Posted on June 12, 2017 in Divorce

Divorce settlements and orders should always be drafted to address the future. The reason is because the decisions made during a divorce many times controls how your family grows after a divorce. Even in cases where careful planning and consideration is used in drafting an order in a divorce, life changes may dictate that the order may need to be modified at a later date.

What Can Modified?

In order to modify an order handed down in a divorce proceeding the very first thing you must do is petition the court. This is where the help of a dauntless DuPage County family lawyer will be able to help. The types of orders that one can petition the court to modify include:

• Visitation arrangements
• Child custody arrangements

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 Posted on June 02, 2017 in Divorce

When progressing through a divorce in Illinois, spouses have to make important financial decisions. This must be done while tolerating a great deal of emotional stress. Many times this volatile situation can cause people to make unnecessary yet consequential mistakes. A substantial mistake made regarding finance is operating and making decisions without having ample information. Without the information required to make sound decisions, the outcome of a divorce can be left to chance, or even worse, the other spouse.

Budgeting Through Divorce

Another common mistake made when spouses are going through a divorce is not adequately budgeting. When spouses are married, they become accustomed to having the financial resources of two incomes. When a marriage ends in divorce, the spouses are forced to adapt their financial decision making to address the fact that they no longer have the other spouse’s income available. Not making a conscious and focused consideration about the decreased income that spouses have available to them can lead to serious financial shortcomings that an Illinois court may not be able to rectify.

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 Posted on June 01, 2017 in Child Custody

Going through a divorce can be an emotionally draining ordeal with many unanswered questions that are often fought over. Decisions must be made inside of an emotional space that often drives spouses to treat every decision like a zero-sum game. Spouses may try to punish each other or hide assets. However, there are legitimate concerns regarding visitation or what is referred to as parenting time when one parent is physically or emotionally abusive.

Proving Abuse

Abuse can manifest itself in many ways. The most obvious form of abuse is physical abuse. In instances where physical abuse exist there are physical marks that a victim or spouse can point to as reasons why the abusive spouse should not have unsupervised or any visitation rights. It is important that you hire a fearless and knowledgeable DuPage County divorce lawyer to assist you through this difficult process. That lawyer will be able to present compelling evidence and arguments to the court that explain the extent and severity of the physical abuse and why the abuse is cause to terminate a parent's visitation rights.

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 Posted on May 31, 2017 in Divorce

Married or unmarried people sincerely love their pets. Roughly 78 million dogs and 86 million cats are owned throughout our nation. When a marriage between pet owners ends in divorce, one of the most contentious matters to navigate through is deciding who will take ownership of the pets in the dividing household.

Are Pets Subject to Court Ordered Visitation?

Illinois law mandates that “any person having a right of property in an animal, or who keeps or harbors an animal, or who has it in his care, or acts as its custodian is that animal’s owner.”

For example, a spouse who leaves the home of his or her ex-spouse who then attempts to assert ownership of the pet he left will likely have a difficult time getting a court to agree. The court would likely rely on previous Illinois law to determine who the legal owner of the animal was. In that event, the court would probably decide that since the husband had left the home, the pet was legally owned by the now ex-wife.

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 Posted on May 30, 2017 in Property Division

Going through a divorce is a complex issue both legally and emotionally. Many contentious issues must be decided on including, child custody, child support, and property division. When a house is part of the property that needs to be divided the tenants of divorce law are used to determine how the home or the home's value is shared between the spouses. It takes an experienced and insightful DuPage County divorce lawyer to navigate this treacherous legal terrain successfully.

Equitable Division

Illinois law controls how real property is divided in a divorce. Illinois is an "equitable division state." That means that the law does not require that marital assets be divided equally among divorcing spouses. Instead, the law requires that property is distributed equitably. Judges rely on several variables to determine what an equitable division of property is, however, Illinois courts are forbidden to consider marital misconduct for property division. Instead, judges are instructed to consider:

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 Posted on May 18, 2017 in Family Law

Spending a lifetime with our loved ones is a beautiful thought. Thinking about what kind of house you are going to buy, if you are going to have children, maybe even pets can bring warm and fuzzy feelings into your heart. Many people consider marriage as a way to solidify their connection with their loved one. However, that is not the only option. Civil Unions are a less common way to create a binding union between loved ones.

