Posted on December 27, 2019 in Alimony / Maintenance

Spousal maintenance that is awarded during a divorce is meant to last for a defined length of time, usually determined by the length of the marriage and the needs of the recipient. In Illinois, maintenance may be permanent if the couple was married for at least 20 years or the recipient spouse has little chance of being able to support themselves. Sometimes, the divorce agreement may state that the parties will review the maintenance after a certain number of years to determine whether it should be extended or terminated. A recent Illinois case, in re Marriage of Brunke, involved two former spouses disagreeing during their maintenance review about whether the maintenance payments should continue and be increased. The court’s ruling on the case explains which factors a court may consider when reviewing a maintenance agreement.

Rehabilitative Maintenance

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 Posted on December 22, 2019 in Divorce

Any divorce professional will tell you that it is beneficial to have an amicable divorce. You save money by having quicker negotiations and feel better about the process after it is over. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that you will have an amicable divorce because you are only half of the equation. There is little that you can do to change the behavior of a spouse who is hostile towards you from the start of the divorce. Though your divorce will not be amicable, you can still try to make the best of the situations by controlling your own behavior.

Recognizing a High-Conflict Divorce

High-conflict divorce is often characterized by constant combativeness that prevents you from having reasonable discussions with your spouse. The combative spouse could be outwardly angry or silent and uncooperative. People in a high-conflict divorce often:

• Get into arguments over basic issues

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 Posted on December 18, 2019 in Children and Divorce

Your first Christmas after a divorce can be a difficult adjustment for yourself and your children. Parents’ main concern is usually how they will divide parenting time during the holidays so that they both can enjoy it with their children. Gift-giving is another topic that co-parents need to discuss leading up to Christmas. Do not assume that your co-parent has the same idea about what is appropriate regarding the types of gifts you will get your children and their value. You should share your gift-giving duties in the same way as you share other child-related responsibilities and expenses.

Budget

Newly divorced parents can make a mistake by going overboard with Christmas gifts because they feel guilty about putting their children through the divorce. Exceeding your normal budget for your children’s gifts can have harmful consequences:

• You are setting a new expectation for the value and quantity of gifts that your children receive.

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 Posted on December 12, 2019 in Divorce

Getting divorced involves expenses that are necessary for completing the process in a way that meets your needs. For instance, you need to hire a divorce attorney so that you have an experienced legal professional who makes sure that your divorce agreement takes full advantage of the law and does not contain errors. Hiring a divorce coach may seem like a less necessary expense, especially if you are worried about your budget. However, there are several reasons why a divorce coach is worth the investment:

1. A Divorce Coach Can Focus on Your Personal Life: Who should you contact when you have pressing questions about how your divorce will affect your personal life? Friends and family can be compassionate but likely do not have the experience to provide you solutions. Your attorney’s primary job is to work on the legal aspects of your divorce. Asking them to also be your divorce coach is not the best use of their time or your money. Your divorce coach is trained to be your resource for how to handle the personal and emotional aspects of your divorce.

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 Posted on December 09, 2019 in Child Custody

When one spouse believes that the other spouse wronged them during their marriage, they may want their divorce agreement to be a way to punish their spouse. Illinois divorce laws do not assign blame to either party for actions such as infidelity, but the court may favor the “victim” spouse when dividing marital properties if the cheating spouse used marital assets to pay for the affair. Parenting time is not a commodity that you withhold from your spouse to punish them. You must base all of your parenting decisions on what is best for your children, and obstructing parenting time without court approval can have civil and criminal consequences.

Allocating Parental Responsibilities

When you try to punish your co-parent by limiting or denying their access to your children, you are also punishing your children by hurting their relationship with their other parent. Denying parenting time is appropriate only when you can prove that your co-parent is a danger to your children. Abusive behavior by your co-parent is the most obvious example of proof, but your co-parent’s infidelity is not evidence by itself that they are a bad parent.

