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Recent Blog Posts
I Am Worried I Will Lose My Pension in My Illinois Divorce. What Can I Do?
Pensions and other retirement funds are essential aspects of many individuals’ long-term financial planning. It can take enormous sacrifices and years of hard work in the hope of a secure future, and when divorce threatens that security, the implications can be frightening.
While pensions and other retirement funds are generally seen as marital property and are subject to division in a divorce, the good news is that there are often things you can do to help protect yourself during the property division process and having an experienced Illinois divorce attorney can help.
How Can I Prove Paternity in Kane County if My Child’s Father Will Not Cooperate?
Dealing with the issue of paternity is often stressful for men and women alike. Mothers need financial support from a child’s father and often struggle to get it; men, who may be unsure whether they are a child’s father or who may not want a child at all, are often resistant to submit to paternity testing.
While both parties may believe they are equally justified in their feelings and actions, Illinois law requires both parents to financially support their children, even if they do not want to be involved in the child’s life. This means that men who are the biological father of a child can be legally compelled to submit to court-ordered paternity tests and provide child support.
Establishing Paternity in Illinois
There are several ways to establish paternity in Illinois. If both parents agree that a man is the child’s father, they may sign a Voluntary Acknowledgement of Paternity form (also known as a VAP). This form is often signed at a hospital after a child is born, although it can be signed later as well.
Why Would an Illinois Court Order a Child Custody Evaluation?
Issues of child custody are often among the most strongly disputed in Illinois divorces. Both parents, loving their children and believing they know what is best, may be at loggerheads about parenting time arrangements or who should have the power to make important decisions for the children. Courts may also be unsure whether either parent is capable or safe in their parenting abilities. If there are concerns about how parenting time and parental responsibilities should be allocated, a court may order a custody evaluation, or a 604.10(b) evaluation.
When Can a Court Order a Custody Evaluation?
Courts can request a comprehensive custody evaluation any time a judge has questions about the facts or circumstances of a child’s home environment, including when there are concerns about:
- Substance abuse
- Domestic Violence
How Can I Keep Private or Sensitive Information From the Public Record in My Illinois Divorce?
Gone are the days when divorcing spouses had to publicly drag each other through the mud, revealing personal details about things like infidelity and abandonment to try to prove fault and get a divorce. While this is undoubtedly a change for the better, divorces in Illinois are still not completely private. Certain divorce details are part of the public record, yet spouses, especially those with public profiles, may have good reasons for wanting to keep them private. If you are hoping to keep your Illinois divorce details as private as possible, read on.
What Details Are Always Private?
Certain personal details are never part of the public record. Social security numbers, driver’s licenses, bank accounts, and other such details cannot be revealed in their entirety in public divorce records. Details of this nature can compromise your identity and you do not have to worry about these being public. But your divorce record, and even the process of discovery, can reveal a lot about your personal and family finances that you may want to keep private.
Do I Have to Pay Alimony to My Long-Term Partner if We Were Never Married?
Even after they have cohabitated for years, raised children, and owned property, for one reason or another, many couples in Illinois decide never to get married. When couples who are traditionally married get divorced, one partner may be ordered by the court to pay alimony, or, as it is known in Illinois, “spousal support.” But do Kane County couples who were never married deal with spousal support when they break up?
Unmarried Partners Do Not Pay Alimony When They Break Up
The only partners eligible for spousal support are those who were legally married - and even then, courts do not automatically grant spousal support, but instead examine a couple’s situation and determine whether spousal support would be appropriate. Spousal support payments are more common after longer marriages in which one partner made significantly more than the other, or when one partner gave up educational or economic prospects to raise children.
Three Ways Substance Abuse Can Interfere With Your Illinois Divorce
Along with infidelity, conflict, and financial disagreements, substance abuse is one of the top contributors to divorce in Illinois. Overdose deaths in the United States surged past the 100,000 mark in 202 and heavy drinking is responsible for another nearly 100,000 premature deaths in the U.S. every year.
