A divorce ends one chapter in life but offers the opportunity for a new chapter as well. If you are getting divorced, you may feel a mix of emotions. On one hand, you may be grieving the end of your marriage, but on the other hand, you may be excited about the prospect of dating again.

Many people going through a divorce wonder if it is okay to date other people while they are still technically married. While adults have the right to date whoever they want, dating during divorce can have unintended consequences.

What If I Meet Someone While I Am Still Technically Married?

In many cases, spouses lead separate lives long before they are officially separated or divorced. If you are like many people seeking divorce, you may have felt like your marriage ended months or even years ago. Consequently, you may be ready to start looking for a new romantic partner.

There is no getting around the fact that a divorce will likely have a significant impact on the spouses’ finances. For some divorcing spouses, divorce represents the loss of their only source of income or financial support. Fortunately, divorcing spouses in Illinois may qualify for alimony, or as it is called in Illinois law, spousal maintenance. Read on to learn about Illinois spousal maintenance laws and what you should do if you want to request spousal maintenance during your divorce.

Avenues for Collecting Spousal Support

Spousal maintenance or spousal support can provide much-needed financial aid to divorced spouses. However, spousal maintenance is not a guarantee. There are three main avenues through which spouses can get spousal maintenance in an Illinois divorce:

1. Prenuptial agreement or postnuptial agreement – If the spouses had made spousal maintenance arrangements in a prenup or other marital contract, those arrangements will most likely be upheld during the divorce. The main exception to this is if the prenuptial agreement or other agreement is invalid. For example, a prenuptial agreement may be invalid and unenforceable if a spouse entered into the agreement through fraud, coercion, or force.
2. A settlement or agreement during the divorce proceedings – Spouses have the right to determine their own arrangement regarding spousal maintenance. They may be able to reach an agreement through mediation or negotiations led by their respective attorneys.
3. A petition for spousal maintenance – You can petition or request spousal maintenance during your divorce. However, you will need to demonstrate solid reasons for your request. Illinois courts consider the spouses’ financial circumstances, health, and employability, the length of the marriage and standard of living during the marriage, and other factors when deciding whether to award spousal maintenance.

How Much Are Spousal Maintenance Payments and How Long Do They Last?

Often, spousal maintenance is intended to be rehabilitative. The financial support gives the recipient time to get back on his or her feet after a divorce. Permanent spousal maintenance is rare, but it may be available if the marriage lasted 20 years or longer. The duration of maintenance payments is usually based on the duration of the marriage. The dollar amount of spousal maintenance payments is usually determined by a formula that uses both spouses’ net incomes.

One of the most difficult issues to resolve in divorce is small business ownership. For many people, growing their small business has involved an enormous amount of time and personal sacrifice, and the thought of losing the business and shuttering its doors can be devastating. Yet, because the value of many businesses increases during a marriage, the fact is that the increase in value is likely part of your marital property - meaning it is subject to division in divorce. 

Business owners who hope to retain total ownership of their business after divorce will want to learn as much as they can about business valuation methods and how they impact the way a business is treated during divorce. If you are in this situation, read on. 

The Most Common Valuation Methods

There are several ways a business’s value can be determined, and a trained business evaluator can help you choose one based on the type of business you have. The three primary methods of small business valuations are: 

The division of property and liabilities is often a complicated and contentious aspect of the divorce process. When spouses own a small business, the issue of property distribution is even more complex. If you or your spouse own a business or you jointly own a family business, you may be unsure of how to handle the business during the divorce. There is no one-size-fits-all solution to business owner concerns during divorce. The way you handle ownership of the business will depend on your specific needs, financial resources, and long-term goals. When deciding how to proceed, consider the following questions.

Who Has Ownership Rights to the Business?

Per Illinois law, marital property is property accumulated during the marriage. However, determining the identity of your business as marital or non-marital is not as straightforward as you may think. If a spouse owns the business before getting married, it is usually considered non-marital property. However, if the other spouse contributed time or resources to the betterment of the business, the business may be considered partially or fully marital.

How Much is the Business Worth?

Whether you decide to do with the business, you will need to know the business’s value. There are several ways to value a small business, but many people use the business’s fair market value to inform the property division process. This is the price a buyer would pay for the business. It is recommended that business owners have their business professionally valued in a divorce. You and your spouse may choose to use the same business appraiser or separate appraisers depending on your particular situation.

If you are a grandparent, you know just how special the grandchild-grandparent relationship can be. Unfortunately, sometimes, grandparents are not able to have a close relationship with their grandchildren because of conflicts with their own children. If you want your grandchild to be a bigger part of your life, you may have questions about your rights as a grandparent. Can grandparents be prohibited from seeing their grandchildren? Do grandparents have a right to visitation? Read on to learn more.

