, any decision you and your spouse cannot agree to will be made by the judge. Judges can make decisions regarding spousal maintenance, child support, property division, and more. Although courts will always try to be as fair as possible, often court-ordered decisions do not fully satisfy either spouse. Mediation, on the other hand, puts much more control in the hands of the spouses. With help from the mediator, spouses negotiate and come to their own conclusions about things like property division and maintenance payments. Studies have shown that when individuals have more say over these types of decisions that they are more likely to comply with the judge’s final divorce decree. This results in fewer instances of returning to court to enforce or modify the decree. 

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 Posted on May 02, 2018 in Child Custody and Support

In just a few short weeks, your children will be out of school for the summer. They are probably already looking forward to the freedom to sleep in and to spend time recreating with their friends. As a parent, you may also be excited for summer, but it is also common for parents to approach the extended break from school with at least some concerns. Such worries are often amplified for parents who share parental responsibilities with an ex-spouse. If you are subject to an Illinois parenting plan or custody agreement, it is important to prepare well in advance for the months ahead.

Review Your Existing Arrangements

Before planning any trips or summertime events, it is important to know what your parenting plan says about the summer break. Many parenting plans give the bulk of summer parenting time to the parent who sees the children less often during the school year—particularly if that parent lives relatively far away. Other plans keep a schedule similar to that which is in place during the school year. If your plan makes definitive arrangements regarding summer parenting time, you need to follow them or come up with a compromise so that both you and the other parent can enjoy the summer as well.

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 Posted on April 17, 2018 in Child Custody and Support

If you are a parent considering divorce, your number one concern is probably about how the divorce will affect your children. Fortunately, there are many good resources for parents planning to divorce. One thing parents should do if they are planning to share custody of their children after the split is create a parenting plan or parenting agreement.

Every Plan is Different

If you are a parent getting divorced in Illinois, the courts will require you to draft and submit a parenting plan. In it, you should define the proposed custody and visitation schedule (technically called allocation of parental rights and parenting time respectively) as well as solidify other parenting decisions. Only the custody and visitation schedule is required, but many experts suggest parents use a court-required parenting agreement as an opportunity to get on the same page regarding the children. Each family is different, so your parenting plan will not look exactly the same as another family’s plan.

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 Posted on April 15, 2018 in Child Custody and Support

When a couple with children divorces, the parent with less parental responsibility and parenting time is often ordered to pay child support by the court. Such a parent must make periodic payments to the other parent in order to help with child-rearing expenses. Since 1988, Illinois has allowed court-ordered child support payments to be paid through automatic income withholding. The amount of money that can be deducted from the payor’s paycheck is based on the Income Shares model. This method of determining child support takes into consideration both parents' incomes as well as the amount of parenting time and parental responsibility each parent has.

When a Parent Does Not Pay His or Her Required Child Support

Sometimes, for a countless number of reasons, parents are unable or unwilling to pay their court-ordered child support. When this occurs, the recipient parent, meaning the parent with more parental responsibility who is due support payments, can petition the court to address the problem. The state of Illinois has the authority to take child support obligations from other periodic payments such as worker’s compensation and unemployment benefits.

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 Posted on April 09, 2018 in Property Division

Although we often do not consider it as such, a divorce is the end of a financial relationship just as much it is a romantic relationship. When a couple gets married, they combine not only their personal lives but also their finances. When a married couple divorces, courts must decide how to divide the property, assets, and debt which the married couple owns. The courts must also consider whether either spouse should be ordered to pay child support or spousal maintenance (formerly called alimony) to the other. In order to make these decisions, courts rely on both parties’ complete honesty and transparency regarding their financial situations. When one or both spouses are not honest regarding their finances during a divorce, there can be serious consequences which significantly complicate the divorce process.

How Do Spouses Misrepresent Their Financial Status?

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 Posted on April 06, 2018 in Property Division

Divorce among the baby boomer generation is more common now than ever before. According to the National Center for Family and Marriage Research, divorces among married couples 50 and over doubled from 1990 to 2014. Over the same period, divorces among couples 65 and older tripled. Divorce among older couples has unique challenges. One important issue that older divorcees face is divvying up retirement accounts. Older Americans have a smaller window to earn after they divorce, so retirement accounts are a commonly fought over topic.

