Posted on December 15, 2014 in Divorce

Property division is one of the most important aspects of any divorce process, and probably the most important in marriages without children. Consequently, it leads to a lot of people wondering about how things get divided. All too often, people ask that question of how courts divide property before they ask a more fundamental question: “What does the court divide?” At a high level, the answer to that is simple. Marital property gets divided, and spouses get to keep their non-marital property for themselves. Answering the question of which property is marital and which property is not can become a bit more complicated.

What Is and Is Not Marital Property

The easiest place to start when discussing marital versus non-marital property is with a definition of marital property. Illinois law defines marital property as “all property acquired by either spouse subsequent to the marriage.” This means that things the spouses bring into the marriage are non-marital property and things they get afterward are marital property.

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 Posted on December 10, 2014 in Divorce

A divorce can have ripple effects that last after it ends, especially in the realm of retirement. Married couples engage in long-term financial planning together, so a split can often push those plans off track, unless people take care to keep them intact during the divorce. One particular way that divorce can impact retirement is through the division of pensions. Now the Illinois Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case about how pension division interacts with Social Security, which has its own special rules for divorcing couples.

Social Security in Divorce

Social Security is different from the majority of pensions and retirement plans. Most of these plans qualify as marital property that the court will deal with during the property division. Conversely, Illinois courts do not divide Social Security. This difference stems from the fact that Social Security is a special plan regulated by the government. This means that it already has contingencies in place to deal with divorce, so courts do not need to divide it.

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 Posted on December 08, 2014 in Child Custody

Proving paternity can be a complex thing to do, and a difficult one to discuss with your spouse. However, it can also be important for your child's future. Before people had access to things like DNA testing, there were a variety of laws in place that created presumptions about who was a child's father. Many of these laws are still around, though they have been modified in recent years to account for the changing technology available to actually make determinations about paternity. The key question for paternity laws asks whether the parents of the child are married.

Married Parents

Married parents ordinarily present the simplest case for establishing paternity. If two people are married when the child is conceived or born, then the Illinois Parentage Act of 1984 creates a presumption that the husband is the child's father. However, the father can dispute this presumption.

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 Posted on December 03, 2014 in Divorce

Some people can be tempted to start focusing on the short-term issues during a divorce. This is an understandable impulse since a divorce causes many immediate changes in a person's life. However, it is also important to keep one eye on the long view throughout the process. One of these issues is retirement planning.

Spouses plan to spend their lives together, and those plans can often start well in advance. This means that retirement plans are an important part of the divorce conversation. This is especially true now that gray divorce, divorces among people over 50, is becoming more of a trend. Fortunately, there are a variety of strategies people can use to help make sure that their divorce does not derail their golden years.

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 Posted on December 01, 2014 in Divorce

The prevalence of substance abuse in America is an unfortunate reality. In fact, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration's research, tens of millions of Americans experience problems with alcoholism or drug abuse. Naturally, these problems can place a strain on a marriage, and many people report that substance abuse was one of the main causes of their separation. Many people who are divorcing a spouse with substance abuse issues wonder about the special considerations that those issues need. As it happens, substance abuse can have both legal and practical effects on the divorce process.

Legal Effects of Substance Abuse

The two main legal effects of substance abuse on divorce are as grounds for divorce and during the child custody proceedings. Substance abuse can be grounds for divorce in Illinois, meaning it forms the actual reason for the divorce, but this is less important than it once was. Illinois has a “no-fault” divorce law now, so spouses can get divorced based on irreconcilable differences. However, having grounds for the divorce may be able to speed the process up since there is a required six-month separation period in no-fault divorces.

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 Posted on November 28, 2014 in Divorce

The Census is a once a decade process by the government that attempts to catalog the United States’ population and some basic information about everyone collectively. Among the information that the government currently collects is the marital history of the population e.g. whether a person recently married or divorced. Now the Census Bureau has released a statement asking for public comment on the idea of removing the marital history question from the Census. Though this may seem like a fairly insignificant issue, it actually may have far reaching effects on government policy, as well as on the way social scientists have to study marriage and divorce.

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 Posted on November 25, 2014 in Child Custody

Divorces are the most common way of legally ending a marriage in Illinois, but they can seem too final for some people. Sometimes, people in that situation may benefit from another option provided by Illinois law, legal separation. Unlike divorces, legal separations do not end a marriage. However, they do allow both parties to live separately with formal support agreements in place. These sorts of arrangements are seldom used in Illinois because they still require much of the same process as a divorce, but they can be a useful tool in certain circumstances.

Legal Separation vs. Divorce

Legal separations are very similar to divorce. If the two spouses are living apart, then one of them can file for a legal separation provided that they are not at fault for the separation. Examples of fault can include things like adultery or abandoning the other spouse. Then the couple determines things like child custody, visitation rights, child support, alimony, and property division, just like they would in a full divorce. Also like divorce, legal separations are permanent arrangements, unless the couple chooses to get back together. Although, at some point it will likely make sense for a couple who has been legally separated for a long time to convert that separation into a divorce.

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 Posted on November 20, 2014 in Divorce

Many people are reluctant to seek a divorce because they fear the expense of a divorce attorney, or if they do seek divorce, they choose to do so alone rather than with experienced guidance. The law is a complicated system, and even seemingly simple divorces can involve legal pitfalls. Having a skilled divorce attorney on his or her side can help a person have access to experienced investigators, can provide support and reduce stress during the process, and can even help the odds if the other spouse has already hired a divorce attorney to represent him or her.

Experienced Investigation

One of the most difficult parts of the divorce process is bringing together all the information necessary to complete the process. Dividing up the property requires a full, coherent accounting of all the couple's finances, along with an investigation to make sure that the other spouse is not attempting to improperly conceal assets. Child custody disputes are all about developing a custody arrangement that is in the best interest of the child, and the more information there is available to do that, the better off the child will be. Oftentimes, people are tempted to do their own investigation into their spouses, such as snooping through their emails. However, people performing their own investigations run the risk of running afoul of privacy laws. Divorce attorneys are experienced at using legal methods of investigation and the discovery process to ensure that all the necessary information comes out during the divorce process.

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 Posted on November 18, 2014 in Divorce

Many people dread divorce as a complicated or expensive process that involves lawyers and months of conflict. While many divorces require more complicated unwinding to ensure that both parties receive a fair outcome, Illinois law also allows for a simpler method of divorce. This method of divorce, known as a Joint Simplified Dissolution of Marriage, is a quicker way to get a divorce, provided that a couple meets certain qualifying standards. Importantly, proceeding through this simplified process for a divorce, rather than through the ordinary channels, waives many legal rights, so it is important for people considering this divorce process to consult with family law attorneys to learn about all of their options and the rights that they are sacrificing in exchange for this speedy resolution.

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 Posted on November 13, 2014 in Divorce

Every young couple wants to find a way to divorce-proof their marriage, but a new study has revealed that the decisions they make just as they are getting married can have a major impact on their likelihood of divorce. New research from the Emory University Department of Economics looked at how much a couple spent on wedding rings and on their weddings over all to see if those expenditures had any effect on the couple's divorce risk. It turns out that despite the fact that many people dream about expensive, fairy tale weddings, such spectacles actually increase the marital failure rate.

The Study's Findings

The researchers used surveys to collect data on thousands of U.S. residents who either were married or had been married, and then examined the data to see if there were any trends between wedding expenses and divorce rates. They found several. For instance, people who bought expensive engagement rings, classified by the study as costing between $2,000 and $4,000, were 30 percent more likely to divorce as compared to people who spent more modestly on their rings, opting for one costing between $500 and $2,000. Interestingly, the trend does not continue for people who spent less than $500 on an engagement ring.

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