Illinois Law Regarding Grandparent Visitation

You may be able to get court-ordered visitation with the kids. To do so, you will need to file a petition with the court for grandparent visitation. The court will consider your request if:

• The parents are divorced and at least one of the parents agrees to grandparent visitation

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Children need adults to keep them safe and help them grow up to be happy and healthy. Typically, a child’s parents are the primary caregivers in a child’s life. However, modern families come in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes a child’s grandparent, stepparent, aunt, uncle, or another responsible adult takes on the primary caregiver role. Legal guardianship allows a person other than a child’s parent to assume responsibility for child-related decisions and caretaking.

What Is A Guardian of a Minor Child?

As a non-parent, you may occasionally babysit a child, help make decisions about the child’s education, or assume roles typically assigned to parents. However, being an informal caretaker and a legal guardian are very different things. When you become a child’s legal guardian, you assume certain legal rights and responsibilities not expected of non-guardians.

There are several different types of guardianship in Illinois. If you are the “guardian of the person,” you assume responsibility for major decisions in the child’s life, including where he or she will go to school or what types of medical care the child will receive. “Guardian of the estate” allows you to manage the child’s financial assets. Sometimes, one person will act as both the guardian of the person and guardian of the estate.

For decades, misconceptions about prenuptial agreements have confused and misled engaged couples. News stories about last-minute celebrity weddings and divorces have led many to believe that prenups are only for the ultrarich or for couples who do not take their wedding vows seriously. Fortunately, these misconceptions are slowly being replaced by the truth that prenuptial agreements are a valuable legal tool for any engaged couple.

Estimates place the divorce rate between 40-50 percent. More and more couples recognize that no one can predict the future and that preparing for the possibility of divorce is an important part of being financially responsible. Prenuptial agreements have increased in popularity among younger couples for several reasons.

Young Couples Understand That There is Always a Chance of Divorce

The last thing a couple wants to think about when they are planning their wedding is the possibility that they will eventually divorce. However, statistics do not lie, and many marriages do ultimately end. Many couples understand that preparing for this possibility does not doom the marriage to failure, just as carrying car insurance does not increase the chances of a car accident.

Child support payments are a welcome form of financial assistance for many parents. However, the laws surrounding child support are sometimes difficult to interpret on your own. If you currently pay or receive child support and your child is getting older, you may ask, “When does child support end?” The term “child support” makes it seem as if a parent only receives child support while the child is a minor. However, there are several situations in which child support continues even after a child turns 18 years old.

Do You Still Have to Pay Child Support If the Child Goes to College in Illinois?

Child support orders last until the child turns 18 years old and becomes an adult. However, if the child is still in high school when they turn 18, child support continues until the child graduates high school and turns 19. Many child support orders include an automatic termination date. However, some obligors (paying parents) will need to request a child support modification to terminate child support once the child becomes an adult. If you pay child support, do not assume that your child support obligation automatically ends without confirming the termination date. Failure to pay child support is considered a serious offense in Illinois.

Can Child Support Continue After 18 in Illinois?

Child support does not always end once a child turns 18 and graduates from high school. If the child attends college, child support can continue through his or her undergraduate degree. Child support can help cover college tuition, books, fees, housing, and other expenses. The parents may agree on how they will cover their child’s college expenses or the court may order “non-minor child support” to be paid based on both parents’ financial circumstances and other factors.

Divorce cases vary dramatically in complexity. Spouses with few assets who were not married very long may be able to resolve their divorce quickly and with little court intervention. Divorce is much more involved for couples who own high-value or complex assets and spouses who disagree on divorce issues.

One of the most important aspects of the divorce process is financial disclosure. Spouses are expected to list all of their assets and other relevant financial information. When a spouse does not share this information or the information is incomplete or inaccurate, the spouses’ attorneys may use discovery tools to reveal the truth. Discovery often involves financial concerns such as the division of marital property but discovery may also address child-related issues.

Discovery Tools in an Illinois Divorce

Discovery is the “fact-finding” portion of the divorce case. In order to negotiate the unresolved divorce issues, the spouses and their respective attorneys must have a full understanding of the facts of the case. Discovery varies from case to case but, often, discovery involves:

Finances impact a divorce case dramatically. The amount of marital property assigned to each spouse is heavily influenced by the value and types of assets owned by the spouses. Child support payments are calculated using each spouse’s net income. Spousal maintenance is also mainly determined by the spouses’ assets, income, and overall financial circumstances. Consequently, lying about finances can dramatically influence the outcome of a divorce case. Hiding assets, underreporting income, and transferring property to another party are all tactics some divorcing spouses use to manipulate their divorce case.