How Are Retirement Investments Divided?

Regardless of who saved more, retirement accounts are often split evenly, or close to it, when a couple divorces. Attorneys say that in a large majority of divorce cases, retirement accounts are considered marital property, and funds that were saved up to support one household must be divided to support two individuals. “There are a number of people who say ‘I have socked away every month and I do not see why I have to divide it with my spouse,” says Joslin Davis, former president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. “The law says ‘too bad.’”

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 Posted on April 02, 2018 in Spousal Maintenance

If you are divorced and receiving maintenance payments from your ex-spouse, you may have come to rely on that money. Maintenance, also known as alimony or spousal support, is intended to help a financially disadvantaged spouse in the years that follow a divorce, so such reliance is rather understandable. There are, however, a few situations in which your actions could cause maintenance payments to end. It is important to understand the law in Illinois so that you can make the best decisions for your future.

Ending Support Obligations

Permanent maintenance—in other words, support for the rest of a spouse’s life—is generally reserved for divorces between spouses who have been married for 20 years or more. For shorter marriages, the court will usually set a specific amount of time for maintenance payments to last. Both situations presume that the court has identified the need for maintenance. When a support order includes an intended end date, payments must continue until that date unless the recipient remarries or either spouse passes away. (It is possible for a divorce settlement to include security provisions in the event of the paying spouse’s death, but that is a topic for another day.) The third situation that could terminate a spouse’s obligation to pay maintenance is if the recipient spouse moves in with a new romantic partner.  

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 Posted on March 19, 2018 in Spousal Maintenance

Divorce is a different experience for everyone who goes through it. The particulars of how a marriage ends can be based on many factors including the financial situation of each spouse, the length of the marriage, if children are involved, and more. If you are planning to get divorced and you are the primary breadwinner of the couple, there are some special considerations that you should take note of.

Spousal Maintenance

Spousal maintenance, also called spousal support or alimony, refers to the payments that the higher-earning spouse pays to the lower-earning spouse after a divorce. Spousal maintenance in Illinois is determined on a case-by-case scenario for couples who have a large discrepancy in either income or life circumstances. If you make significantly more money than your soon-to-be-ex-spouse or they have been out of the workforce for a while, you might have to pay spousal maintenance. The amount the payments will be determined by the length and standard of living of the marriage, the spouses’ income and property, the present and future earning capacity of each spouse, and more. Maintenance payments can be temporary or permanent, but are not required after the person receiving maintenance remarries. 

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 Posted on March 15, 2018 in Parental Relocation

In today’s world, it is not uncommon for a person to seek a fresh start by moving to a new city—sometimes even across the country. This may be particularly appealing after a divorce, as a new beginning may be cathartic in many ways. While the average American has the freedom to move wherever he or she wants at any time, such is not always the case for a divorced parent who shares parenting time of a child with a former spouse.

Rules for Relocating

The state of Illinois has established laws designed to help keep both parents active in the life of their child, even after a divorce. Regarding moving to a new city or state, Illinois law is clear. A parent with at least half of the parenting time of a child may only move with the child within a certain radius of his or her current home before the move is considered a “relocation.” A relocation requires the consent of the other parent or the approval of the court.

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 Posted on March 09, 2018 in Divorce

If you are a parent of young children and you are getting divorced, you will undoubtedly have questions about how your divorce will affect your kids. While most children are eventually able to adapt to their parents’ post-divorce reality, it can be incredibly difficult to break the news to them. Talking about divorce is not easy, especially with children whose entire world is about to change, but experts offer some useful tips that can help you know what to say.

School Aged-Children Know More Than You Realize

If your children are between the ages of about 4 and 8, he or she probably knows other children whose parents are divorced, especially if your children go to school—including preschool. Your children may understand that not all families have both parents living in the same house, but their concerns are likely to revolve around how your decision will affect their lives directly. They may wonder if they will have to move or change schools, and when they will get to see each parent. You may not have the answers to these questions immediately, but that does not mean you should avoid telling your children what is about to happen.

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