Many couples decide to live together without getting married—one partner may have already divorced and does not want to remarry. When couples decide to cohabitate, there are several legal and financial decisions that the couple needs to decide.

If you and your spouse decide to separate and you have children, then you must collectively make decisions regarding co-parenting and custody. As part of the decision, one of the parents may take on the responsibility of providing child support to the parent who has greater parental responsibility for the child. Under Illinois law, child support is determined by using a formula that calculates support as a percentage of the supporting parent’s net income. The exact percentage depends of the total number of children the parents have together.

Divorce is most often an emotionally charged process for everyone involved. Former spouses may get caught in disputes and arguments during a divorce that can prolong divorce proceedings and make the process difficult for both parties. When this happens, it may be useful for a trained mediator to help the parties come to an agreement about their divorce.

Parental alienation occurs when one parent uses his or her influence to manipulate a child’s opinion of his or her other parent. Typically one parent convinces the child that he or she is the good parent and that the other parent is bad, or even evil. Sadly, these types of cases are common. When judges suspect parental alienation, it can drastically alter the way the court decides parenting time and custody.

Often times divorcing couples focus on ensuring that they continue to cultivate strong relationships with their children during and after a divorce. They work with the courts and their lawyers to carefully develop parenting and timesharing plans. However, there is another important relationship that may be negatively impacted by divorce: the grandparent and grandchild relationship. 

Deciding to divorce is difficult decision. Once a couple makes the decision to separate there are many stressful decisions to make as the divorce process moves along. Pets and companion animals can make the process easier for many people. It should not be surprising that deciding who gets to keep a pet is a common issue in divorce disputes.

Oftentimes, one spouse is responsible for managing household finances, while the other spouse may not have a clear idea about the family’s income and expenses. Handling finances this way is fine when both spouses plan to stay in the marriage. However, if the marriage begins to deteriorate and divorce becomes a possibility, then the spouse handling family finances may try to take advantage of this situation by hiding assets. 

Under Illinois law, judges are required to equitably divide marital property in a divorce. This means that before a judge can figure out how to divide property, a court must first decide whether property is marital property. It is important for divorcing couples to understand how the court will view commingled property and the consequences of commingling property—a process that can be aided by an experienced attorney. 

On January 1, 2016, Senate Bill 57 (SB57) will bring tremendous changes to various aspects of family law, including child custody and divorce. If you will be facing a child custody decision when SB57 goes into effect, then it is important that you understand how a court will make custody decisions under the new law.

A non-custodial parent may refuse to pay child support. He or she may cite reasons for not complying with child support orders such as concerns regarding how the payments are utilized by the custodial parent or a lack of visitation. Unfortunately, this is an common issue.

Oftentimes, couples want to adopt a child from another country but do not realize that there is a specific process they must follow before they can bring their child to the United States.

In Illinois, if parents are not married when their child is born, then they must establish the child’s paternity if they wish to establish certain rights between the child and the father. There are a number of ways to establish paternity for a child. The easiest method to establish paternity is for both parents to sign a Voluntary Acknowledgment of Paternity (VAP) form.