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‘No More Children’ Orders Judge to Deadbeat Dad
A Hayward, WI, man may find that probation stipulations put on him, for past due child support violations, by a family court judge could make it difficult for him to get a date. John J. Butler, 28, must reveal within three minutes of meeting any female that he is a convicted felon and has unpaid child support. According to this article, Butler has been ordered not to father any more children until all his past due child support is paid. Butler owes $23,000 in back child support for his two children. He earlier pleaded guilty to felony charges of failing to pay support for more than 120 days in 2011. According to WEAU News he also has a long history with the courts, including cases involving drugs, domestic violence, and drinking and driving. The judge said Butler must maintain full-time employment, pay his child support, undergo counseling and stay sober. Other family court judges have handed down similar stipulations in back child support cases. Corey Curtis, a 44 year-old Racine, WI father owes $90,000 in back child support. Curtis has nine children with six different women. At his recent sentencing for bail jumping and failure to pay child support, a judge told Boyle he was not allowed to have a tenth child until he can afford to take care of the nine he already has. If you are having a difficult time collecting child support that is owed to your children, contact an Illinois family law attorney to see what legal options may be available to you and your family.
Lamar Odom Goes to Court to Change Custody Agreement
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Sheltering Your Kids From Your Divorce
While you cannot protect your children from the fact that you and their other parent are getting divorce, you can shelter them to some degree from the negative aspects of divorce that can be damaging to them. Keep in mind that your children will be hurt by your divorce no matter how much you try to protect them. However, it is possible to minimize those feelings of hurt and loss by modifying your own behavior to some degree and putting the interests of your children first – even before your own interests.
Although co-parenting with an ex-spouse can be difficult during the best of times, it can be unimaginable when you are in the throes of divorce proceedings. Before you engage in yet another argument with your soon-to-be-ex, realize that despite how you feel about him or her right now, he or she is, and will always be, your child’s other parent. As a result, a recent Huffington Post article stresses the responsibility of divorcing parents to foster the relationship between the child and the other parent.
Here are some important guidelines that can help you be a better divorcing parent:
- Refrain from making any negative remarks about your ex in front of your children. They don’t need to know how your ex wronged you and you need to encourage their relationship with your ex.
Mother and Boyfriend Charged With Abuse and Neglect of Two Children
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Children Affected by Low-Conflict Divorce
There are several different aspects of divorce that have to be considered if divorce is on the table, but the most complicated issues deal with how the split will affect children if the divorcees are parents. Conventional wisdom is that divorce has the potential to ruin a child’s understanding of intimacy, and can leave him or her feeling lost, or without anchor. More recent studies show that if the marriage was wrought with conflict, divorce may actually be better for the kids. According to Psychology Today, this is more truth than the former. University of Nebraska sociologist Paul Amato has recently released a study in which he followed 2,000 families for nearly two decades. “If there has been lots of conflict in the marriage, the children actually do better if there is a divorce,” he told Psychology Today. Yet the hardest hit in a divorce, according to Amato and reported in the magazine, “are the children of marriages in which there were not high levels of hostility before a break-up. The husband and wife just didn’t drift along and the kids don’t notice anything’s missing.” For these kids, the dissolution of the marriage, rendering them adrift between two homes, floating, per-se, between both parents, is an unwelcome disturbance rather than a culmination of an already-disturbed childhood. Amato believes that “low-conflict divorce undermines kids’ sense of trust and causes them great psychological distress as they grow older.” It’s these kids, not all children of divorce, who have difficulty forming trusting relationships later in life, and are “particularly unhappy” as adults. It’s likely because, for the child, there was nothing visibly wrong. Children, of course, are unable to grasp the lower frequency wavelengths of their parents’ relationships, and so are unable to see how divorce could have been better for their parents if they weren’t visibly unhappy. Bringing a third party into a divorce, in the way of a qualified attorney, can help a family to sort out the difficult situations such as this. Don’t go through it alone. Contact a dedicated Chicago-area family law attorney today. Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Risk Factors and Causes of Domestic Violence
Domestic violence is a major problem in the United States. According to studies sponsored by the National Institute of Justice, each year about 1.3 million women and 835,000 men experience domestic violence in relationships. If you or a family member has encountered domestic violence, you should take steps to protect yourself from the violence. A capable family law lawyer can assist you in obtaining legal protection against a violent spouse.
There are a number of reasons for domestic violence, according to an article at About.com. Researchers have found several major risk factors and reasons for domestic abuse such as early parenthood, drinking problems, poverty, and ending a relationship.
- Early Parenthood. Women who become mothers at a young age are much more likely to become victims of domestic abuse than other women. In addition, men who become fathers at the age of 21 or under were over three times more likely to be abusers than men who had not fathered children at that age.
The basics of spousal maintenance in Illinois law
Often times in divorce or legal separations in Illinois, family circumstances call for reason that one spouse should receive support payments from the other after the couple goes their separate ways. Spousal maintenance, also called spousal support or alimony, is a continual transfer of money from one former spouse to the other, typically on a monthly basis, as required by the divorce decree. Spousal maintenance is not automatic and is different than and separated from child support payments. In divorce negotiation, parties may decide upon a settlement that includes a spousal maintenance provision, which then must be approved by the court. That settlement then becomes a part of the divorce decree. If the alimony arrangement is not severely unreasonable considering financial realities, it will generally be approved by the Illinois courts. If the court decides that the agreement is unreasonable, it has the power to ask the parties to renegotiate or give the judge the power to create an alimony arrangement. If the spouses are still unable or were never able to reach an agreement on the spousal support, the judge will determine what is appropriate under the circumstances and create the payment amounts, duration and schedule. Maintenance can be set for only a set time, indefinite, or set for later review. The parties get a chance to submit evidence that is relevant to alimony to the court. Factors relevant in deciding alimony include:
Recent Studies Show Limited Decline of Abuse Cases
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Child Support Guidelines in Illinois
NOTE: As of July 2017, the law governing child support in Illinois has changed. Please see our Child Support page for more information.
In a divorce that includes children, the court will try to decide a fair amount of child support that should be paid to the custodial parent. The amount can be changed if the financial situation of the non-custodial parent changes over the course of the child’s life. But it is important to have a basic understanding of how child support is figured. The factors that help determine the amount of child support are as follows. The needs of the child which is meant to include expenses such as medical insurance, day care, education and other major expenses. It also considers the financial situation of both the custodial and non-custodial parent and their abilities to support themselves. The standard of living that the child could have enjoyed if the parties were married is a general factor that is considered as well. The court will look at the net income of each parent when it decides upon a support amount. That is the full amount of income minus tax deductions, health insurance premiums, and other reasonable expenses that are necessary for life. In cases were net income isn’t known, it will be up to the court to decide on a realistic support amount. There are minimums that are used as benchmarks when deciding child support. If there is one child, the child support should be at least 20% of the net income. For two children, the percentage goes up to 28% and then to 32% for three children. It does meet a cap at 6 or more children which requires half of the net income of the non-custodial parent. If you are considering divorce when you have children then it is important to have a basic idea of how child support is figured. There are additional opportunities to seek post decree modifications to existing child support payments. If the non-custodial parent has a considerable change in income, then a petition may be in the best interests of the case. Contact a skilled divorce attorney in Wheaton who can work with you through your divorce or as new issues arise. Image courtesy of: Freedigitalphotos.net
The Kinds of Divorce
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