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Usually, when a couple with children divorces, a custody order is issued by a judge as part of their marriage dissolution process. Yet, if you were never married to the father of your child, and you are now separated, it is very likely that there is no formal custody agreement. However, this does not necessarily mean that both parents have joint custody rights. If your ex is trying to take your child from you, you should seek immediate help from an experienced child custody lawyer.
In most cases, if your child has been living with you, you are automatically considered to have legal custody. You do not need a court order saying that you are the custodial parent. Even if your child’s father has had his paternity legally established, either by voluntarily signing an agreement, or by being proven to be the father in court proceedings, this does not mean that he has custody of your child, even jointly.
NOTE: As of July 2017, the law governing child support in Illinois has changed. Please see our Child Support page for more information.
In the state of Illinois, court-ordered child support is usually collected through your employer. The paycheck that your employer gives you will already have the garnishment taken out of it. If you are supporting one child, 20 percent of your pay will be withheld, and if you are supporting two children, 28 percent will go to them. For three or more children, the proportions of your pay that are garnished increases, up to a maximum of 50 percent.
Garnishment for Debts on Top of Child Support
If you have any additional debts, such as medical bills, that a collector is trying to recoup through garnishment, it is unlikely that your employer will be able to further garnish your wages. Even if they have been served with a garnishment order, they must coordinate garnishments, and cannot exceed the cap set by Illinois’ Income Withholding for Support Act. Garnishments cannot exceed 15 percent of your gross pay, or 15 percent of your net pay over $371.25 per week (whichever amount is less). This means that if your take home pay is less than $371.25, your wages cannot be garnished at all for non-child support payments.
There are many reasons why a parent might wish to change the conditions of his or her visitation order. Some of the most common include a change of schedule, preventing the parent from taking advantage of the originally scheduled visitation times; a move to another location, further or closer to the place where the other parent lives; failure of a parent to follow the schedule; or a choice to not visit the child.
Under Illinois law, existing visitation orders can be changed at any time. The primary consideration for a judge, who will review your request for a modification, is whether the change is in the best interests of the child. A child’s best interests can be determined based on the desires of the child, the preferences of one or both parents, the strength of the parent-child relationship, the mental and physical health of the parents and child, and countless other factors.
Premarital agreements, often call prenuptial agreements, are contracts entered into by two people planning to be married. Although the agreement does not take effect until marriage, it must be prepared and signed well in advance of the wedding.
With the increasing prevalence of divorce, more and more couples are choosing to record their intentions in this way, especially if they are marrying later in life, when they have built up more assets, or if they have been married before and have children from a former union, whose inheritance they wish to keep intact.
The Elements of a Binding Premarital Agreement
Most premarital agreements spell out the assets and debts of the spouses-to-be, and set a plan for how property will be shared once they are married, and later, if they are separated through death or divorce. Often, a premarital agreement will address whether alimony or maintenance will be paid by either spouse in the event of a divorce.
Are you planning a trip with your child that would take you beyond state lines? If you are separated from your child’s parent, and you have a custody agreement, there are a few steps that you must take before you can depart.
First, you are obligated under Illinois family law to inform the other parent any time you travel out of the state with your child. You should share information about the length of the trip, where you will be staying, and how you can be contacted.
If the other parent is notified and agrees, you may take your child out-of-state for a short trip or vacation. However, if they do not agree, you would have to get permission from a judge, called an Order of Removal.
Moving Out of State
If you plan on leaving Illinois permanently to move to another state or country, you will need to get an order from a judge, even if the other parent agrees. However, if you and your ex agreed to allow your child to be removed from Illinois when you signed your marital settlement agreement, this permission will apply to the present circumstances, and you will not need new permission from a judge.
If you and your husband or wife have separated, and your ex is claiming that you need to help pay his or her bills, beware. Under Illinois law, you are liable for any family expenses incurred by your spouse before you separated. On the other hand, once you are divorced, you cannot be held legally responsible for new expenses that your ex-husband or ex-wife incurs. However, if you are separated but not divorced, any bills that your spouse owes could become your responsibility.
Types of Bills you Could be Liable For
The Illinois Rights of Married Persons Act makes spouses liable for “the expenses of the family and of the education of the children.” Even if you did not agree to an expense, authorize it, or even know about it, you can be held accountable for it, as long as it was incurred for the benefit of the family.
If you have a child from a previous relationship, and you are now married to someone else, you might be considering having your spouse officially adopt your child. Such a step can bring stability and legal force to one of the most important relationships in your child’s life.
Under Illinois law, adoption by a stepparent is considered a “related adoption,” which can be completed in a much more straightforward manner than adoption by a non-related person (750 ILCS 50/2). Your spouse would not need to get a criminal background check, unlike for adoptions involving non-related parties. However, you would still need to have a guardian ad litem appointed. A guardian ad litem is a lawyer who represents your child and his or her best interests, and their role is to assess you and your spouse and recommend a course of action for a family law judge who is presiding over the adoption case.
NOTE: As of July 2017, the law governing child support in Illinois has changed. Please see our Child Support page for more information.
If you ask an individual person what his or her income is, he or she would likely give you the amount of his or her salary. While that is, of course, income, it would not be the only number included within the term income for child support calculation purposes. What payments, then, will be counted as income for a non-custodial parent’s child support calculations? The Statute
Section 505 of the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act deals with child support and the accompanying calculations. The statute clarifies that when calculating child support amounts, the statutory percentages must be applied to the payor’s (non-custodial parent who will be responsible for paying the child support) net income. The statute then goes on to state that net income is defined as “the total of all income from all sources” less the specific deductions listed.
Aside from child custody issues, property division can be one of the most contentious issues in a divorce. Illinois courts apply principles of equitable distribution when determining which party should end up with what property at the end of the divorce. The first step during the property division process is generally classifying property as marital or nonmarital. The issue of contribution, however, can complicate this process during the very first step.
What is It?
The issue of contribution in regards to property division involves the situation where one party adds value to a particular piece of property that the other spouse claims to be nonmarital. Think of the following example:
The wife inherits her parents’ beautiful home in Naperville while single. Years later, the wife marries her husband and he moves into his wife’s inherited home. The husband, a carpenter by trade, makes substantial improvements to the home by remodeling the kitchen and basement. When the parties decide to divorce, the wife claims she should walk away with her home because it was inherited prior to the marriage and is therefore nonmarital.
While it is vital to hire an attorney to help guide you through a dissolution of marriage, the idea of paying that attorney’s fees can be daunting. At the beginning of a divorce, it is very common for one spouse to not have a significant paying job outside of the home. Even in marriages where this is not the case, it may be that one spouse primarily controlled the household finances. For someone who was never the primary wage earner or never had much to do with the marital finances, the thought of paying his or her own attorney’s fees may be especially scary. Fortunately, there are laws in Illinois that allow trial courts to order one party to contribute to the other’s attorney’s fees under certain circumstances.
The Law
As a general rule, each party to the dissolution is responsible for paying his or her own attorneys fees. However, trial courts are allowed to order one party to pay, or at least contribute to, the other’s attorney’s fees at the end of the divorce in certain situations. In determining whether or not they should award the payment of attorney’s fees by the non-client spouse, courts are told that they should consider the following:
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