Posted on October 19, 2016 in Divorce

If you are recently divorced, you may be struggling to adapt to your new life. The challenges are even greater if you and your former spouse have children together. As an adult, you are likely able to recognize many of the emotions you are dealing with and to manage them to a certain extent. While it may not be easy, you are still able to go about your normal daily activities with minimal interference. For a child, however, the situation can be more difficult as his or her entire world may now be different. Unfortunately, many children—especially younger children—lack the skills and ability to effectively manage their emotions. In some cases, this can lead to behavioral issues at home and at school. Therefore, it is extremely important for divorced parents to maintain open lines of communication with their children’s teachers, helping to identify and address problems as they arise.

Possible Problems

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 Posted on October 17, 2016 in Child Custody and Support

If you are a parent, any circumstance that prevents you from spending time with your child can be heartbreaking. The situation may feel even worse when you prevented from seeing your child based on allegations made by your child’s other parent. How you respond to those allegations, however, can go a long way in securing your rights to reasonable parenting time, and an experienced family lawyer can help.

Be Objective

When a child’s parents are no longer—or never were—married, Illinois law permits a court to restrict or limit a party’s parenting time in certain situations. Before doing so, the court must identify that, without a limitation or restriction, the child would be in serious physical, mental, emotional, or moral danger. Such concerns are typically brought to the court’s attention by one parent looking to restrict the other parent’s time with the child.

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 Posted on October 12, 2016 in Adoption

There are many different circumstances that can lead to a stepparent seeking to adopt their spouse’s child or children. The other birth parent may have passed away or is unable to care for the child. The stepparent and spouse might believe that they can provide a better home and living environment for the child than the other birth parent. Regardless of the circumstances, choosing to adopt a stepchild can be a long and complicated process. 

Consent of the Other Birth Parent

If the other birth parent currently has a legal right to their child, consent of that parent is usually required. This can be challenging in many situations. For a stepparent to adopt the child, the birth parent must give up their legal rights as parent first. This can be a very emotional decision to make. However, gaining consent from the other birth parent is possible in cases where the parent understands that they cannot care for the child and wants the child’s best interests protected. If the other birth parent gives up his or her rights to the child, they will no longer be required to pay child support. 

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 Posted on October 10, 2016 in Domestic Violence

October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, domestic violence is defined as “the willful intimidation, physical assault, battery, sexual assault, and/or other abusive behavior as part of a systematic pattern of power and control perpetrated by one intimate partner against another.” Domestic violence not only includes physical abuse like hitting, punching, kicking, and slapping but also psychological abuse. Psychological abuse or emotional abuse can include behaviors such threatening, controlling, isolating, mocking, stalking, and intimidating a partner.

Domestic Violence Can Happen to Anyone

Domestic violence affects people of all genders, sexual orientations, ethnicities and socioeconomic statuses. Often, when one imagines a victim of domestic violence, a woman comes to mind.  However, men are almost as likely to be victims of violence at the hand of a partner as women are.  On average, one out of every three women and one out of every four men are victims of domestic violence at some point in their lives.

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 Posted on October 05, 2016 in Spousal Maintenance

When you are faced with the possibility of a divorce, dozens of questions start to race through your head. You are likely to be wondering how you will tell your children, where you will live, and how you will make life after divorce work for you. For many people, issues of money are often the most pressing. How can a spouse who has relied on his or her partner financially for many years be expected to suddenly support him- or herself when the marriage ends? In Illinois, such a spouse may not have to do so, but nothing regarding alimony is guaranteed in advance.

Need-Based Considerations

Alimony is now known under Illinois law as maintenance. It is often referred to as spousal support as well. Whatever you may choose to call it, such awards are intended to alleviate the financial effects of a divorce on a spouse who may be an economic disadvantage. There is more to a maintenance case, however, than just money. Otherwise, any time that one spouse makes more than the other, the lower-earning spouse could expect to receive support following a divorce. Instead, the court will look at a number of factors that take into account the entire marital and divorce situation.

