Posted on November 30,2016 in Divorce

Anyone who has ever been in a serious relationship can probably relate. The initial stages of the relationship are filled with happiness and excitement at the very thought of one another. While nobody expects the “puppy-love” phase to last forever, it is during this stage that many couples decide to get married. As time goes by, however, the relationship may cool into a less dramatic and intense type of love, and, in some cases, even further than that. Eventually, one or both spouses may find themselves feeling bored, lonely, and unloved despite the rings on their fingers. Some may be inclined to take immediate action and file for divorce, but rushing toward the end of your marriage is not usually the best idea.

Relationship Cycles

Your relationship is going to be constantly changing. Life does not stand still and neither does love. Even the healthiest of marriages have rough patches. There is a reason that the typical wedding vows include the phrases “for better or for worse,” “in good times and in bad,” and “in sickness and in health.” If you took the leap of faith to marry your spouse, you believed that your love was deeper than physical attraction and good feelings. Before you decide to file for divorce, take an objective look at your marriage and try to determine it is really over or if you are just going through a tough time.

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 Posted on November 11,2016 in Divorce

Are you the type of person who sees repeating numbers on a digital clock—4:44 pm, for example—and encourages your friends to make a wish? Perhaps the question is particularly relevant considering today’s calendar date of 11/11. A large number of people find significance in patterns found in numbers, while, for many others, such patterns inspire curious, coincidental amusement. In fact, couples around the world intentionally choose dates with numerical patterns to celebrate their wedding ceremonies. However, a new study suggests that those who get married on gimmicky dates divorce nearly a third more often than those who marry on ordinary days.

Special Days and Regular Days

A team of economists from Australia’s University of Melbourne wanted to see if there was any connection between a couple’s wedding date and the likelihood of their divorce. Previous studies have looked at the size and cost of a wedding, as well as impact that age, remarriage, and children may have on the probably of divorce, but the researchers believed that they were the first to examine the calendar date of the wedding itself.

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 Posted on October 28,2016 in Stay-at-Home Dads

While fathers have always played an important role in the upbringing and development of children, they have not always been treated as such by the courts. This was often due to the assignment of traditional gender roles. Further, it was originally thought that the mother was more critical in the child’s early years. Yet, as time passed, fathers began to gain some important recognition in the lives of their children. The composition of families also started to change. Now there are fathers who stay home with their children and mothers who work outside of the home. Does this necessarily affect the allocation of parental responsibilities or assignment of parenting time in divorce though? It is possible but not guaranteed.

How Child-Related Matters Are Determined

In Illinois, divorcing parents are permitted to negotiate an agreement regarding the allocation of parental responsibilities and parenting time details of their case. Generally, this offers numerous benefits for families, including the freedom to create a parenting plan that is more tailored to their family’s specific needs. For example, if the couple feels the child and family would benefit most from the father receiving a greater allocation of parental responsibilities and parenting time because he works from home, they could create and agree upon a parenting plan that reflects this decision.

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 Posted on October 14,2016 in Children of Divorce

Differences in values and parenting philosophies can cause conflicts between two people. Not only can these differences cause difficulties with parenting after a divorce, they can be part of the reason why a couple divorced in the first place. But as a divorced parent, working cooperatively with your former spouse for your child's benefit is an important skill to develop

One way to reduce co-parenting conflicts is to understand your parenting style and that of your former partner. Developmental psychologists have identified four distinct parenting styles: authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, and uninvolved. Most parents' individual styles fall somewhere between two or more of these archetypes. By recognizing where your parenting style falls as well as your former partner's parenting style, you can develop a coherent parenting plan that works for all members of your family.

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 Posted on September 30,2016 in Divorce

There are many reasons why couples choose to end their marriages. In the state of Illinois, couples have the choice of ending their marriage either through divorce or annulment. Divorces and annulments are similar in terms of making a determination about a couple’s marital status.

However, they differ because while a divorce legally ends a valid and existing marriage, an annulment is the legal process used to end a marriage that was never valid. In Illinois, this is referred to as a “Declaration of Invalidity of Marriage.” This effectively makes it as if both parties were never married in the first place – as far as the government is concerned.

