Recent Blog Posts
How to Determine Whether an Inheritance Is a Marital Property in Divorce
Most properties that you obtain during your marriage are classified as marital properties in the event of a divorce, such as items you have purchased and the income you have earned. Gifts and inheritances are the exceptions to this rule. Inheritances are assets given to you through an estate planning document, such as a trust or will, or after the probate process. Even if you inherit an asset while you are married, it is usually a nonmarital property as long as you can prove that the person who gave it to you intended for you to be the sole owner of the property. However, your decision on what to do with a property after you inherit it can make it marital property.
Commingling and Transmuting
An inherited property can become marital property if you commingle it with other marital properties or involve your spouse in its ownership or management. For instance:
Is It Time to Update Your Prenuptial Agreement?
A prenuptial agreement is a useful document to have in the unfortunate event that you ever decide to divorce. With all of the turmoil in a divorce, it can be a relief to have some of the negotiation work already complete. However, a prenup should not be a static agreement that you do not examine unless a divorce occurs. Your financial means and needs have changed since your marriage began. At worst, you may discover that your agreement is obsolete once it comes time to use it. You should periodically check your prenuptial agreement during your marriage and update it if necessary.
Division of Property
A prenuptial agreement can list which items will be included in your division of marital property and who will receive them. Many of the properties listed in your original prenuptial agreement are nonmarital properties because you owned them before your marriage. When modifying your agreement you can:
How Apps Can Help You with Co-Parenting
With the popularity of smartphone applications, it is no surprise that there are several apps related to divorce. Among these, co-parenting apps seem to be the most common. There are apps that help you create a parenting schedule, communicate with your co-parent and even make child support payments. Many apps will require you to pay a subscription fee to use their most advanced tools, and you should thoroughly research an app before you decide to rely on it for your co-parenting needs. There are several ways that a co-parenting app can be useful to a modern, two-household family:
- Organization: Most co-parenting apps have a shared calendar feature. You could also use a basic calendar application that will not require any fees. A calendar app records your parenting schedule and can give automated reminders about when you are supposed to pick up and drop off your children. More advanced apps allow you to track and share child-related expenses, which is a helpful record when calculating child support payments.
When to Appeal a Divorce or Family Law Ruling
An unfavorable ruling in a divorce or family law court is not always the end of your case. You have the right to appeal a circuit court ruling in hopes of overturning it. You have 30 days to file a notice of appeal, in which you will explain why you believe the court’s decision should be reversed or remanded. An appellate court may reverse a lower court’s decision if:
- The decision went against the manifest weight of evidence;
- The court misinterpreted or misapplied the law; or
- The trial was conducted in an unfair manner.
Appeals of divorce or family law cases are less common than with criminal cases, in which the appellant may be trying to avoid prison time. Appellate courts tend to trust the judgment of lower courts unless there is an egregious error. However, an appeal may be worth your time if you believe you have a strong argument.
Parental Responsibilities
Should Divorcees Go Back to School?
August is back-to-school time for children – as well as for some adults. If you have recently divorced, it may be imperative that you find a job that will allow you to support yourself. You may be required to do so if you are receiving spousal maintenance. Continuing education can help you start a new career or qualify for better-paying positions in your current career. However, it is also an investment of time and money that may not be worth it in some cases. Before starting on the path towards a degree or certification, you should consider your options.
Is College Necessary?
Taking college classes is expensive. Even being a part-time student at a community college can cost thousands of dollars per semester. You should explore whether you qualify for financial aid or scholarships. A court can include job training and continuing education expenses when awarding spousal maintenance. Before looking into payment options, you should evaluate whether attending college will improve your chances of getting a new job. You can ask a career counselor whether there are alternative ways to improve your skills and make yourself a better candidate.
