Posted on June 27, 2016 in Adoption

As a parent, you will always want what is best for your child. By law, you also have a number of rights and responsibilities related to his or her upbringing and support. Exercising your parental rights can be challenging in the wake of divorce, especially if your ex-spouse has been allocated a majority of the parenting time and decision-making authority. When your ex gets remarried, your situation can become even more challenging, especially if his or her new partner expresses interest in legally adopting your child. If you are concerned about your parental rights being threatened, there are some steps that you can take to protect yourself.

Stepparent Adoption Requires Consent

In order for your ex’s new spouse to adopt your child, in most situations, you must grant voluntary consent. This means that you willingly terminate your parental rights and responsibilities for your child, as the law permits a person to have only two legal parents. A stepparent adoption is not a mere formality; it expressly transfers full parental authority and creates a legal parent-child relationship between your son or daughter and the stepparent.

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 Posted on June 22, 2016 in Child Custody and Support

If you are facing divorce with children, there are several very complicated steps and processes for you and your soon to be ex-spouse to figure out and resolve. The most important of these will be parental responsibilities, formerly called child custody in Illinois—determining with whom the child will spend the majority of his or her time, and which parent will have visitation rights or non-legal guardianship. In the past, the father almost always was the parent that was not awarded legal custody, but as the social fabric of our country has changed—and more women have entered the workforce than ever before—so too has the standard divorce proceeding. In fact, rather than awarding either parent sole responsibilities, leaving the other to feel a type of “part-time parent,” in many modern divorces the couple instead opts for a shared parenting agreement, or co-parenting, which many psychologists believe is much better, at least, for the children.

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 Posted on June 20, 2016 in Divorce

In most cases, a couple that decides to end their marriage will do so simply by filing a petition for divorce and working through the process. While in the past, the majority of such situations required that the spouses live separately for a period of time, there was no requirement that the couple obtain a legal separation before proceeding to divorce. Recent changes to divorce laws in Illinois have eliminated the required separation period, making legal separation potentially even more rare. Some may even see it as obsolete. Despite being uncommon, however, there may be situations in which a legal separation may provide some benefit for the involved parties.

Legal Separation vs. Divorce

During a proceeding for legal separation, the considerations are much the same as a proceeding for a divorce. Issues of parental responsibilities and parenting time must be addressed, along with concerns regarding spousal maintenance. There are, however, two primary differences between a legal separation and a divorce. First, the court cannot force the spouses to divide property in a legal separation. If the couple presents a property settlement agreement of their own to the court, the court may include it, but the court will not make such a decision absent a proposed agreement.

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 Posted on June 15, 2016 in Child Custody and Support

For a couple with children, a divorce or separation can be particularly challenging. In addition to the difficulties inherent to every other marital dissolution, such as property division and alimony, divorcing parents are also faced with the prospect of sharing parental responsibilities. As with most aspects of divorce, the court can and will determine arrangements for dividing these responsibilities, but only if necessary. Illinois courts and the law much prefer that divorcing parents reach an agreement of their own, as a negotiated arrangement is more likely to be followed than one simply imposed by a judge. Drafting a parenting plan that works well for you, your spouse, and your child is a vital part of the divorce process for parents.

Decision-Making Authority

Your parenting plan must clearly lay out the rights and responsibilities for both you and your soon-to-be ex-spouse regarding your child. Recent changes to the law in Illinois have eliminated the concepts of sole and joint child custody, so the two of you will need to decide who will be responsible for what, especially regarding significant issues like education, health care, religious training, and extracurricular activities. One of you may be responsible for all significant decisions, they may be split between you, or you may choose to make all such decisions together—presuming that communication is strong enough to facilitate cooperation.

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 Posted on June 13, 2016 in Annulments

For many years in the United States, there was much talk about the idea of marriage and whether the government had the right to decide the types of couples who should and should not be eligible to get married. The context for that discussion primarily concerned the marital rights of same-sex couples, and a resolution was reached about a year ago when a United States Supreme Court decision recognized same-sex marriage throughout the country. Each state, however, still maintains laws that govern who is and who is not eligible to get married, and, in Illinois, a prohibited marriage is grounds for an annulment.

Unlawful Marriages

The Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (IMDMA) is a collection of statutes that provide marriage and divorce-related guidelines for the state. According to the IMDMA, a marriage is prohibited if:

• Either spouse is currently a party to an existing marriage, civil union, or other similar legal relationship with another person.

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 Posted on June 08, 2016 in Property Division

The prospect of undoing a marriage is not only emotionally overwhelming, but can involve complicated logistical scenarios as well. A common concern among those seeking a divorce from their spouse is how property will be divided.