Grounds for a Declaration of Invalidity of Marriage

Grounds for annulment may vary in different states and legal jurisdictions. However, Illinois recognizes only a few circumstances as grounds for a Declaration of Invalidity of Marriage, including:

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 Posted on September 16,2016 in Prenuptial Agreements

Statistics show that Americans are, on average, waiting longer than ever to get married for the first time. While the maturity that normally accompanies age may be a factor in the recent decrease in the divorce rate, waiting to get married also means that each spouse tends to bring more property, assets, and debts to the marriage. As a result, many couples are turning to prenuptial agreements to help them establish which property is whose and how certain assets are to be addressed in the event of a divorce.

Free to Make Your Own Choices

Prenuptial agreements in Illinois are governed by the Uniform Premarital Agreement Act which the state adopted in 1990. The law gives prospective spouses the right to negotiate the terms of a prenuptial agreement in whatever manner suits them. The only topics that a prenuptial agreement is statutorily prohibited from addressing are the rights of a child regarding child support and custodial (parental responsibilities) plans made in advance of such a need.

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 Posted on August 26,2016 in Divorce

When you are considering divorce, there is a seemingly unending list of things to think about. Will you keep the family home? Who will be responsible for the children? Will you have to pay child support or alimony? In many cases, the implications of the divorce are given more thought than the process itself. The process includes filing the necessary paperwork, responding to the court when required, and remaining in compliance with deadlines and court orders. For many, the first important decision to be made is in regard to where the petition for divorce should be filed. An experienced divorce attorney can help you make the right choice for your unique situation.

What the Law Says

According to the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act, the proceedings for a divorce are to take place in the county in which either the petitioner or the respondent resides. If you are the spouse who files, you are the petitioner, and your spouse would be the respondent. This means that the law presumes that you will file for divorce in the county where you live or where your spouse currently lives. The law also provides that your divorce matter may be redirected to any county within the state of Illinois as needed.

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 Posted on August 12,2016 in Divorce

Divorce on the grounds of irreconcilable differences has been available to couples in Illinois for several decades. For most of that time, such a divorce was just one of the options that a couple had, as one spouse could still legally look to the end the marriage based on about a dozen other so-called “fault grounds,” including adultery, abuse, or abandonment. Beginning this year, however, the landscape of divorce in the state has changed such that fault no longer has any recognized place in an Illinois marriage dissolution.

Irreconcilable Differences Only

In the summer of 2015, Illinois lawmakers passed a measure that substantially reformed the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage act on several fronts. The changes included an evolution in the state’s approach to child custody—now called the allocation of parental responsibilities—parenting time, and moving with your child to a new city. The new law also addressed the process of dissolving a marriage, eliminating all fault-related grounds from the statute. As a result, every divorce in the state will only be granted on the no-fault grounds of irreconcilable differences. It does not matter, as far as the court is concerned, which spouse did what to the other, at least as it applies to legally ending the marriage.

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 Posted on July 28,2016 in Paternity

Paternity issues are complicated, emotional, and sometimes contentious matters- so much so that some may wonder why it is important or even necessary. Rest assured: this legal process, which is used to establish the biological father of a child, offers numerous benefits for all involved. Understand why you should take steps to legally establish paternity.

Benefits of Establishing Paternity for Mothers

When a married woman gives birth to a child, her husband is automatically presumed to be the father. He is generally the one who will be held responsible for child support, and he is the one who will likely split parenting time with the mother should the marriage end in divorce. The one exception is if a husband or an alleged father contests the validity of the child’s paternity.

In contrast, children born to unmarried mothers have “alleged” (potential) fathers. Before she can seek child support, assistance with health insurance, or other benefits for her child from the alleged father, legal steps must be taken to establish his paternity. Once she does, her child will be eligible for any paternal benefits that the father may be obligated to provide.

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 Posted on July 14,2016 in Spousal Maintenance

For many years, spousal support, or alimony, was a generally accepted part of the divorce process. When a couple decided to end their marriage, one spouse—usually the wife, statistically speaking—would be a severe financial disadvantage due to roles and responsibilities she assumed regarding the family. In most cases, the wife would also be granted primary responsibility for the couple’s children, meaning that it was even more difficult for her to obtain sufficient employment to support herself and her family. As such, the other spouse—usually the husband—would often be required to make spousal support payments, helping to ease the other party’s financial burden and making the end result of the divorce more equitable.

Changing Society, Changing Expectations

Over the last four decades or so, it has become increasingly more difficult for families to rely on a single income. This shift has been accompanied by a dramatic evolution of our cultural expectations for spouses in a marriage. Today, gender is much less of a factor for most families when determining household and family responsibilities. As times have changed, so has the state’s approach to granting spousal support or maintenance, as it is known in the law.

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