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During the divorce process, parents have many important decisions to make regarding their children, especially when it comes to their living arrangements. Perhaps the most notable decision is how parenting time will be allocated between the two parents, but there are other important details to figure out as well. Some of these include how parents will handle transportation between homes, as well as traveling with their children.
In Illinois, transportation arrangements for the children between the two parents’ homes are part of the minimum requirements to be included in a parenting plan. While such transportation may require a relatively small time commitment, thoughtful arrangements are crucial in order to ensure smooth exchanges and avoid encroaching on the other parent’s scheduled time.
Although it is possible to take steps to protect your financial interests during the divorce process, almost everyone comes out of a divorce in a worse financial situation than when they entered it. Between the division of marital assets, the loss of a spouse’s income and benefits, post-divorce support obligations, and the cost of the divorce process itself, it is not uncommon for the recently divorced to face financial stress. However, many people are able to recover over time after taking stock of their new financial reality.
Being well-informed about your finances during the divorce process helps you to make a plan for achieving your goals in the divorce resolution. After the divorce is finalized, though, you should regroup and take the time to consider all of the following ways that your finances may have changed, including:
At Davi Law Group, our blog serves as a resource to answer questions and provide information and updates about family and divorce law in Illinois. We address issues related to child custody, parental rights, and adoption to help our readers understand the legal processes involved. Here, we look back at 10 blogs that our readers found most useful in 2020:
A contentious divorce can be incredibly difficult when you have been accustomed to relying on your spouse for financial support, and this is especially true if your spouse has cut off your support in the time leading up to the divorce. Illinois divorce and family law statutes include provisions to protect financially disadvantaged spouses when it comes to the division of marital property and the allocation of spousal maintenance and child support in the final divorce decree, but a spouse with few resources of their own may find it difficult to support themselves and secure quality legal representation before the divorce is finalized. In such cases, it may be necessary to pursue temporary relief.
As your divorce approaches, there are a few legal options to protect your finances if you fear that your spouse might cut you off or if your spouse has already done so. These options include:
When your marriage has devolved into destructive conflict, divorce is often the best option for you to remove yourself from a bad situation and start working toward a better and healthier future. However, before you can get to that point, you will need to make it through the divorce process, which can often be incredibly difficult in a high-conflict situation. As you prepare for your divorce, it is important to know how you can protect your rights and avoid a divorce resolution that leaves you at a disadvantage.
If you are concerned about the damaging effects of conflict with your spouse during the divorce process, there are several important steps that you can take to create a more favorable situation for yourself:
Talking to your partner about creating a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement may feel uncomfortable or unnecessary. However, considering that arguments about finances are one of the strongest predictors of divorce, there is clear value in openly discussing finances with your spouse and creating a mutually beneficial, legally binding document that addresses each spouse’s financial and property interests. If you chose to forgo a prenuptial agreement before getting married, it is important to know that it is not too late to secure the same benefits through a postnuptial agreement.
For many couples, the time before their marriage may seem too early in their lives and relationship to be worried about what happens to their property in the event of a divorce, especially if neither spouse has significant assets to their name. However, much can change throughout the course of the marriage when it comes to the couple’s financial situation and their outlook on life. With these changes often comes a more clear need to work together on a postnuptial agreement.
Whether or not a child’s parents are married, the child often benefits from having both parents involved in his or her life. Many parents are also invested in securing and maintaining a relationship with their child. Unfortunately, for unmarried fathers, such a relationship is not necessarily guaranteed. However, there is a legal process that unmarried fathers can follow to secure the basic rights of parentage, along with an allocated share of parenting time and parental responsibilities in many cases.
Before an unmarried father can ask for parenting time or parental responsibilities, he will need to be recognized as the child’s legal parent. In Illinois, there is more than one way for a man to establish legal paternity. First, along with the child’s mother, he can sign a Voluntary Acknowledgment of Paternity (VAP) and file it with the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services. Provided that there are no objections or competing claims from other alleged fathers, this is usually the most simple method of securing parental rights.
As a parent, one of your biggest concerns in the divorce process is likely how the divorce will affect your relationship with your children, especially if they will not be living with you full-time. Fortunately, in most cases the court will try to establish an arrangement that allocates substantial parenting time to both parents, provided that doing so is in the children’s best interests. However, there are circumstances in which parenting time can be restricted, and it is important to understand whether they may apply to your case.
The primary reason an Illinois court will order restrictions on parenting time is a finding that time with a parent is likely to put the children’s physical, emotional, mental, or moral health in danger. The decision to restrict parenting time is not taken lightly and requires substantial evidence of dangerous behavior on the part of a parent. Possible behaviors that may be considered to endanger a child’s health include:
Not all Illinois couples who are getting a divorce will have to resort to litigation to reach a resolution, but those who do will need to prepare for an often lengthy process with multiple steps. One of the most important steps that takes place before a divorce trial is the discovery period. As you prepare for your divorce, you may have questions about what discovery entails, especially if you have not been involved in any civil court proceedings in the past.
The purpose of the discovery period is to allow both spouses, along with their legal representatives, to obtain important, relevant information before the trial begins. Usually, this information pertains to each party’s finances and helps to provide a more complete picture to inform decisions regarding the division of marital assets, spousal support, and child support. There are a several ways in which information may be acquired during discovery, including:
Under any circumstances, it is important to thoroughly prepare for the divorce process so that you have a plan to achieve the best possible outcome. In the past year, uncertainty associated with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic has made preparing for a divorce more difficult, but also more important. If you are looking to end your marriage, you should be aware of the ways in which the ongoing public health emergency can affect both the process and outcome of your divorce.
Almost every major decision related to the divorce process may be impacted in some way by COVID-19. You should carefully consider your needs and preferences related to each of the following as you prepare:
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