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Recent Blog Posts
Litigation Versus Mediation: Which Divorce Strategy Is Best?
There is no "one size fits all" way to handle your divorce. In order to appeal to the varying relationships of divorcing couples, there are a couple of ways that you can handle your divorce proceedings. Some couples may have a dark, tumultuous history where their interactions are contentious and purposely limited, while others have simply grown apart over the years and wish to move on from their marriage. The two most common options for those seeking a divorce are litigation and mediation. Before deciding upon their means of a divorce, spouses should consider the quality of their relationship and compare these two popular options.
Sticking to Court
The tried-and-true divorce option that most are familiar with is known as divorce litigation. The term "litigation" means "carrying out a lawsuit," although this does not mean that every divorce will find its way into a courtroom. The reason divorce may be considered a lawsuit is because in many cases, the decision to file for divorce is not mutual. In many cases, one spouse would like to divorce while the other wishes to remain married. Since this becomes an adversarial situation, with one spouse battling the other, the divorce case becomes a little more tricky, requiring litigation and sometimes time spent in court.
Can I Relocate With My Children After My Illinois Divorce?
It is common for recently divorced individuals to want to start over in a new location. Living in the home that you built with your former spouse can make it difficult to escape your old life and move on to a new chapter. Relocating may finally seem obtainable now that you are free from your marriage, but unfortunately, if you have children, you are never fully independent of your former spouse. With parenting agreements that outline how much you will receive in child support, when each parent will spend time with the kids, and who has the most parenting responsibilities, it can seem difficult to get the space you desired when you filed for divorce. Moving away with your kids may appear to be the solution to a fresh start, but restrictions on relocation may keep you from doing so.
What Is Considered Relocation?
Calculating Child Support
Illinois now uses the income shares model to determine child support. Income shares uses a formula that takes into account both parents’ incomes, the number of children in the family and parenting time with the child/ren. Child support set by incomes shares is based on the typical cost of raising a child or children in a family with the same combined income and same number of children. The amount families spend raising their child/ren was determined by an independent statistical study.
Unlike the previous statute, child support is now directly linked to parenting time. While this is great in many ways as it accounts for parties with a more shared parenting schedule – it can also result in more litigation. Parents used to litigate over who was the primary residential parent (or recipient of child support), now parents litigate over the exact amount of days they have during a year with their children. But with any law, there are always pros and cons.
Calculating Maintenance (formally known as alimony)
Maintenance (formally known as alimony) is financial support for an ex-spouse. This can be ordered by the court during the divorce as temporary support and/or after the final Judgment for Dissolution of Marriage is entered. Maintenance only applies if the parties were married.
As of January 1, 2019, Illinois changed the way maintenance is calculated. Maintenance is now calculated by taking 33% of the payer’s net income – 25% of the receiver’s net income. Additionally, Illinois places a cap on the amount of maintenance (excluding temporary maintenance) one can receive, which cannot be more than 40% of the couple’s total combined income.
For example:
Spouse 1’s net annual income is $100,000.00
Spouse 2’s net annual income is $50,000.00
$100,000.00 X .33 = $33,000.00
$50,000.00 X .25 = $12,500.00
$33,000.00 – $12,500.00 = $20,500.00 in maintenance per year
Divorcing in a Pandemic
There have been many memes passed around (at least in my industry) that joke about a baby boom and an increased demand for divorce due to the stay at home order. Behaviors that people used to ignore because they could escape to work or the gym or a restaurant with friends, are gnawing at the psyche of isolated COVID-19 couples. Like that little habit he has of chewing with his mouth open. Or how she hums Merry Christmas every time she washes her hands.
This is even more exaggerated when parents must juggle homeschooling kids and working remotely from home. Arguments about who is teaching science today result in simmering resentment and passive aggressive loud typing on one’s laptop.
Although this is unchartered territory, we do know that the stay at home order will someday end. It must end, for all of our sakes. But until then, choosing whether to divorce your spouse needs to be made with great care. Divorcing your spouse is not easy, emotionally or financially. Before you go down the path of hiring an attorney and filing your petition for dissolution, try these tactics to keep the peace:
Rapp new appointee to ISBA’s Women and the Law Committee
Emily Rapp is a new appointee to the ISBA’s Women and the Law Committee. Her main areas of practice are Family Law and serving as a Guardian ad Litem in Kane, Kendall and DuPage Counties.
Emily was a teenager when bitten by the legal bug. She read Silent Spring, a book by Rachel Carson that discussed the effects of herbicides and pesticides on the environment and decided right then that she wanted to be an environmental lawyer. Then she took environmental law. She is a family law practitioner.
Emily is a 2011 graduate from Loyola University School of Law. During her law school years, she was a 711-licensed clerk at the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office and clerked for the CTA. In law school, after determining environmental law was not her forte, she had dreams of becoming a Cook County prosecutor. Cook County did not share Emily’s dream. Resourceful Emily had a back-up plan, family law. She used her connections to find her first job out of law school at Peskind Law Firm in St. Charles. She credits that firm and Steve Peskind with teaching her a lot about family law and dealing with clients. From there she went to work for Weiler & Lengle. Rory Weiler continues to mentor her to this day. In April of this year, she opened her own practice in downtown Geneva.
Is a Legal Separation Better for My Family Than a Divorce?
Many couples decide to separate before they fully commit to a divorce. However, simply moving out of one's shared household is not enough to make a separation official. In many cases, couples in Illinois will want to take steps to protect their rights by filing for a legal separation. This will allow them to consider many of the issues that will be addressed during divorce, such as the allocation of parental responsibilities and parenting time, spousal support, and property division, but they will continue to be legally married after the separation. Although this may sometimes be the first step on the road to divorce, some partners will decide to remain separated rather than get divorced due to the financial benefits a legal separation can offer them and their children.
From our offices in Wheaton and Geneva, Illinois, we help clients throughout the area including St. Charles, Batavia, Elgin, Elburn, Wheaton, Naperville, Yorkville, Oswego, Aurora, Kane County, DuPage County, and Kendall County.