What is a Civil Union?

A civil union is a legal status much like a marriage. Civil unions provide many of the same legal protections that marriage does. One key difference, however, is the legal protections exist at the state level. Federal protections like tax breaks and Social Security benefits are not built into a civil union the way they are a marriage.

While marriage is recognized in all 50 states, civil unions are not. The only states that currently recognize civil unions are Illinois, New Jersey, Hawaii, and Colorado.

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 Posted on May 17, 2017 in Divorce

Getting a divorce can be very emotionally taxing. Divorce can also be monumentally expensive. There are seemingly cost that come out of nowhere, especially in cases where the divorce is contested, or there are children involved. More and more people are trending towards collaborative law as a means to keep the financial burden of getting a divorce minimized.

How Expensive Can Divorce Be?

That depends largely on the type of issues that need to be resolved. There is no universal cost for a contested or uncontested divorce. The average divorce in Illinois cost roughly $13,800. More than half of that figure will likely be allocated towards fees for your lawyer. The average hourly rate for a divorce attorney is $260.

The size of the firm, the amount of staff that works on your case, as well as the total time spent on your case will be the determining factor for how much you will pay in attorneys fees. Other expenses may include:

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 Posted on May 12, 2017 in Spousal Support

After a divorce, many people find out that there are certain evaluations about what they have contributed to the marriage financially that must be made. There can be circumstances where both the husband and wife work outside the home and share equal earning power. Another common scenario is where one party to the divorce primarily contributes time and energy to the development of the family and home while the other works outside of the home to primarily provide financial stability.

Alimony, which in Illinois is called maintenance, is the money that one spouse pays the other to ensure that both parties are situated in a financially equitable position after the divorce. The idea behind alimony is ensuring that one spouse is not unjustly enriched at the expense of the other spouse.

When Is Alimony Ordered in the Divorce Process?  

Illinois law dictates that a judge can order either party to pay alimony or maintenance while the divorce is proceeding. However, an order for alimony can also be entered in the final order or during an appeal that’s filed after the divorce has concluded.

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 Posted on April 30, 2017 in Child Custody

A popular—albeit rather infamous—YouTube personality who goes by the username “DaddyOFive” has lost custody of two of his children. The kids are currently staying with their biological mother. The father gained notoriety on the video sharing site when he started posting videos of interactions between himself, his current wife, and children. The videos contain a number of “pranks” played on the children—acts which many viewers and commenters found to be cruel and even abusive.

Pushing Things Too Far

In one controversial video, a smiling woman appears and explains that her stepson had previously gotten in trouble for spilling ink on the carpet. She tells the camera that she is going to act like the child did it again. The woman sprays disappearing ink onto the carpet, then she and the child’s father call the son into the room. What follows is disturbing to many viewers: The two adults verbally berate the child for the spilled ink, screaming and cursing loudly at him. The child begins crying as he desperately tries to explain that he did not spill the ink. The verbal abuse goes on for an agonizing three full minutes before the parents laughingly tell the child that it was “just a prank.”

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 Posted on April 24, 2017 in Child Custody

Even the most congenial divorce proceedings come with their own set of challenges. These are life-changing, stressful, heartbreaking and complicated times for everyone involved. Children are often caught in middle of the legal battles, and their concerns are just as real those of their parents’. It is not unreasonable for them to have concerns about who they will stay with, whether they will stay at the same school, or continue to live near their friends.

Different States, Different Rules

Child custody laws vary from state to state, and different counties or districts within each state may also have established protocols when it comes to making decisions regarding the children. Because of the differences in custody laws in different state, the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA) was drafted and adopted by 49 states—including Illinois—and the District of Columbia to help streamline custody rulings country.

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