Marital and Non-Marital Assets

For the purposes of divorce, there are two general types of property. Assets acquired during the marriage are generally considered marital assets while assets purchased or acquired before the marriage are non-marital assets. For example, marital property would include a car the couple purchased together, the marital home, and joint banking accounts, along with regular income each spouse earned during the marriage. Only these shared marital assets will be divided during a divorce. Non-marital assets will remain the property of the original owner.

There are some special circumstances in which property or assets acquired during a marriage may not be considered part of the marital estate. For example, if you owned a vehicle prior to getting married and then sold that vehicle during the marriage, the profits from the sale are not considered marital and you are entitled to keep them. Gifts you received from a spouse before the marriage, such as engagement rings, are also not considered marital assets. Furthermore, any inheritance you received from a loved one during your marriage is considered a non-marital asset. You will not be required to divide these assets. 

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 Posted on June 06, 2016 in Child Custody and Support

The vast majority of divorced or unmarried parents recognize their responsibility to provide, at the very least, some level of financial support for their children. In most cases, the parent with less allocated responsibilities and parenting time is ordered to pay child support to the other parent in accordance with a formula provided in the law. For a parent who works for an employer and draws a regular paycheck, these calculations are generally straightforward, since they are determined as a percentage of net income based on the number of children to be supported. When the supporting parent owns a business, however, determining his or her actual income can be considerably more complex.

Mixing Business and Personal Income

Whether it is done with the intent of avoiding child support or claiming tax advantages, those who are self-employed often do not keep business and personal interests completely separate. They may use business revenue to cover day-to-day living expenses, essentially claiming no “take-home” income.  Virtually all income and expenses are assigned to the business.

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 Posted on May 25, 2016 in Divorce

We all know how distracting our cell phones can be. It is easy to become immersed in current event news, celebrity gossip, and chatting with friends. Sometimes, though, our digital companions can threaten the real-world relationships, especially marriages. Relationship experts and divorce attorneys alike have indicated a significant rise in the number of divorce cases that cite cell phone use as a contributing factor. In most situations, texting and other cell phone use has the potential to slowly degrade the quality of a marital relationship. For one man, however, his wife’s cell phone distractions became too much for him handle—after just a single day of being married.

Digital Troubles

According to various news reports, the man and his wife were married in the city of Jeddah, in their native Saudia Arabia. Following the wedding, the bride and groom retired to their hotel room for the evening. The young woman reportedly went right for her phone, responding to congratulatory messages from friends and loved ones. When her husband tried to get closer in attempts to initiate physical intimacy, she allegedly ignored him. The man’s family say that he asked his wife if her friends were more important than he was, and that she answered that they were.

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 Posted on May 23, 2016 in Visitation

The father of a 4-year-old girl is dead following a shooting during what was supposed to be a parenting time exchange of the child. The incident occurred at a Shell gas station in East Memphis, Tennessee. While it is yet unclear what may have led to the fatal shooting, the tragic outcome highlights the need for courts in every state to be aware of potentially volatile parenting situations whenever possible.

Unusual Dropoff Location

According to reports from local news outlets, the victim was a 29-year-old man and father of a 4-year-old little girl. He was reportedly dropping the girl off to her mother—the man’s ex-wife—for a relatively routine parenting time exchange. The man’s family, however, claims that the choice of location was not normal, saying that his ex-wife typically would come to his house to pick up the girl.

Reports also indicate that the shooter was an off-duty officer of the Memphis Police Department who was on hand to witness the exchange. Initial reports listed the off-duty officer as an acquaintance of the ex-wife, almost suggesting he was there for her protection. It has since been discovered the officer is, in fact, engaged to the ex-wife, making him a bit more than a third-party observer.

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 Posted on May 18, 2016 in Child Custody and Support

Thanks to legislation that was passed in Illinois last spring and signed by the governor last July, 2016 has been a year of change and adaptation in the realm of family law. While the new statutes address a wide variety of topics, perhaps the most important changes affect the way in which courts will now approach the idea of child custody. Beginning this year, in fact, the phrase child custody has been all but removed from the law, replaced by the allocation of parental responsibilities.

In the minds of many parents, child custody was once a very black-and-white issue. A parent was either granted sole custody or would share joint custody of a child following a divorce, separation, or other situation in which the parents stopped sharing a household. These two types of arrangements referred to the authority of each parent regarding major concerns in the child’s life, not just how much time the child spent with mom or dad. A parent with sole custody was responsible for all important decision-making, while parents with joint custody were responsible for developing a plan to make such decisions together.

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