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By now most Illinoisans know that starting January 1st, 2016, Illinois family law received a substantial facelift. “Legal custody” is a familiar legal concept that is being overhauled as part of the Illinois lawmakers’ efforts to modernize Illinois’s family law. The progress of cases in 2016 will help Illinois lawmakers determine whether these changes to how a court determines child custody will benefit Illinois families or further complicate already complex child custody determinations.
Legal Custody vs. Child Custody
Legal custody and physical custody are similar concepts. Physical custody determination decides with which parent a child should physically reside; legal custody decides which parent will make important decisions about a child’s upbringing and well-being, such as educational, religious, medical, and other important decisions.
When your child has been removed from your care, it can be difficult to determine what steps to take next. It can also be difficult to regain child custody and have your child returned to you. If your child has been removed from your home, then you may feel powerless and angry. While these feelings are normal, you should also be aware of your legal rights.
What Can I Do to Help Get My Child Back?
First, you need to make sure that you give the court all of the information it needs. This can be hard when you are worrying about your child. Also, you should begin working on every aspect of your life that will help you get your child back. Additionally, if you want to have your child back, then start coordinating with the court, your case worker, and your lawyer to begin working towards getting your child home.
Every parent has the right to decide how their children are raised. Parental rights are fiercely protected by the law. Parental rights also come with parental responsibilities. If a birth parent has decided to place a child up for adoption, then both parents must give up these rights. Giving up parental rights, or consenting to an adoption, is an important and critical legal step for biological parents. If you are making the difficult decision to place your child up for adoption, you will need to understand the full impact of consenting to your child’s adoption.
Requirement for Consenting to Adoption
When parents consent to an adoption, the parents give up both their rights and responsibilities. Illinois provides two different ways for parents to consent to an adoption:
Specific Consent to Adoption: A parent may specifically provide consent for the person taking care of his or her child to adopt the child. This type of consent requires DCFS to approve the designated parent. A specific consent, or direct consent, is only valid for the selected adoptive parents.
When a minor is emancipated, there is no turning back. Emancipation makes a minor a legal adult. This means that a minor is not entitled to support from his or her parents. However, there are some cases where a court may order parents to support a partially emancipated minor. Minors and their parents should make sure they have considered the full impact of emancipation on their family, as emancipation will have important effects on a minor’s future decisions.
What Does Emancipation Allow?
Emancipation gives a minor the right to make decision that would normally be granted to an adult. Once a minor is emancipated, the minor will be able to:
Understanding divorce and the associated timeline can be confusing. However, it is important that you respond to request from the court and show up for court when you have a hearing. If you do not appear at hearing related to your divorce, it is possible that a court may decide to enter a default judgment against you in the divorce proceedings. When the court enters a default judgment, this means that the court has decided that you did not properly respond or participate in your divorce proceedings. If the court believes you have not properly responded, the court will make a judgment in favor of your spouse.
Once a court enters a default judgment entered against you in your divorce, you need to respond quickly. There is still time to protect your rights and interests that were not addressed by the judgment. It may even be possible to have your default judgment vacated. However, whether this is possible depend on the reason you were not able to appear in court.
The concept of property division and divorce are familiar to most Americans. Using the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act, a court will divide property between a divorcing couple in a fair and equitable manner. Dividing a business is much more complicated than dividing a car or the value of a home. Determining the value of a business is further complicated by the fact that the value of a business may fluctuate over time, increasing or decreasing in value at any point in time. If your spouse owns a business, how will an Illinois court value the business upon divorce?
Is a Business Marital Property?
A court will first attempt to determine whether the business is marital property. If your spouse started the business before the marriage and the profits and assets are kept separate from other marital assets, then a court is likely to find the business is not marital property. This means that your spouse’s business will not be divided between the spouses. On the other hand, if your spouse started the business during the marriage, and business deposits/withdraws funds from a joint account, or if business profits are used to pay common expenses, then a court may view the business as marital property and subject the property to division.
Changes have finally come to the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (750 ILCS 5)—changes that The Illinois General Assembly passed last July and went into effect January 1, 2016. The new bill, SB 57, significantly modifies the areas of child custody and divorce.
Grounds Are No Longer Required for Divorce
Traditionally, Illinois was a “no-fault” state. However, divorces could also be granted on specific grounds. Under SB 57, a spouse seeking divorce no longer needs to state grounds for the divorce in his or her divorce petition.
SB 57 has also removed separation periods for couples. Under SB 57 if a couple lives apart for six months, then the marriage is considered irretrievable and the couple may begin divorce proceedings.
The bill additionally eliminates the two-year waiting period and allows a couple seeking to end their marriage to immediately pursue a divorce.
Blended families, ones that unite a couple in a second marriage after a divorce, are not uncommon. And, in many cases, stepparents and stepchildren will not share the same surname. A biological mother or father retains the right to seek permission from the court to alter a child’s last name to match the last name of the biological parent and the stepparent. Under Illinois law, parents seeking a change of name for their child must demonstrate that the modification will benefit the child.
Steps to Changing Your Stepchild’s Name
A stepparent may not petition a court to alter a child’s last name. The child's biological mother or father must file a request to a court on behalf of their child before the court. Before requesting a name change, the parent must place a notice in a local newspaper for 21 days alerting the public of his or her plans to change his or her child’s surname. This notice in the paper serves as notification in the state for anyone, including the child’s other parent, who may not agree to the child’s name change. Once the notice has run and the petition for the name change is filed, a court will choose a time to decide whether to grant the name change.
Divorce is the legal process that many couples will decided to initiate under Illinois law. However, as with many legal processes, the legal jargon, or vocabulary, often prevents people from understanding the process. However, a clear understanding of the divorce vocabulary can assist people to cut through the legal jargon and understand what is happening in their divorce case.
Alimony or spousal support, is the legal term for money that a supporting spouse pays to his or her former spouse. The amount of the payment will be based on a number of factors, including the length of the marriage and each spouse’s income.
Child support is similar to alimony and is a payment from a non-custodial parent to ensure that the child has the necessities for life. However, child support is paid based on the legal idea that parents have certain rights and responsibilities, even when a child’s parents end their marriage.
Military life can be demanding for a service person and oftentimes places unrelenting strain on a military couple. This is especially true in situations where a service member is deployed and the family lives apart for months at a time. Sometimes, this pressure may become more than the relationship can bear and the couple decides to divorce. If you, or your spouse and you, are considering divorce, then you will need to understand the special circumstances that surround military divorce.
Military Protection From Divorce Actions
Special federal and state laws create certain issues for military couples seeking a divorce in Illinois. There are several federal laws that protect active duty military service members from being held in “default” for failing to respond to a divorce action. These laws were passed to protect active service members from being divorced without their knowledge.
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