Posted on May 25, 2020 in Property Division

You have many important decisions to make about your marital home during a divorce, including whether you should sell it. Some spouses decide that selling their home is their best option if neither of them needs a home of that size or would be able to afford the home on their own. Selling the home could give both of you a significant amount of money to use in starting your post-marriage life. If you decide to sell your marital home, choosing an experienced real estate agent will be important in ensuring a successful sale that helps your divorce. There are characteristics that a real estate agent needs when selling a home for divorce:

1. Neutrality: Because you will be using the same real estate agent, you need to feel that the agent is treating you equally. Showing favoritism to one side causes the other side to distrust the agent and may lead to conflict in the divorce. The agent must make a concerted effort to share information equally with both spouses, even though it is natural to communicate more with the spouse who is still living in the home.

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 Posted on May 21, 2020 in High Asset Divorce

Keeping your business separate from your marriage is difficult to accomplish when you are getting a divorce. There are many ways that your business can become part of your marital property, whether you:

• Started the business during your marriage
• Grew the business’s value during your marriage
• Invested marital money into your business
• Mingled your business properties with your marital properties

For many small business owners, their spouses may be involved in the business as either an employee or part owner. A divorce can affect your business’s finances and your working relationship with employees and partners. However, you can minimize any negative impact on your business with the help of a divorce attorney.

Financial Effect

When your business is marital property, it means that your spouse can claim an equitable share in the business. If you already co-own the business with a partner, losing a portion of your ownership in the business could change your power dynamic with your business partner. Having a new co-owner could also be disruptive to your business, whether it is your former spouse or someone else they sold their ownership stake to.

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 Posted on May 17, 2020 in Child Custody

In some divorces, a parent is allowed to have sole responsibility for their child, including complete control over parenting time and decision making. This most often occurs when one of the parents is physically abusive towards the child or shows a total lack of interest in being part of the child’s life. However, most parenting plans will allocate parental responsibilities between both parents. In Illinois, the presumption is that one parent will have a majority but not all of the parenting time. Still, some parents try to receive sole parental responsibility for personal reasons. You should consider whether seeking sole responsibility is a wise decision before you go down that path.

Problems with Sole Responsibility

Illinois prefers a shared parenting plan because it assumes that children of divorce are better off when both parents are active in raising them. The exception is when you can prove a reasonable belief that your children could be in danger if they are left alone with your co-parent. You cannot deny your spouse’s parental rights as a way to punish them for infidelity or because you think you are a better parent. Those factors may help you receive a majority of the parental responsibilities but do not mean that your spouse is an unfit parent. Receiving sole responsibility is usually not in your children’s best interests. Having a strong relationship with both parents is crucial to a child’s development, and they may resent you if you try to deny their relationship with their other parent.

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 Posted on May 14, 2020 in Divorce

Many people approach their divorce by hiring not just a divorce lawyer but a divorce team, which could include a divorce coach. Divorce coaching is a fairly new profession that works with people on the personal side of dealing with divorce. This allows the divorce attorney to more efficiently focus their efforts toward the technical side of divorce. You may wonder whether you need a divorce coach for your divorce. The truth is that a divorce coach can benefit anyone, but we understand that many divorcees are concerned about the cost of hiring additional professionals for their divorce. Here are three signs that you may need to hire a divorce coach:

1. You Are Struggling to Adjust to Divorced Life: Getting divorced will change most aspects of your personal life and add new responsibilities. You are now solely in charge of your household and your children when they are living with you. You may also be living on a tighter budget and need to adjust your expenditures. It can be difficult to balance these responsibilities with your professional life and your ongoing divorce case. A divorce coach will teach you ways that you can stay organized during and after the divorce process.

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 Posted on May 06, 2020 in Divorce and Finances

Completing a divorce will drain your personal finances to a certain extent. You are giving up a portion of your marital assets and losing your spouse’s income as a means of helping pay expenses. Some people’s debt problems following a divorce become bad enough that they need to file for bankruptcy. You can work with your divorce attorney to try to avoid this outcome by ensuring that you receive a favorable division of properties and debts, as well as spousal maintenance if your spouse has a greater income than you. However, your former spouse may have their own financial struggles that lead to them filing for bankruptcy. Even though you are no longer married, it is possible that their bankruptcy could leave you liable for some of their debts.

How Does Bankruptcy Work?

