Posted on May 11, 2023 in Family Law

In Illinois, alimony is referred to as spousal maintenance or spousal support. Maintenance payments relieve some of the financial burden created by divorce. The money may be used for housing, everyday expenses, or educational costs for a spouse who requires additional training or education to become financially self-sufficient after a divorce.

If you earn significantly less income than your spouse, you may wonder if you will be able to get alimony in your divorce. You may have been out of the workforce because you were a stay-at-home parent, homemaker, or simply relied on your spouse to provide the financial support you needed.

This blog will explain the main legal avenues through which a spouse can receive spousal maintenance, how spousal maintenance awards are calculated, and what the next steps are for anybody who wishes to pursue spousal maintenance during their Illinois divorce.

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 Posted on May 09, 2023 in Family Law

For many young people, May is a month filled with graduation parties, ceremonies, and making plans for the future. If you are a parent of a high school or college-aged child, it is important to understand how Illinois law handles college expenses when parents are divorced. Illinois is unique in that divorced parents are sometimes legally required to contribute to their child's college education. Read on to learn more.

Splitting the Cost of Tuition, Books, Fees, Housing, and Other College Costs

Child support obligations typically end once a child becomes an adult. However, in Illinois, a parent may still be required to provide financial assistance to a college-aged child. Illinois courts have the authority to allocate college expenses between two divorced parents. College expenses include the cost of tuition, fees, textbook rental, supplies, housing, and food. The court considers both parents’ financial circumstances when determining how to split college expenses between them. The college student’s own financial resources, including money from scholarships or work-study programs, may also be considered. Sometimes, the student is also required to contribute to college expenses.

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 Posted on May 05, 2023 in Divorce

Many people move to the Chicago area to fulfill their dreams as creators. Actors, authors, musicians, artists, inventors, designers, and entrepreneurs flock to the Windy City and the surrounding regions, hoping to make a living from their unique creations.

Unsurprisingly, disputes regarding intellectual property are not uncommon in Illinois divorce cases - especially cases involving high-net-worth individuals.

If you are planning to divorce and you or your spouse have copyrights, patents, trademarks, contractual rights, royalties, or other intellectual property rights, make sure you understand how intellectual property is valued and distributed during divorce.

Intellectual Property May Be Considered Marital Property

Most people assume that a creator’s work is his or her property alone. However, Illinois law is clear regarding the classification of property: Any assets acquired during the marriage are marital property save for assets acquired through gift or inheritance. Assets acquired before the marriage or after legal separation are non-marital property. These rules apply to tangible assets such as real estate and bank accounts as well as intangible assets such as intellectual property rights.

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 Posted on May 03, 2023 in Family Law

As any parent can confirm, raising a child is costly. Tuition and other educational expenses, childcare, extracurricular activities, clothing, housing, and groceries are just some of the many expenses a parent will need to cover. Child support payments help distribute the cost of raising a child between the two parents.

Unfortunately, some parents try to pay less than their fair share of financial support. If your child's parent receives cash income “under the table,” you may worry about how this will influence child support payments. In this blog, we will discuss how child support is calculated in Illinois and what you can do if your parent is trying to manipulate the child support order by failing to disclose all sources of income.

Basics of Child Support Orders in Illinois

When the court determines the amount of child support to be paid, the court begins by gathering financial information from both parents. Each parent's net income is calculated by taking their gross income and subtracting taxes, other support obligations, and certain other expenses. The parents’ combined income determines the total amount of support owed by both parents. The total support obligation is then distributed between the parents. The parent with less parenting time pays his or her share through child support.

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 Posted on April 28, 2023 in Divorce

High-asset divorce cases often involve significant financial intricacies not present in typical divorce cases. Financial issues can be relatively straightforward to sort out when both spouses are open and forthcoming about financial information. However, when a spouse undervalues their property, fails to disclose all sources of income, or otherwise withholds financial information, the case gets much more complicated.

Forensic accounting is a process during which financial information is analyzed to identify, appraise, and locate assets. If you or your spouse own high-value real estate, investments, business interests, or other complex assets and you plan to divorce, forensic accounting can be a useful tool during your divorce process.

