Free Initial Consultations
630-580-6373With offices in Naperville, Joliet, Wheaton, Plainfield & Chicago
630-580-6373630-580-6373
Funding a divorce can be very difficult for a couple. This is especially true if one spouse is a stay-at-home parent and depends on the other spouse for income. Some spouses come up with creative ways to fund their divorce, like a Geneva, Illinois woman who went to a crowdfunding site to fund her divorce.
Making sure you are able to pay for your divorce is important. If you are considering divorce and concerned about paying for your divorce, it is important that you understand the variety of options available to you before proceeding any further.
Strategies to Pay for Your Divorce
If your divorce involves serious issues such as spousal support, property division, or child custody, you will likely need legal representation. When spouses head to court to begin the divorce process and one spouse has legal representation, the spouse who has an attorney has an advantage during any legal battles. Of course, if you need an attorney, you may not know how to fund it; in this case, consider the following options:
Decisions about child custody and child support are two of the most difficult issues with which divorcing parents must grapple. Deciding where your children will live and how best to support their needs is emotionally stressful for divorcing parents.
While making these critical decisions it is important that parents also understand that child support can also include college contribution payments. These payments, designed to help fully or partially cover the cost of your child's education, are just as important as child support payments.
What is a College Contribution Payment?
College contribution payments are payments from parents to help a student pay for the costs of some college expenses. Typically, college contribution payments begin when child support payments end. Recent updates to Illinois law were designed to help divorced parents support their child through college. The law makes several requirements and sets standards, which include:
Most divorcing spouses simply want the divorce to be over as soon as possible. Oftentimes a couple will work together to move the divorce forward and finalize the divorce. In some cases, however, a spouse may ask that the court award attorney’s fees to help cover the cost of the divorce.
While it is rare, it is possible that a court may decide to award one party attorney fees. This can be good news for a spouse if he or she does not have a significant amount of money and needs assistance funding his or her legal costs.
Can a Court Award Attorney’s Fees?
The Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act allows family law judges the option to award attorney’s fees to a litigant. However, the decision to award, or to not award, fees will depend on the particular facts of the case. Generally, a court will only award attorney’s fees under the following circumstances:
Many families decide to expand by adopting internationally. Yet international adoptions can be costly and may take longer than domestic adoptions. However, once adoptions are complete, parents and their adoptive child can begin to bond as a family.
Adoptions are legal once they are complete; still, many adoptive families may want to consider readoption once they return to the United States. Readoption is not required under Illinois law, although there are many benefits for both the adoptive parent and children. The process is simple and can be a great way for families to celebrate the adoption.
Why Should We Readopt?
The most important reason for readopting is that it legally terminates the biological parents’ rights. This simple process will help protect you and your family against any potential legal issues. While this is rare, the process serves as an extra protection for adoptive parents.
Divorces can be lengthy, costly, emotional, and very difficult for families. Moreover, several significant issues must be addressed with regard to any children involved.
Whether you are the custodial parent or not, decisions about your child's financial stability are critical and require your full attention. Understanding child support and how it works can help you make the best decisions about your child's care and welfare.
What is Child Support?
Under the law you are responsible for providing your child with financial support. Child support is the money paid to the custodial parent from the non-custodial parent. Generally, child support is paid until a child is 18. Support may be paid for a longer period of time if the child is 19 and in high school or has a disability that requires support. The amount of support can be modified over time if approved by a court and payments are made either directly or indirectly.
The Illinois Adoption Registry and Medical Information Exchange (IARMIE) program allows birth parents to share important informations with adoptive families and adopted children. Adoptive children may decide that they would like to contact their birth parents and know more about their history. This may be because a child wants to understand aspects of his or her family history or to know more about his or her medical or mental health history. The ability to obtain this type of information can be critical to adopted children.
In the past, questions about birth parents may have been difficult to obtain. However, it is now possible for adopted children to get basic information about their birth parents while allowing parents to remain anonymous. If you are a prospective adoptive parent, adopted child seeking information on your birth parents, or parent considering adoption, it is important to understand how the Illinois Adoption Registry works.
Divorce is often described as a battle—a contentious fight between spouses. However, this does not have to be the case with every divorce. Collaborative divorce, which may not work for everyone, can work well for some couples. If parties can put aside some of the feelings they may have about their spouse, it may be be possible to cooperate with each other and have a less contentious divorce.
What is a Collaborative Divorce?
When a couple divorces they must make important decisions about property distribution, spousal support, and child custody. If the couple chooses to pursue a collaborative divorce, then they are choosing to work together to decide these important questions. Both spouses must hire their own attorneys who are trained to make important decisions in a divorce. Each spouse and his or her attorney will have a series of meetings to help the couple come to an agreement about the divorce. Collaborative divorce focuses on resolving issues without placing blame on either spouse.
Many people decide to expand their family by adopting a child with special needs. This can be both challenging and rewarding for a family. Financial support can help a family deal with and overcome these challenges. Fortunately, state and federal adoption assistance programs can help prospective parents pay for expenses that will help their special needs child have the best life possible with their new family.
A Special Needs Adoption
A special needs child may have a developmental, behavioral or learning challenge. The challenge could be caused by a genetic mental health issue or exposure to drug and alcohol. In Illinois, a special needs child is a child who has a need or circumstances that might prevent adoption. The financial support is meant to remove these potential barriers and encourage an adoption. In order to qualify, the child must meet one or more of these criteria:
When a couple finally makes the decision to get married, they can get caught up in the romantic idea of living happily ever after. While this is normal, the couple should also think about the legal aspects of getting married.
There is an important legal process that must be followed and couples may want to think about other legal issues such as a prenuptial agreement. Thinking about these practical aspects of marriage is not very romantic, but it can help a couple talk through important issues that could result in divorce before the couple gets married.
The Marriage Process
The wedding, reception, and honeymoon are the exciting parts of getting married. They are also the non-legal parts of a marriage. Marriage, in reality, is a mundane legal process that requires a couple to take care of a few details before their marriage is legally recognized. A couple must fill out a marriage application form. Under Illinois law, the marriage application must include:
Adoption is one of the best ways to create a family. It does not matter if you are a couple looking to expand your family or a single person looking to create a family on your own; adoption provides a gift to both the adoptee and his or her newly adoptive parents. There is no single idea family type, and any person looking to love a child should look into his or her options for adoption.
There are several factors that prospective adoptive parents will need to understand and do before beginning the adoption process. One of the most important issues to consider is the age of the child the parents might adopt.
Adopting a Newborn or a Toddler
Some adoptive parents want to have the same experience that biological parents would have with their own child. Hence, adoptive parents may wish to adopt a baby or a very young child. However, adopting a baby or a toddler may take longer, as there are generally more families looking to adopt young children than there are young children available for adoption. Still, adopting a young child often allows adoptive parents to have a full medical history for their child and their child’s health care.
2224 W. Ferry Road, Unit 113, | |
1776 S. Naperville Road, Building A, Suite 105, | |
321 N. Clark Street, Suite 900, | |
58 N. Chicago Street, Suite 102, | |
2407 West Lockport Street, Suite 201-H, |
The use of the Internet or this form for communication with the firm or any individual member of the firm does not establish an attorney-client relationship. Confidential or time-sensitive information should not be sent through this form.
I have read and understand the Disclaimer and Privacy Policy.