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 Posted on December 05, 2019 in Divorce

More than a million people from around the world immigrate to the U.S. and become permanent residents each year. Many people are attracted to the opportunity for a better life, while others may be following a job offer or looking for a change. It is common for couples and families to make the move together with no intention of leaving the U.S. What happens when a couple who was married in another country decides to divorce while living in the U.S.? The divorce laws of the state in which they live will determine how the divorce will proceed.

Where Do You Divorce?

You file for divorce with the court system of your permanent residence and not the court system of the country where you were married. This applies when you immigrated to the U.S. from another country and when you emigrated from the U.S. to another country. For people who have moved to Illinois from another country, you should understand these rules about divorce:

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 Posted on November 30, 2019 in Property Division

Retirement assets grow in importance as marital property the longer you are married. If you divorce after several years of marriage, they could be one of the most valuable properties you own. As with all marital properties, you must include your retirement benefits as part of your division of property, and figuring out how to do so will be one of the most complicated parts of the divorce process. In general, there are four steps to determining how you will divide your retirement benefits as part of your divorce agreement:

1. Valuing Your Benefits: To start, you need to know the current value of your retirement benefits. Retirement accounts are classified as defined contribution plans and defined benefit plans. It is easier to determine the value of a defined contribution plan because it is an individual account that you are paying into. With a defined benefit plan, your retirement benefits are part of a group account that will pay you based on a formula, and estimating its value is based on your life expectancy and the account's interest rates.

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 Posted on November 28, 2019 in Child Custody

Divorcing or separated parents in a dispute over their parenting time are often looking for something that will give them an advantage over their co-parent. Pointing out flaws in your co-parent’s character feels like a strong argument for giving you a greater share of parental responsibilities. However, character attacks are not always effective in a parenting case and may instead backfire on the accuser. You will be best served during your parenting case by demonstrating the strengths of your own character and only bringing up your co-parent’s lack of character if you can explain actual ways that it is harmful to your children.

Importance of Character

Someone’s character is relevant when a court rules on the allocation of parental responsibilities if it concerns their morality and judgment. Illinois law states that providing moral and ethical guidance is one of the roles of a parent. An immoral parent may fail in that role by demonstrating a lack of morality or not teaching their children the difference between right and wrong. Other parents show a lack of good judgment that puts their children in danger or neglects their upbringing. You can express your concerns about your co-parent’s character to the court, but the court will find your claims more credible if you present third-party evidence, such as:

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 Posted on November 26, 2019 in Divorce

When you and your spouse have decided that your marriage is over, it feels like there is little reason to delay getting a divorce. You may be eager to complete your divorce and move into the next stage of your life. Prolonging your marriage can be just as stressful for your children as your divorce will be because they can tell that you are unhappy and your relationship is strained. However, a short delay in starting your divorce could ultimately pay off if you need time to prepare yourself.

Financial Security

In the rush to complete a divorce, some people do not spend enough time considering how they will support themselves – in both the short term and long term. As a newly single adult, you will be paying for all of your living expenses without the benefit of your spouse’s income. As a result, you will need to figure out:

• A new budget for yourself
• Ways that you can cut down on your expenses

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 Posted on November 22, 2019 in Annulments

In most situations, the only way to end a marriage is to divorce your spouse. However, you may be able to annul the marriage if you can prove that it was never valid. The advantage of an annulment is that you will not have to divide your properties or pay spousal maintenance because the marriage never legally existed. The disadvantage is that there is a deadline to request an annulment and you will have to put more work into arguing why your marriage should be annulled. With a divorce, you only need to prove irreconcilable differences between you and your spouse. With an annulment, you must prove one of the following conditions:

1. Lack of Consent: A marriage is invalid if one of the parties was unable to legally consent to the marriage. This could be because you were intoxicated or mentally incapacitated when agreeing to the marriage or if you were married under duress or fraudulent circumstances. Once you realize that your marriage lacked your consent, you have 90 days to get your marriage annulled.

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