Whether because of alcohol or drug use, there is no question that substance abuse can interfere with a marriage to the point that the marriage irretrievably breaks down. This can have a profound effect on spouses during a marriage, but children are perhaps the most affected by a parent with a substance use disorder. If you are getting divorced in Illinois and you or your spouse is struggling with substance abuse, here are three areas of your divorce that may be affected.
Asset Division
Because substance abuse is often so deeply intertwined with poor financial decisions, spouses often secretly use savings, loans, or other sources of income to finance their addiction and leave a marriage in dire financial straits. If a spouse has depleted a couple’s finances to purchase drugs or alcohol, a judge may allocate a greater amount of marital assets to the other spouse to make up for the irresponsible behavior.
What Should I Do if a Guardian ad Litem Has Been Assigned to My Illinois Divorce Case?
Many divorcing parents in Illinois find themselves locked in a seemingly intractable dispute about issues related to their children. Maintaining objectivity during divorce can be very difficult, and hostility between parents can spill over into the children’s lives, negatively affecting them and making it very difficult to compromise about parenting time and parental responsibilities.
In the most contentious divorces, it may not be immediately obvious to a judge which custody arrangement would most benefit a child and so he or she may appoint a professional known as a guardian ad litem. If you are getting divorced or modifying a parenting agreement and have had a guardian ad litem assigned to your case, read on.
The Role of a Guardian ad Litem in Illinois
A guardian ad litem’s job is, essentially, to determine the best interests of a child during a very specific period of time - usually, during a divorce or custody dispute. Guardians ad litem in Illinois are licensed attorneys with special training that prepares them to do the appropriate investigation, fact-finding, and data collection necessary to determine a child’s best interests.
These Occupations in Illinois Have Higher Rates of Divorce
Certain jobs correlate with divorce so frequently that they create a bit of a chicken-or-egg question. Which came first - the job or the likelihood of divorce? Does a person who is more likely to get divorced pursue certain professions, or do some jobs really interfere with a marriage? Although each marriage is unique, research suggests that some jobs are correlated with much higher rates of divorce. And while financial stability and life satisfaction influence marital happiness, a higher salary is not necessarily correlated with lower divorce rates. Here are some of the jobs in Illinois with the highest divorce rates.
Casino Managers and Bartenders
Almost tied at roughly 52 percent, casino managers and bartenders are in a line of work that exposes them to late hours, alcohol consumption, and fresh new faces on a regular basis. Add to that an unpredictable income, holiday work schedules, and a relentless people-pleasing personality, and you might have a combination for marital trouble.
Four Important Things to Include in Your Illinois Divorce Planning Checklist
The prospect of getting divorced can be understandably frightening and overwhelming. So many things need to be dealt with and it can be difficult to know where to start. The fear of the unknown keeps many couples from planning around their divorce, but this is a mistake; meeting your divorce challenges head-on and creating a plan can help your divorce go much more smoothly. Here are four important things to consider as you create your pre-divorce planning checklist.
Collect Documents and Keep Track of Everything
From the moment you decide to get divorced, start collecting financial, medical, and educational documents for you, your spouse, and your children. Bank statements, deeds, health insurance information, and grade report cards will all be necessary for your divorce. Sometimes, spouses will drag their feet when providing information; if you can manage to get the information yourself, you can save a lot of time.
Six Issues Family Counseling Can Help With During Your Illinois Divorce
Making the decision to end a marriage, especially when there are children involved, is a serious choice. Because there are so many changes, and these changes can be so stressful for everyone involved, many Illinois couples choose to get the help of a family therapist as they move through the divorce process. Family therapists can work with everybody, including the children, to process the divorce and the changes it brings. Having a neutral therapist can help with many different issues and most families who use family therapy feel as though they benefit tremendously. In this blog post, we will look at how family counseling can help a family dealing with divorce.
What Are the Benefits of Family Therapy in an Illinois Divorce?
Children often have a very difficult time dealing with divorce. They are often too young to understand why their parents are separating, and, if they are old enough to understand, they are usually still conflicted and angry about the loss. A family counselor can help children process their feelings about the divorce, and can also help parents communicate more clearly so the children are not caught in the crosshairs of parental conflict.
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