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Recent Blog Posts
How to Modify Your Child Support Order in Illinois
If you are a divorced parent, the state of Illinois requires both you and your former spouse to contribute to your children’s financial needs. Every three years, the state will invite you to review and possibly modify your existing order for child support. But what if a child’s needs or your financial situation change substantially before then? In that case, you can petition the court to have the child support order modified.
What Qualifies as a Substantial Change in Circumstances?
You may be a good candidate for a child support modification in a variety of situations. Some of the most common include:
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Your child’s needs have changed considerably since the last order—a new health condition, for example—and you want your ex to help pay those added costs.
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The paying parent’s income has increased or decreased substantially.
How to Handle a Surprise Divorce Filing
Most of the time, a divorce is something that both you and your spouse can see coming and make plans regarding how to handle it. On occasion, however, it comes as a surprise. The pop culture scene of the husband or wife being served at their door with divorce papers does still happen in this day and age. If this does happen to you, it is important that you react quickly. If you do not, and your spouse has malicious intentions, you may be put in a very difficult position.
Information Is Key
According to current estimates, as many as two of every three marriages experience issues with hidden assets. If your spouse decides to file for divorce first, it gives him or her the advantage of time in which they may attempt to conceal property or revenue streams. Though there is very little legal advantage to filing first, some spouses do use the element of surprise in an effort to manipulate the proceedings. In addition to possibly hiding assets, some may try “conflict out”—which means meeting with the top-rated divorce attorneys in a certain area, so as to establish an attorney-client relationship, thus leaving the other spouse with no available attorney without a potential conflict of interest.
Four Tips for Working Through Parenting Time Restrictions in Illinois
As anyone who has children can attest, it is not easy to be a parent. Parenting is infinitely more challenging after a divorce or breakup, especially if the other parent has been granted substantially more parental responsibilities and parenting time than you have. Under the law in Illinois, you have the right to reasonable parenting time with your child, but exercising that right can be difficult. Additionally, you might have personal issues of your own that have led the court to restrict your parenting time rights. A situation such as this can be extremely challenging, but it is not necessarily a permanent state of affairs, and there are some steps you can take toward getting your full parenting time rights restored.
#1. Understand the Reasons
According to Illinois law, your parenting time rights cannot be restricted simply because a judge does not like you or the way you are living your life. The court must issue a finding that you or your lifestyle poses serious physical, mental, moral, or emotional dangers to your child, and the finding must be specific enough for you to address the court’s concerns. Common grounds for parenting time restrictions include alcohol or drug abuse issues, concerns regarding instances of physical or emotional abuse, and association with dangerous individuals. Only after you understand why the court has restricted your parenting time can you start taking steps to improve your situation.
How Social Media Could Affect Your Illinois Divorce
It is hard to imagine a world without social media, yet these sites have only been around for about 20 years or so. There is no debate over how quickly sites like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok have become a crucial part of society, with many users posting much information about their lives on a daily basis. Scroll down any site’s news feed, and you will likely find an abundance of information regarding your family, friends, coworkers, and acquaintances—the good, the bad, and the ugly. But, can posting all this personal information have an effect on the outcome of a couple’s divorce or child custody dispute?
Many family law attorneys will instruct their clients to carefully limit what they post to their social media sites and may instruct them to stay away from these sites completely until their divorce case is settled. On the other side of the coin, attorneys also use these sites to gather evidence against the other spouse, and even innocent postings can be spun to cause serious damage to the other side’s case.
Planning to Get Engaged this Holiday Season?
The winter holiday season is a special time of year for many of us. Families that celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Yule, or other winter holidays will gather for special meals, the exchanging of presents, and reunions with old friends. As the holiday season continues, many hopeful romantics are making one the biggest decisions of their lives: getting engaged to be married. In fact, Christmas Day is one of the most popular days of the year for popping the big question. If you are planning to get engaged this holiday season, firstly – congratulations! As you plan for your wedding, there are a few things you should keep in mind.
Prenuptial Agreements
As you plan for the big day, one decision you and your partner will need to make is if you will sign a prenuptial agreement. Prenuptial agreements are also called premarital agreements or "prenups.” The purpose of this legal document is to ensure the property and financial rights of each spouse in the event that the marriage ends in divorce. Obviously, planning for a possible divorce before a couple has even gotten married is not exactly romantic. The topic may be uncomfortable to talk about, but prenuptial agreements can be vital in protecting your financial interests and rights.