Receiving Retroactive Child Support Payments
Both legal parents have a financial obligation to support a child from the time it is born, even if one of the parents is not an active part of the child’s life. Child support is a common aspect of divorce but can be more difficult to establish when the parents were never married. A father can submit a Voluntary Acknowledgement of Paternity, or the mother may file a petition to establish paternity. In disputed paternity cases, the court can order the father to pay retroactive child support if it legally establishes his paternity. The retroactive payments could go back to the date of the initial court filing or the date of the child’s birth.
Reason for Retroactive Payments
Retroactive child support commonly starts on the date that the parent filed a petition to establish paternity or to establish child support. In most cases, the mother is the one who is attempting to force the father to take financial responsibility for their child, though a father could file a petition to establish child support from an absent mother. Illinois allows retroactive child support orders to prevent a parent from avoiding their financial obligation by prolonging the court case. A paternity case can take months to settle and can be extended with other legal actions, such as appeals.
Medical Practice Included When Doctors Divorce
Doctors as a profession are statistically less likely to be involved in a divorce. They have demanding workloads that can strain a marriage, but a successful doctor is often financially stable, which helps a marriage. When a doctor does divorce, their practice is part of the division of marital properties. Valuing a professional practice is different than other businesses and requires financial professionals who are familiar with these practices.
Practice as Property
Your medical practice is marital property if you started it after your marriage. If your practice predates your marriage, you must include its increase in value since your marriage as part of your marital property. Unlike with other types of businesses, your spouse does not have the option of owning part of your practice unless they are also a doctor in the same practice. This static ownership means that you will need to compensate your spouse with other marital properties. Your student debt from medical school is marital debt if it was accrued during your marriage. You may be able to offer to assume sole responsibility for the debt as compensation for your medical practice.
Journaling Can Help You with Divorce Emotions
Divorce can create negative emotions that need an appropriate outlet. It is unhealthy to let anger, anxiety or depression fester inside of you, but you should not unleash them on family and friends or during your divorce negotiations. Support groups or physical activities are good outlets for some people. For others, writing down their thoughts in a private journal helps them safely express their feelings. Here are four pointers if you decide to write a divorce journal:
- Keep the Journal to Yourself: This is a journal for yourself and not a blog. You are more likely to be truthful and freely express yourself if you know that no one else will be reading what you write. Your journal is an opportunity to express thoughts and feelings that you do not want others to know because of how they may react.
- Find a Comfort Zone: You can keep a journal in a physical notebook or a computer text document. Pick the form of writing that you are more comfortable with. Do not worry about proper grammar or well-crafted sentences. This is not a school assignment or a business document. It is more important that you understand what you are writing.
Keys to Understanding, Enforcing Your Order of Protection
Orders of protection exist to shield victims from their domestic abusers and help them establish independence. Escaping an abuser is not always as simple as leaving them. The victim may be worried about:
- Where they will live;
- How they can protect their children;
- How they can support themselves; and
- How they can prevent their abuser from retaliating against them.
An order of protection can solve these problems. The abuser can be required to leave the victim’s residence and stay away while the order is active. The children will stay with the victim and may have limited visits with the abuser if the court determines it to be safe. The court can require the abuser to pay child support and other expenses. However, an order of protection is effective only if it is being enforced. You must understand what your order can do and how you should respond if you suspect your abuser is violating the order.
Why DIY Divorce Can Be Costly
We live in a do-it-yourself culture where people try to save money by performing complex tasks on their own – whether it is doing your own home repairs or completing your own divorce. In both cases, you may think that you can avoid the biggest expense by not hiring a professional to do the job for you. With a divorce, you see a wealth of online divorce resources and sites that proclaim the benefits of DIY divorce. Why pay a divorce attorney when the internet has all the information you need to file your own divorce? The answer is that a DIY divorce can be costly in its own way. Some of the costs are immediate, but it may take years for you to realize the long-term costs.
Immediate Costs
A DIY divorce is not divorcing without a lawyer. You are essentially serving as your own lawyer for the divorce. Unlike a divorce lawyer, you likely do not have previous experience with divorce law. Before starting a DIY divorce, you should understand that you are responsible for: