Posted on September 05, 2017 in Adoption

Sometimes, adoptions are able to remain in the family. If a parent wants to surrender his or her parental rights, it is becoming more and more common for family members to adopt nieces, nephews or other children of relatives, instead of going through the entire foster process. The process is much the same as it would be in adopting an unrelated child, but there are feelings and relationships that must be considered where such things might not exist in an adoption involving strangers.

The Issue of Parental Rights

What many prospective parents forget is that both parents must consent to abrogation of their parental rights, not just one. Even if the biological mother or father is not involved in their children’s lives, they must voluntarily surrender their parental rights in order for the adoption to go forward, or they must be shown to be unreachable. Illinois law states that a parent abrogates parental rights if they cannot be located after appropriate due diligence, including publication in newspapers and other methods.

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 Posted on August 30, 2017 in Business Valuation

Divorce is complex; however, dividing property is often most complex aspect of a process that can take a long time. Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the procedure for valuing and dividing a family-owned business. Between personal preferences and the market rates, dividing the value of a business will often create the biggest issues during the process.

Valuation Basics

As one might imagine, Illinois courts only have the ability to divide marital property during divorce proceedings. A family business qualifies as marital property if it is run by both spouses or if one spouse owns a controlling interest. The rationale is that the spouse working there will bring home paychecks earned by improving the business’s value. If the business is deemed marital property, it will be valued so that it and the couple’s other assets can be divided equitably.

Valuations are most often conducted by independent experts so as to avoid any accusations of favoritism or impropriety on the part of one spouse. Such experts will take into account a host of different variables, including:

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 Posted on August 24, 2017 in Child Custody and Support

During some divorce or parental responsibility proceedings, one or both spouses will resort to unethical tactics in order to get ahead. Accusing the other spouse of child abuse is a tactic that has become unfortunately more common in recent years, but it still does not happen as often as one might think. Still, if it happens to you, it is important to know how to defend yourself from false allegations of abuse.

“Reasonable Belief”

As one might imagine, child abuse allegations are taken extremely seriously. The number of children actually removed from their homes, however, has decreased in recent years. When abuse allegations are made, the Illinois Department of Children & Family Services (DCFS) is called in to do an investigation. This is not a criminal investigation, but it can easily become one. The important thing is to cooperate with the investigation—any resistance can be taken as a possible indication of guilt.

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 Posted on August 17, 2017 in Property Division

When a couple decides to divorce, the standard procedure is to compile a list of all marital assets and distribute them equitably between the spouses. However, sometimes things do not go according to plan. A spouse may hide assets, sell them, or even engage in dissipation. You must be aware of what constitutes improper conduct so that your divorce proceeds as smoothly as possible.

Hiding Assets

In most states, Illinois included, a temporary restraining order may be placed on both parties at the beginning of a divorce proceeding. This order prevents disposing of any marital assets in any way and is generally recommended if either spouse suspects the other will engage in unethical behavior. The rationale is that marital property is the property of both people in the marriage, and one spouse disposing of assets breaches the covenant both people entered into when they got married. Most of the time, these orders only apply to marital property; items not classified as such (in other words, as personal property) may generally be sold freely.

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 Posted on August 15, 2017 in Guardian ad Litem

Sometimes, though we hate to admit it, we are not our children’s best advocates. In an environment such as family court, especially, the state tends to be of the opinion that we cannot impartially advocate for our children’s best interests. To protect their interests and their safety, professionals referred to as guardians ad litem are often appointed to act for children in legal proceedings.

Role of a GAL

A guardian ad litem (GAL) is an attorney who may be appointed by a family court judge to ensure that the interests of children are protected. Each county has its own procedure for appointing a GAL and will make such appointments with varying frequency. In Cook County, for example, in Cook County, there is a tendency to use GALs slightly less, as the Office of the Cook County Public Guardian is sometimes used to represent minors in specific cases.

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 Posted on August 11, 2017 in Annulments

Sometimes, marriages do not work out. However, the same dissolution procedure is not always the best for each situation. If you have been married a very short time, you may be able to annul your marriage instead of having it dissolved. Still, it is important to understand when this is appropriate and when you are better off opting for a standard divorce.

Dissolution of Marriage

A divorce is referred to under Illinois law as a dissolution of marriage, and almost any couple can obtain one. Until recently, Illinois offered fault-based grounds for divorce such as bigamy, but the law was amended in 2015 to remove all grounds except for irreconcilable differences—the standard “no-fault” ground for divorce. The law was also changed to eliminate the requirement for a couple to live apart for six months or more before their divorce could be granted.

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 Posted on August 07, 2017 in Divorce

When people decide to get divorced, even the most elementary issues must be in proper order, or there could be problems with the legality of the proceedings at a later date. Jurisdiction is usually one of these issues. Most of the time, the parties assume all is well with this aspect, and they are usually correct. However, if a spouse has moved out of state or is in the military, there could be jurisdiction questions that must be answered.

Types of Jurisdiction and Requirements

If you or your spouse decide to move out of Illinois, it is generally not a problem unless it can be proven that you moved deliberately to cause issues or confusion for your spouse, such as frustrating parenting time considerations. Any state where one spouse has been resident for at least 90 days has jurisdiction to oversee a divorce filing under Illinois law. However, it can be markedly more complex: namely, because not every situation in which a state has jurisdiction over a divorce is one where that state also has jurisdiction over issues like property division. This is referred to as the principle of divisible divorce.

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 Posted on August 03, 2017 in Divorce

There are occasions in which a divorce must proceed happen in a way very different from the norm. One of the most common is for a spouse to be missing or deliberately absent, so as to frustrate personal jurisdiction over them. This does not mean that you are stuck in a marriage you wish to dissolve; it just means that divorce must be sought in a different way.

The First Steps: Due Diligence

In a divorce, you must be able to serve your spouse with papers, as he or she has the right to appear on his or her own behalf or contest the action. However, if you cannot locate your spouse, an alternate method has to be found, and you must obtain permission to use it. The first step toward obtaining that permission is to put forth a “good faith effort” toward locating your spouse. You must be able to show the judge that you have exhausted all reasonable options to find your spouse before you will be permitted to pursue alternate service. For example, many judges require you to look in places like indexes from the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), Social Security’s database of deaths, or even on social media to try to find a trace of your soon-to-be ex.

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 Posted on August 02, 2017 in Child Custody and Support

Most divorced parents think of child support ending when the child in question turns 18 years old. Usually, this is the case. However, there are several situations in which a court may order more, and one of those is when dealing with college expenses. Illinois law differs somewhat from many other states’ in that while married parents may decline to contribute to their children’s college expenses, unmarried parents may be ordered as part of a divorce agreement to contribute according to their income level.

Non-Minor Support

College expenses such as tuition, room and board, books and the like fall under a legal category Illinois calls non-minor support. It is also possible, but somewhat less common, that the court will hold some living expenses to fall into that category as well—costs such as bus or train passes and medical insurance. The key word in such determinations is “reasonable,” and the court has quite a bit of leeway in that regard.

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 Posted on July 31, 2017 in Divorce

Sometimes, life attacks from multiple sides. Sadly, it is not uncommon for those going through a divorce to end up in bankruptcy at the same time, with seismic changes to one’s finances as a result of debt restructuring. However, depending on your unique situation, it can be difficult to determine which proceeding should happen first and how to handle both.

Divorce First

Depending on the situation, getting a divorce before filing for bankruptcy can be the best path for many couples. There are two different types of bankruptcy filings, each named for the chapter of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code used for the filing. Chapter 7 is for individuals or couples with very few assets, while Chapter 13, also called a reorganization bankruptcy, is for those with steady income and debt that it is possible to restructure.

It is possible for couples to file together, but it is also common for each person to file individually. If you are divorced before your bankruptcy proceedings, a Chapter 7 filing will be much more streamlined than it might be otherwise. Conversely, if the divorce happens after the bankruptcy, marital assets might be sold to pay off debts during the filing, which can make a later divorce extremely difficult in terms of equitable distribution of the remaining assets. Whether you file together as a couple or as individuals can also make a difference. Some debts are not dischargeable, and with many marital debts, it is possible for creditors to attempt to hold the husband responsible for debts that the wife originated and vice versa.  

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