What Are the Most Contentious Divorce Issues?

 Posted on February 14, 2025 in Divorce

While every marriage is different, the three most contentious issues among those with children are finances, infidelity, and incompatibility/disagreements (many about raising children). For those with no children, finances are still a contentious issue, along with infidelity, incompatibility, and difficulty communicating with one another.

While every divorce is different, and each couple is unique in some way, there remain standard issues across the board that tend to be the most contentious. If you are considering divorce, speaking to a knowledgeable Rolling Meadows, IL family law attorney can be beneficial. The issues that you and your spouse will end up arguing about can go much smoother when you have a strong legal advocate by your side.

Why Finances Are So Difficult in Marriage 

Unfortunately, few couples begin their marriage with realistic expectations regarding money. More than a fourth of all couples say money is their greatest relationship issue, largely due to disparate spending and saving habits and different expectations of how marital funds will be managed. If both spouses are working, differences in salaries may lead to resentment about how marital funds are spent. If the couple has vastly different long-term goals, like buying a home or saving for retirement, the arguments about money may increase over the years.

In some cases, one or both spouses may come into marriage with student loan debt, credit card debt, or even something like gambling or shopping addiction. If the other spouse is unaware of these issues, it can cause arguments between the couple regarding how to pay for those debts. Money often translates into power in a relationship if one partner has a paid job and the other does not, one spouse earns considerably more than the other, or one spouse comes from a wealthy family and the other does not.

Once a couple has children, the endless costs of diapers, formula, clothing, Little League, ballet lessons, prom gowns, college tuition, and minivans are added into the mix. Some marriages may deal with the additional financial costs of extended family. Perhaps one spouse’s brother cannot pay his rent, or the other spouse’s mother needs a new car. Should the couple have their own crisis, financial pressure increases exponentially.

How Financial Problems Continue Into Divorce

If these financial issues cause problems during the marriage, they will almost certainly cause issues during the divorce. Illinois operates under equitable distribution rather than community property when dividing assets and debts. This means assets and debts are divided fairly rather than equally. If one spouse believes he or she contributed much more to the marriage (financially speaking) than the other, there are likely to be endless arguments about how assets and debt should be divided.

When a couple has children, not only will they deal with how to allocate parental responsibilities, parenting time, and who will pay child support, but they will also probably have ongoing arguments about the array of new expenses that constantly crop up with children. Who will pay for summer camp, daycare, braces, unexpected medical expenses, an instrument for the band, the costs of other extracurricular activities, and on and on?

So, unless you are one of the rare couples who have no issues with money, your divorce – even for those who generally agree on most matters – may include arguments and disagreements about money and children. The money argument also encompasses how marital assets are divided and whether one spouse is entitled to receive spousal maintenance.

Contact an Arlington Heights, IL Divorce Lawyer

To keep the contentiousness in your divorce down to a minimum, you need an experienced Rolling Meadows, IL divorce attorney from Law Offices of Donald J. Cosley. When you choose our firm, Attorney Cosley will personally handle all aspects of your divorce. If you call with questions about your case, you will speak directly to him, never to a paralegal or other staff member. Call 847-253-3100 today to schedule your free consultation.