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630-580-6373630-580-6373For whatever the reason, a few decades ago, you and your spouse turned to the adoption process to firmly plant your family tree. You lovingly declared a life-long commitment to raising your adoptive child and guided them to adulthood. Of course, you made a few mistakes along the way, who hasn’t, but never once did you waiver from your original commitment. So why is your adult child now announcing that they now want to uproot your family tree by branching out to include biological family members?
Your reaction could go either way. You could be one of the many who feel it is your child's right to proceed or perhaps find yourself a bit resentful and asking why now? How you feel about the situation may not matter. If your family resides in the state of Illinois, requests for information of an adoption is supported under the Illinois Adoption Act (750 ILCS). No matter how you, your spouse or other family members feel about this request, it may be time to contact an experienced Illinois family law practice to fully understand the process as mandated by the Illinois Adoption Act. Before meeting with legal counsel, this synopsis can familiarize you with Illinois statute: Illinois Agencies Involved
Filing for divorce is one of the most stressful events a person can experience. In some cases, ending a marriage can cause psychological damage. Fortunately, there are several things that you can do to make the process easier and healthier for everyone involved. 
Many respond to the end of a marriage with grief and anger, or feelings of fear and anxiety. These feelings often catch you off guard. As you proceed through your divorce, it is important to be compassionate and kind to yourself. Try to avoid thinking of your divorce as a battle. Write down details and questions to ask your divorce attorney when you’re calm so that you will remember them later. It may also be helpful to develop a script of sorts for face-to-face communications with your soon-to-be ex-spouse. This can make things easier when you have to meet to discuss details, whether in court, or an alternative dispute resolution meeting. If there are children involved in the relationship, it is important that you do your best to keep conflict away from them. You need to come up with a plan for talking to your children, and talk to them together with spouse. Be honest and open with them in order to keep the lines of communication open, and give them plenty of notice before big changes like moving, or your spouse moving out. Following the divorce, try to minimize large changes for at least a year, and allow them to maintain close contact with their other parent. It is important to remind young children that the divorce is not their fault, and that both parents still love them. Finally, take care of yourself. It can be easy to let your personal needs slide during the stressful time, but it is imperative that you do not do so. If necessary, enlist the help of your family and friends. You may also consider seeing a therapist, or enrolling in a support group. Divorce isn’t something that anyone looks forward to, but it is possible to have a healthy divorce. Contacting a qualified Illinois divorce attorney can help. We can ensure that the process goes as smoothly as possible.
Planning to marry after a divorce is usually a joyous time. Before jumping in and saying “I do” for a second time, however, there are some important steps you should take in order to ensure that your marriage can beat the odds and last for the long-term. 
According to the American Psychological Association, there are three key issues that couples need to address before remarrying after a divorce:
In Illinois, there has been an increase in the number of children who die due to abuse and neglect. For the fiscal year ending in June of 2013, the number of children who passed away from abuse and neglect was the highest it has been in 30 years. The saddest news about this total is that some of these deaths may have been avoided. An Illinois Senate subcommittee has been questioning state officials from the Department of Child and Family Services about this steep increase. Acting director of the DCFS, Denise Gonzales, admitted that over 100 children died due to mistreatment and ten more cases are still pending. The average per year total has been around 75 for the last 30 years. About 75 percent of the deaths were caused by accidental suffocation from infants sleeping with blankets, or with their parents or on their stomachs. In the past these types of cases were only classified as neglect if the parents were under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Now children who suffocate while sleeping are categorized as neglect cases if it can be proven that the parents knew about the dangers of letting children sleep on their stomachs or with blankets and other items. But it was also found that the DCFS in Illinois has been suffering from a larger caseload with a smaller staff. Although a senator asked for the resignation of Gonzales, that might not happen. Gonzales took over when the previous head of the DCFS resigned due to a terminal cancer diagnosis. Gonzales is still dedicated to making the DCFS better by reducing caseloads, leaning out middle management and improving the hotline for reporting child neglect. The DCFS will continue to receive tips about possible abuse and neglect that is occurring in Illinois. If you are summoned to juvenile court by the DCFS then it is important to be prepared. The consequences may be losing care of your children or being placed under court supervision. Contact a skilled family law attorney in Warrenville today to review your case.
One of the major causes of contention during a divorce is the division of property. While a judge can control the distribution, it does not make the fighting stop. Arguing about property division can also add a lot of time to the litigation process and more legal costs. Since both spouses are responsible for accumulating the property of a marriage, it can be more advantageous to divide this property together as well.
The first step is to create a record of what is commonly owned. It is important to include all assets or risk the penalty of omitting property. Then it is important to assign a monetary value to each item either together or with the help of a third party. For items like cars, houses, and other expensive and complex assets, it will be necessary to consult an expert to value them. Next go through the list together to find if it is more logical for one spouse to continue owning the property. If it seems necessary for equality, the assigned values of each asset can allow a tally for each spouse.
If assigning a logical owner does not work, there are other ways to accomplish a split as a couple.
These acts are considered domestic abuse if they are carried out by a family or household member. Under Illinois law, a family or household member can be any of the following:
They also can overly spoil their grandchildren with affection, attention and love. And in some cases, the grandparents have a limited legal right to visitation of their grandchildren in Illinois, especially when the parents divorce.
There are certain requirements that must be met for an Illinois court will grant visitation to grandparents. The first is that the children must be at least one year old. The other requirement is that one of the following circumstances must exist:
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