Ways that Spouses Conceal Assets in a Divorce

There are nearly countless methods for hiding assets in a divorce. Some spouses literally hide cash or property during divorce. They may “sell” assets to friends or family members only to regain the property after the divorce is complete. Other spouses use their business or professional practice to hide income or assets. Unscrupulous spouses may even use the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to shield assets from division during divorce by overpaying taxes and reaping a large return in the future.

Perhaps the easiest and more common form of hiding assets in a divorce is simply not reporting the assets. In many marriages, one spouse takes charge of the finances while the other spouse handles non-financial responsibilities. This makes it easy for the knowledgeable spouse to deceive the uninformed spouse.

Any parent can tell you that having a child dramatically increases your monthly expenses. Housing costs, childcare expenses, tuition, and extracurricular fees are just some of the child-related expenses many parents contend with. It is even harder to cover these costs when you are a single parent. Consequently, financial assistance in the form of child support payments is a crucial necessity for unmarried and divorced parents. However, getting the child support you need can be difficult when the child’s father denies his biological relationship with the child.

What Happens if the Father Says He is Not the Father

Illinois law presumes that, if a woman gives birth, her husband is the baby’s father. However, there is no legal presumption of paternity if the mother is unmarried. Furthermore, relationships are complicated and marital infidelity does sometimes occur. Therefore, there are cases where a woman’s husband is not her child’s biological father. If you are unsure about who your child’s father is or your child’s father is denying his paternity, it is important to understand how this can impact child support.

You Must Establish Paternity to Receive Child Support

Some parents assume that an informal child support agreement will be adequate. Unfortunately, if you do not get an official child support order from the court, there is nothing that the court can do if the parent stops making child support payments.

Illinois law presumes that parents have the ability to adequately care for their children and provide a safe living environment. Consequently, anyone who has established parentage or paternity of a child is entitled to certain parental rights. Among these rights is the right to be awarded “parenting time” or time with the child. However, some parents will need to take steps to gain parental rights. Furthermore, some circumstances may lead to the restriction or termination of a parent’s parental rights.

When Does a Parent Have a Right to Visitation?

Parenting time, which used to be called “visitation,” is the time that a parent watches his or her child and cares for the child’s everyday needs. Divorced parents allocate parenting time in their parenting plan. However, in order to be entitled to parenting time, unmarried fathers may need to establish paternity. Paternity may be established by signing a Voluntary Acknowledgement of Paternity (VAP) upon the child’s birth or through a judicial or administrative process.

Parents may be subject to a parenting time restriction if there are concerns that normal parenting time may endanger the child’s health or wellbeing. Parenting time restrictions may include a reduction of parenting time, supervised visits, or, in rare cases, the total elimination of the parent’s parenting time.     

As a business owner, you may assume that your business assets are completely separate from your marital property, but this is often not the case. According to Illinois law, business assets acquired by a spouse during their marriage are typically considered to belong to the marital estate. Even business assets owned before a marriage can be at risk of becoming commingled with marital assets and losing their separate identity. One way to ensure that your business assets remain your own is to address them specifically in a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement with your spouse.

Prenuptial Agreements for Business Owners

If you are planning to get married and you already own a business or professional practice, that business will still be considered your non-marital property once you get married. However, a prenuptial agreement can provide an additional safeguard to ensure that it stays that way throughout your marriage. Beyond designating your ownership rights to the property, your prenuptial agreement can also include other provisions that may be beneficial to you and your partner.

When we hear the term “guardianship,” we often think of children. However, Illinois law also provides legal avenues for someone to receive guardianship of a disabled adult. If you have a loved one with a disability that renders him or her unable to care for himself or herself, you may be interested in getting guardianship of that person. Although the law uses the word “disability,” when referring to guardianship of an adult, the criteria for what constitutes a disabled person is more inclusive than you may assume.

How Does Illinois Define a Disability for the Purposes of Guardianship?

There are several different types of guardianship in Illinois. When someone acts as a guardian for an adult, they may assume responsibility for that person’s medical, financial, and/or day-to-day decision-making. Illinois courts only grant guardianship of an adult if that person meets the legal definition of disabled. A disabled adult is someone who cannot make and communicate reasonable decisions about his or her personal affairs. This incapacitation may be due to:

• Cognitive deterioration – Many times, guardianship of a disabled adult is granted when an older adult suffers from Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia. Huntington’s disease, ALS, Parkinson’s disease, and other neurodegenerative diseases may also cause a person to be unable to care for himself or herself.

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Divorce is never easy, but sometimes a divorce can get hostile and ugly things are said between partners. If the conversations regularly become violent, threatening, or inappropriate, a spouse may want to record phone conversations in order to prove to a court that the other spouse is a danger to themselves or their child. 

Often, a spouse will want to record these conversations secretly, out of fear that the offending spouse will clean up their act if they believe someone may be listening. They may worry that the harassment will continue if they cannot prove that the inappropriate actions are taking place.  