Start Making Your Parenting Plan for the Winter Holiday Season Now
Halloween has come and gone, which means that the winter holiday season is almost upon us. Over the next few weeks, there will be a number of holidays that you and your family may choose to celebrate.
If this is your first holiday season as a recently separated or divorced parent, you may understandably feel upset and disappointed. Holidays are simply not the same without the familiar sounds of children laughing and having fun. Parents may argue about which parent will spend which holiday with the children because they simply do not want to miss the experience. While there is no way to eliminate the pain of missing your children, there may be a way for you and your child’s other parent to work out a holiday parenting time schedule that works for both of you.
Put Holiday Arrangements in Your Parenting Plan
As a parent getting divorced in Illinois, you will be asked to create a parenting plan or parenting agreement. The agreement must include several provisions that detail how parental responsibilities and parenting time are divided between the parents. You will also want to include information about where the children will spend the major holidays. Some parents choose to split the holidays between them. For example, one parent may have the children on Thanksgiving and the other has the children on Christmas. Other parents decide to make a rotation schedule so that parents spend certain holidays with the children every other year. The most important thing is to decide on an arrangement as soon as possible so that you can avoid having the same argument about where the kids will spend holidays every year.
Tips for Divorced Parents Celebrating Halloween
For parents with young children, celebrating Halloween can be quite a joy. Many parents enjoy dressing up their children in cute costumes and taking them trick-or-treating. Divorced parents generally want to join in the fun, too - Halloween only comes once per year. It can be difficult for divorced parents to plan out how they will celebrate the holiday with their child. Generally, neither parent wants to be left out, but the child cannot be in two places at once. Many parents solve this problem by deciding who will participate in which tradition with their child or by planning separate events at separate times. When this planning is done well, both parents can experience the joys of celebrating Halloween with an excited child. Having an enjoyable Halloween can take a bit of planning. You may need to communicate with your child’s other parent quite a bit while making a plan, and you may both need to compromise. When both parents are willing to participate, everyone - including the child - can have a wonderful Halloween.
Should I Be Worried if a Guardian ad Litem is Involved in My Child Custody Case?
As a parent, it can be worrying to learn that a guardian ad litem has been appointed for your children during custody proceedings, incident to a divorce or otherwise. The term “guardian” carries connotations that can be concerning for parents, but rest assured that guardians ad litem are a perfectly normal part of a custody case. When it begins to appear that a dispute regarding the allocation of parenting time and parental responsibilities is likely to be litigated, courts frequently bring in a guardian ad litem to help the court understand what type of arrangement is likely to be best for the children.
In Illinois, all concerns regarding child custody are to be resolved in the best interests of the children. It can be difficult for a court to discern the children’s needs and wishes without an investigation by a guardian ad litem, as children, particularly young ones, are not able to speak for themselves in court as an adult could. If you expect that your child custody dispute will need to be resolved judicially and a guardian ad litem is involved, it is critical that you are represented by an experienced attorney.
How do Illinois Courts Divide Marital Property?
Dividing marital property during divorce can be a difficult process. When one household splits into two households, both need things like furniture - then of course, there is the house itself. Courts in Illinois aim to divide marital property in a fair and equitable way. Of course, you and your spouse are likely to disagree about what type of division is fair and equitable. It can be very challenging for a judge who does not know much about your and your spouse to arrive at a decision that is fair to both of you. There are a number of factors that courts can consider when trying to divide the money, debts, and property that married couples have acquired. Keep in mind that if you are not happy with the idea of letting a court make these important decisions, you have the option of using mediation or negotiation to work out a fair division with your spouse. You should be represented by an attorney throughout either process.
Using Social Media Wisely During Divorce
Social media can be a great way to stay in touch with loved ones near and far at a time when you may feel very isolated and alone. You may, very understandably, want to vent to your followers on Twitter or update your relatives as a group via Facebook. However, this can backfire in sometimes unforeseeable ways. Especially during a divorce, you do not want to accidentally post something that your spouse could later use against you in some way. Even if you post privately, there is a strong chance that the post will be leaked to your spouse in some way. It is best to avoid talking much about your divorce, your spouse, and your marriage on social media and to keep your posts focused on yourself. If you are ever unsure about whether a post might cause trouble, you can always check with your lawyer before you click “post.”
Strategies for Careful Social Media Use With a Pending Divorce
Even if you are positive that your divorce will not go to litigation, it is still best to avoid potentially troublesome posts. In fact, if you are actively negotiating with your spouse in an effort to resolve your divorce, then it may be of particular importance that you avoid antagonistic posts. Some helpful tips for using social media during divorce include:
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