Posted on March 25, 2015 in Same Sex Marriage in Illinois

As of 2011, both same-sex and opposite-sex couples may enter civil unions. Civil unions are similar to marriages, but there are differences. Civil unions are granted by the county clerk's office. To legally enter a civil union, both partners must be 18 years old or older and they may not be blood relatives.

Before you enter a civil union with your partner, talk to an experienced family attorney about your rights and obligations following the union. These rights differ from those afforded to married couples. As of 2014, same sex couples have the right to marry in Illinois under the Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Marriage Fairness Act. However, some couples continue to opt for a civil union instead.

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 Posted on March 23, 2015 in Divorce

There is more than one way for Illinois couples to effectively end their marriages. The most common method by far is divorce. When a couple gets a divorce, they go through the legal process of ending their marriage by dividing their property and arranging for their children's care and support. For some couples, an annulment is an option. If the couple can prove that their marriage is not valid, an annulment can quickly render their marriage void. Reasons for an annulment include one partner was too young to consent to marriage at the time of their wedding or one partner was married to another individual when the couple married. The final option is legal separation.

Legal separation is not the same as the type of separation that often precedes a divorce. This type of separation is discussed in the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act. With a legal separation, the couple must file paperwork and submit it to the court as if they were going through the divorce process. They then go before a judge to have their case heard and settled, which may include the same provisions as a divorce, such as child custody arrangement, child support, spousal maintenance, and property division. Essentially, a legal separation is almost identical to a divorce. The only difference between a legal separation and a divorce is that a legally separated individual can not remarry unless he or she opts to get a divorce.

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 Posted on March 18, 2015 in Child Support

Divorce is a major life event, and it can often be particularly difficult for children to go through. However, much of that difficulty can be reduced by parents who understand what their child is going through and have been taught how to properly handle these emotional issues. To that end, the Illinois Supreme Court introduced Rule 924. Rule 924 is a requirement that people party to child custody hearings must participate in parenting education classes that has been approved by the courts in the county in which the legal proceeding is taking place. From a practical standpoint, the available classes vary widely in their cost as well as in their format.

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 Posted on March 16, 2015 in Divorce

Over the past few decades, the pet's role in the family has dramatically evolved. Dogs lives have gone from a chain in the backyard to organic diets and high-end doggy daycare. Likewise, the pet cat's role has elevated from family pest killer to the star of the internet. With these changes came our changing perspective of pets as individuals, rather than property.

But legally, pets are still considered to be personal property and are divided as such during a divorce. Illinois courts do not recognize pet custody agreements in the way that they recognize child custody agreements and instead consider pets to be the same as other property outlined in Part V of the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act.

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 Posted on March 11, 2015 in Divorce

The presence of children can often make a divorce more complicated, and parents want to make sure that their divorce affects their children as little as possible. Parents tend to focus their concerns on the possible emotional impacts of divorce, but they should also remember that divorce can have an effect on their children's physical health as well, if steps are not taken to keep them healthy. In fact, a recent study from San Francisco State University found that children of divorce are more likely to consume sugary beverages such as soda, which can have a negative impact on their health.

The Study's Findings

The study examined the eating habits of 37 children in families that were recently separated or divorced. The goal of the study was to determine if a parental divorce increased children's risk for obesity-inducing behaviors such as the consumption of sugary soda. The researchers found that of the behaviors they studied, including soda consumption, skipping breakfast, eating fewer fruits and vegetables, and eating out more often, the only one affected by the divorce in a significant way was the increase in soda consumption.

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 Posted on March 09, 2015 in Asset Division

Last June, Illinois law officially changed to allow same-sex couples to enter into full marriages. While this was a momentous occasion for many, it also opened up same-sex couples to the possibility of having to deal with a formal legal divorce down the road. Although the divorce laws apply to same-sex marriages the same way that they do to heterosexual marriages, there are a variety of practical differences that certain same-sex couples should consider. One of these issues comes up in the context of property division. Many same-sex couples cohabited in long-term, committed relationships that were not legally recognized marriages prior to the enactment of the new law. Those preexisting relationships can make distinguishing marital property from non-marital property more difficult.

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 Posted on March 04, 2015 in Divorce

Divorces can be emotionally-charged affairs, and those emotions can provoke people to overstep certain legal bounds. Often, this can manifest as people trying to do their own investigations into their spouse's lives, trying to catch them cheating or collecting evidence of other bad behavior to cast them in a worse light in court. This trend has only become more pronounced with the advent of cheaper surveillance equipment and other technology that allows ordinary citizens to spy on their spouses. While the desire to engage in this sort of behavior is understandable, it is often better to leave the divorce investigation to the professionals. People who overstep the bounds of the law can find out that the evidence they gathered cannot be used in court, and they may even end up facing criminal charges because of their actions.

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 Posted on March 03, 2015 in Divorce

One of the biggest questions that often comes with a divorce is “Who gets to keep the house?” Houses are often one of the most substantial assets a couple has, so it is understandable that the dispute over it gets a lot of focus. However, there is an aspect of dividing up the house that often gets overlooked, the mortgage. Marital property division also includes dividing up the marital debt, so couples going through divorce should be aware that the mortgage will need to be divided up as well. There are some general concerns people going through a divorce should be aware of, as well as special issues in the case of an underwater home, a problem plagues millions of U.S. households.

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 Posted on February 26, 2015 in Divorce

Engagement rings are a symbol of a couple's commitment to each other, but beyond that they are also valuable assets in their own right. In fact, The New York Times reports that the average value of an engagement ring is $4,000. A broken engagement or a divorce often raises questions about who gets to claim that value. The question is especially important for younger couples who may not have much in the way of tangible assets. As it turns out, the way the relationship ended is important for determining who gets the ring. The rules are different between a broken engagement and a divorce. For a broken engagement, it depends on who breaks the engagement, and for a divorce it tends to remain the property of the wife regardless.

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 Posted on February 24, 2015 in Divorce

The purpose of divorce is to provide an orderly way for people who have legally intertwined their lives to begin unwinding them. The two major ways that law does this are through property division and child custody decisions. Yet, there are other parts of people's lives that are tied together during a marriage that also need to be dealt with. One of the biggest areas of law where that is true is in the estate planning context. A divorce can have major implications for things like wills, trusts, and insurance policies. Some of these instruments change automatically when a divorce occurs, while others require manual updating by the spouses. Re-examining estate planning after divorce is critical, yet one area that many people overlook.

Automatic Revocations

There are a variety of documents that update automatically in the event that a couple divorces. One of the biggest is a person's will. Section 4-7(b) of the Illinois Probate Act deals with what happens to wills in the event of a divorce. It automatically invalidates any bequest to the ex-spouse in the will. However, it is important to realize that the law does not update the will with new presumptions that the property will go to someone else. Instead, the property that would have gone to the spouse passes to the people it would have if it were not included in the will at all. This makes it important to manually update a will following a divorce to ensure that the property that would have gone to the spouse is properly redirected. This is especially true in cases where the will provided some decision-making authority to the ex-spouse, which will now be left out entirely.

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