Illinois is a Two-Party State

No matter how serious your concerns are about threatening phone conversations, in Illinois, you cannot secretly record a phone conversation legally. This is because Illinois is a two-party state. In a one-party state, only one party participating in a phone conversation of two or more people has to know the conversation is being recorded in order for it to be legal. But in a two-party state, all the parties to the conversation must know and consent to be recorded in order for the call to be legal. 

Divorce is frequently cited as one of the five most stressful life events. No matter how long you’ve been married, deciding to get divorced is often accompanied by many complex emotions. Although divorce is increasingly common, it is not a decision to be taken lightly, and its potential impact on spouses, children, pets, and assets must all be considered. Fortunately, with the help of a lawyer, you can plan ahead and prepare yourself for the process to make it go as smoothly as possible. 

Have a Long-Term Strategy

Widespread academic research and collective wisdom both attest to the negative effect divorce can have on everyone involved. Speaking dispassionately, most people would tell you that a commitment to reducing conflict in divorce is crucial for minimizing the negative impact, especially on children. However, when spouses are in the midst of difficult or hostile divorce negotiations, it can be hard to have a long-term strategy and remember that the process of divorce doesn’t last forever – even if it seems like it might!

If you have a dog, cat, horse, bird, or another pet, you most likely do not think of your pet as mere property. You may even consider your pet part of the family. However, under Illinois divorce law, pets are classified as property and subject to the same asset division laws as vehicles, bank accounts, and other types of property. Fortunately, the law was updated in 2018 to reflect the fact that pets are more than mere possessions.

What Happens if Divorcing Spouses Disagree About Pet Ownership?

Understandably, many people have strong feelings about their pets. This can make deciding who should keep the pet after a divorce extremely difficult. Spouses are encouraged to negotiate a property division arrangement that works for them. However, property division concerns are not always able to be resolved out of court. If a divorcing couple cannot reach an agreement on pet ownership, the court may need to make a decision on the spouses’ behalf.

Per Illinois law, property that was obtained by either spouse during the marriage is marital property. Property that a spouse owned before the marriage is non-marital property and belongs solely to that spouse in the event of divorce. If you got your pet during the marriage, both spouses have a right to the pet. If a spouse owned the pet before the marriage, it may be considered non-marital property. However, if both spouses cared for the pet and paid for pet supplies and veterinary care, the pet may be considered marital property regardless of who first acquired the pet.

A lot of people go through life within a perpetually confused or ambivalent state because things aren’t so bad. In this state of confusion, they cannot be asked to make a determination, so they will rationalize remaining with their partner, waiting around for something to occur that will make it clearer as to if they ought to keep the marriage together or not.

For other people, a fear of the unknown is merely too daunting; therefore, they become numb or make themselves busy to make life with their spouse bearable (for instance, by alcohol/drug addiction, workaholism, and excessive spending). In a few instances, this fear of leaving isn’t about unknown circumstances, instead, it’s the known which paralyzes them.

If you are tired of sacrificing your happiness and are ready to move ahead with your divorce, contact our Chicago divorce attorney office at (312) 884-1222 for a free consultation.

What should occur at the initial meeting?

It’ll depend upon what is happening within the divorce case. In a few cases, divorce papers already have been filed, whereas in additional cases, the partners already have discussed divorce and pledged to utilize a collaborative divorce process, instead of all out ‘litigation’ (which means to fight it out in court). Lastly, a few clients are faced with an emergency - their partner might be draining the bank account, anticipating the divorce, or they might be the victim of domestic abuse and have to have instant protection from the court. The circumstances of the client is going to dictate what’s discussed and which actions are taken as a consequence of the initial meeting.

Though typically, a client walks in with general questions in regard to a recently-filed or an impending divorce, and the majority of attorneys will assess the various processes of divorce which are available (litigation, mediation, and collaborative law) and explain the steps for each.

Whether you refer to it as a divorce or separation, deciding that you want to split is a decision which never should be taken lightly. There’s always a time in which space is required between your partner and you, and space occasionally can be a healthy decision. It permits both parties to have the ability to rationally consider the ideal method of handling the duty at hand, and to talk about a possible compromise. There’s never a clear indication of when the ideal time is to end your marriage; therefore, taking ‘one final shot at mending your relationship’ is something you might have to attempt many times.

If, after exhausting all these possibilities and you still feel that divorce is inevitable speak with one of our Chicago divorce attorneys at (312) 884-1222 for a free consultation.

Therefore consider this: If you’re considering separation, determine how your partner and you might take time apart, without having to make any spontaneous decisions, and taking the time to consider solutions. Unsure how much time you should take? As long as it takes! There isn’t any reason to dive head first into a separation or a divorce, therefore just play it out, then see how it goes, it can’t get any worse as you already feel you are at the end of the rope.