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 Posted on September 30, 2016 in Child Custody and Support

When you and your child’s other parent are forced to come up with arrangements regarding for parenting time—previously known as visitation under Illinois law—it can be regrettably easy to get caught up in your own wants and needs. Some, of course, are entirely reasonable, such as building parenting time schedules around your career obligations, but many parents often forget to take their child’s wishes into account.

What the Law Says

While parents are free to develop a parenting plan—including arrangements for parenting time—on their own, such a plan must be reasonable and serve the best interests of the child. If the parents cannot agree on a plan, arrangements may be made by the court. In doing so, the court is required by law to take a number of factors into account, including the wishes of the child in question. The child’s wishes are not necessarily binding but should factor into the court’s ultimate decision.

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 Posted on September 28, 2016 in Paternity

Unlike fathers who were married to the mother of their child at the time of birth, unwed fathers are not automatically granted parental rights. Instead, they must take legal steps to establish their role in the life of a child. This starts with the establishment of paternity, which is not presumed for unwed fathers, and continues with a petition to the court. If you are an unwed father and want to gain and establish legal rights to parent your child, the following information can help.

Establishing Paternity

Before an unmarried father can seek legal parenting rights to his child, he must first establish paternity. This can be done in one of three ways:

• Signing a Voluntary Acknowledgment of Paternity form at the time of the child’s birth (also requires acknowledgment from the mother);
• An Administrative Paternity Order through Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services; or

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 Posted on September 26, 2016 in Adoption

One of the most talked about Hollywood marriages is reportedly coming to end, as Angela Jolie has filed for a divorce from her husband, Brad Pitt. The two have been married since 2014, but the relationship began back in 2004. Sources close to the duo say that the couple was planning to adopt a seventh child before their split. The couple became a poster child of sorts for international adoptions after adopting three children from Cambodia, Ethiopia, and Vietnam during the course of their relationship.

According to reports, Pitt and Jolie may have planned on adopting an older child—over the age of 10—to join the three adopted and three biological children already in their home. The couple allegedly wanted an older child for two reasons. They wanted the child to fit in with their other children and because older children are often disregarded. “Brad and Angie also believe that adopting an older child will make people aware of orphans who are often overlooked,” the source indicated. “According to Angie, everybody seems to want to adopt babies when there are so many other wonderful, worthy and deserving older children out there.”

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 Posted on September 21, 2016 in Child Custody and Support

If you are a divorced parent, you probably recognize your responsibility for helping to provide financially for your child. In most Illinois cases, the parent with fewer parental responsibilities and less parenting time is obligated to make child support payments to the other parent. While the law that dictates the calculation of such payments is set to change at the beginning of 2017, the current statute takes into account two primary factors: the number of children being supported and the net income of the supporting parent. But, what does net income include?

According to the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act, net income is defined as the “total of all income from all sources” minus certain allowable deductions. By law, these deductions include:

• Properly calculated federal taxes;
• Properly calculated state taxes;

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 Posted on September 19, 2016 in Property Division

For many couples, dividing marital property is the most difficult element of the entire divorce process. To a certain extent, it is understandable that a pair who has spent many years together would find it challenging to how to divide assets that belonged to both spouses for so long. This may be especially true for spouses who married young with almost nothing, then spend the next several decades amassing a significant amount of wealth and net-worth. When such a marriage comes to an end, determining who will get what can be long and cumbersome process.

Titled Assets

The first step in dividing marital property is deciding what actually is marital property. According to Illinois law, almost anything acquired by either spouse during the marriage is marital property and subject to division in divorce. Exceptions include gifts and inheritances to one spouse alone. This means that even assets for which a title is issued, such as a vacation home, a vehicle, or boat, are considered marital property if they were purchased after the marriage, regardless of whose name is on the title.

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