Identifying Marital and Non-Marital Assets with Forensic Accounting

Marital assets are assets that were accumulated during the marriage. Non-marital assets include gifts, inheritances, and assets accumulated before the marriage.

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 Posted on April 26, 2023 in Divorce

The division of marital property is a crucial aspect of the divorce process. Most of the assets acquired by either spouse during the course of the marriage are considered marital property. This can include bank accounts, retirement funds, real estate, investment income, and household items such as clothes and furniture.

Most divorcing couples negotiate a property division settlement. However, if the spouses are unable to determine a property division arrangement they can both agree to, the court makes a decision based on Illinois equitable distribution laws.

The dissipation of assets occurs when a spouse destroys, wastes, or misuses assets immediately prior to or during a divorce. A dissipation of assets claim may be used to recover reimbursement for assets that are squandered by the other spouse.

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 Posted on April 21, 2023 in Family Law

If you are planning to divorce and you or your spouse has significant financial assets, it is important to know how this wealth can influence the divorce process. Not only are financial issues such as property division more complicated, wealth can also influence child support calculations.

In Illinois, child support is typically based on a standard formula. However, Illinois courts may deviate from the typical formula and use other means of calculating child support in high-income divorce cases.

Child Support Guidelines and Deviations

Each state handles child support slightly differently. Until a few years ago, Illinois determined child support solely using the paying parent’s income. The amount a parent paid in child support was based on a simple percentage of his or her net income. In order to create a more equitable situation for both parents, child support is now based on both parents’ income.

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 Posted on April 20, 2023 in Family Law

There is a good deal of confusion and misinformation surrounding the concept of legal separation in Illinois. Many people use the word “separated” to refer to a temporary break from a spouse. Others use the word to refer to a permanent situation in which the spouses live separately. However, neither of these situations necessarily constitutes a legal separation.

A married couple who has legally separated benefits from specific legal protections under Illinois law. Being separated does not end a marriage, but it does allow the spouses to address many of the same types of issues that they would address during a divorce.

What is a Legal Separation?

A legal separation is a binding agreement between two spouses. The spouses agree to live apart from each other and to separate their finances and everyday lives. Couples who are legally separated are still married and still enjoy certain benefits that come with a marriage relationship, such as inheritance rights. They cannot marry somebody else. Unlike a divorce, a legal separation is not necessarily permanent. If a legally separated couple reconciles, they are able to vacate the separation and resume their married lives together.

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 Posted on April 17, 2023 in Divorce

When two people get married, they combine their lives as well as their possessions. “Yours” and “mine” becomes “ours.” This can make it very difficult to determine who owns what during a divorce. If you or your spouse own jewelry, you may wonder how this particular type of asset is dealt with during an Illinois divorce. Jewelry can not only have great financial value, it often has tremendous sentimental value as well. Asset division can be tricky and determining ownership of a piece of jewelry is not always easy. Read on to learn more.

Marital and Non-Marital Property

In an Illinois divorce, marital property typically includes property that was obtained between the start of the marriage and the separation or divorce. However, it is not always this straightforward. If a spouse acquired a piece of jewelry through an inheritance, it does not matter when he or she inherited the asset, it is a non-marital asset. For example, if your mother passed away and you inherited her wedding rings, the rings belong solely to you.

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 Posted on April 14, 2023 in Divorce

It is hard to know when a marriage is truly over. Many couples go through rough times but are able to reconcile and work out their differences. For other couples, the differences are too great to overcome. Determining when reconciliation is possible and when it is time to end the marriage is not easy. In some divorce cases, the court may require the couple to attend a conciliation conference. The purpose of this meeting is to determine whether it is possible to salvage the marriage or whether it is better to continue with the divorce.

Determining Whether the Marriage Can Be Saved

Divorce is final so it is crucial that the couple is certain of the decision before proceeding. If there is a question as to whether the couple truly wants a divorce, a conciliation conference may be needed.

Conciliation conferences are often used when one spouse believes that the marriage can be revived. Either spouse may petition the court for a conciliation conference or the court may require the couple to attend a conciliation conference. The conference is essentially one last chance to save the marriage.

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