To understand how your former spouse’s bankruptcy could affect you, you first need to know what the bankruptcy process entails. A person files for bankruptcy when they believe they are incapable of repaying their debts and are in danger of losing assets to their creditors. An individual will use either Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy, depending on which one they qualify for. At the end of the process, the filer is allowed to discharge most debts that were not repaid during the case. Discharge means that the filer no longer has any obligation to repay the debt.

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 Posted on May 04, 2020 in Child Custody

The public response to the COVID-19 pandemic has required people to change the ways in which they communicate with each other. In-person visits are being replaced with phone and video calls in order to limit travel and contact with other people. Video chats on your phone or through an application such as Zoom have become a popular way for family members to stay in contact with each other – including divorced parents contacting their children. Some parenting agreements will set a limit for how often one parent is allowed to call their children when they are staying with the other parent. With the extraordinary circumstances that we are currently living in, it may be time to add a provision regarding phone calls to your parenting agreement or modify your existing provision.

Call Etiquette

Co-parents may set limits on calls if they are concerned about the other parent interrupting their parenting time. For instance, the parenting agreement can say that a parent may initiate contact with the children once per day or every other day when the children are with the other parent. The children can contact the parent on their own but should be encouraged to focus on the parent they are with. Frequent or long calls with a child can be harmful to them because:

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 Posted on April 30, 2020 in Divorce

Filing a subpoena for a witness to testify in court is rarely necessary in a divorce case. A subpoena for documents, known as a subpoena duces tecum, is used frequently. Character witnesses were more common before Illinois became a no-fault divorce state, which made it so that couples no longer needed to cite issues such as infidelity as a reason for divorce. Now, financial records are the most vital evidence you can obtain with a subpoena, and documents can give you all the information you need. An experienced divorce lawyer knows who you need to subpoena to find that information.

Your Spouse

When gathering information in preparation for your divorce, you may realize that there are vital documents that you do not have access to, such as:

• Financial statements
• Receipts
• Contracts

Your spouse may possess those documents and would ideally be willing to share them if you ask. If your spouse refuses to share the documents, you can obtain a subpoena requesting the documents, which would force them to comply.

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 Posted on April 26, 2020 in Divorce

The decision to divorce may be more difficult than normal if you are someone with a disability. Though you may be unhappy in your marriage, you may also worry about whether you will be able to support yourself after a divorce. You may rely on your spouse’s income and health insurance if you are unable to work or are limited in your ability. If you have children, you may wonder whether your disability will limit your parenting time. Your disability does not have to trap you in an unhealthy marriage. Illinois divorce laws can help support you financially and protect your parental rights.

Support Payments

In any divorce, a person who is financially dependent on their spouse will usually receive spousal maintenance to support them as they adjust to life on their own. Spousal maintenance is particularly crucial for someone with a disability because they may:

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 Posted on April 23, 2020 in Children and Divorce

As a parent who decided to divorce, you may be concerned about how the divorce will emotionally affect your children. You know that they will be upset, but will the divorce cause long-lasting emotional trauma? The good news is that it is possible for children of divorce to become more resilient because of their experience, making them more capable of handling other hardships that may occur in their lives. There are several ways that you can create an environment that enables your child to build that resiliency:

1. Healthy Communication: To understand how the divorce is affecting your children, you need to listen to what they say and watch how they behave. Encourage them to be open about their feelings without forcing them to talk when they are clearly not in the mood. When they do decide to talk, let them finish speaking without interjecting to correct them or add your own opinion. Resist your instinct to want to solve their problems for them or to reassure them that things are not so bad. The most important thing for you to do is to show sympathy towards their feelings and answer the questions that they ask.

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 Posted on April 20, 2020 in Legal Separation

Filing for divorce is a serious and final decision to make about your marriage. Even when couples know that they are unhappy in their marriages, they may be unsure about whether they want to go as far as divorce. One alternative that couples in Illinois have is filing for legal separation. With a legal separation, you can act as if you are divorced without ending your marriage. If you decide you want to stay together, you can simply end the separation agreement. If you decide to end your marriage, you can file for divorce to make your separation permanent.

Why Should You Use Legal Separation?

Couples can separate from each other at any time without needing any official documents. However, they may lack legal protection when it comes to their individual property and parental rights. A separation agreement can work similarly to a divorce agreement, allowing you to settle on issues such as:

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