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Virtually all areas of law at least have the potential to change over time. Sometimes, the change comes in the form of court decisions, and other times it is through legislative action. Attorneys are responsible for keeping informed of changes in the law and any related procedure in order to provide their clients with competent representation.
Such a change has recently occurred within this state. In Illinois, Governor Pat Quinn signed a new law into effect that will change the alimony law in the state beginning in January of 2015. This law is expected to affect the maintenance and spousal support awarded to ex-spouses in divorce cases in the new year, and its exact effects will vary depending on the circumstances of each case.
New Law
The new law represents a significant change when compared to the old alimony law that was previously in effect in the state of Illinois. In some cases, the payor may benefit from the change and in other cases, the payee will be favored depending on the facts present. While the overall framework for making an alimony determination will remain the same, important changes will be added.
Going through the divorce process can be difficult for any number of reasons, but may be especially difficult when parents of children decide to divorce. Additional considerations not only come into play when dealing with legal aspects of the divorce case in court, like child custody and support matters, but more practical and everyday concerns may also dominate the parties’ interactions, such as the emotional well-being of the children involved. While the well-being of common children may get much attention from each of the parties to a divorce action, they may also be dealing with feelings of anger, resentment, and stress. These feelings may affect their actions more than they realize, and may impact their children more than they know. Here, WebMD discusses five common mistakes that divorced parents make that can have a negative impact on their children.
Going through a divorce can mean different things to different people. Some may see it as a traumatic past event that they want to move beyond and never think of again. Others may see it as a valuable learning experience, taking the opportunity to reflect on what happened in the marriage and applying the lessons to future relationships. Still others undoubtedly lie somewhere in between these two extremes.
Divorce May Show What Makes Marriage Work
The fact of the matter is, while divorce can certainly be a trying experience to endure, there can be many valuable lessons the experience ultimately teaches parties about the concept of marriage. As a recent article from a popular online new source points out, there are a number of things that parties to a divorce can use to gain perspective on what types of things work and do not work in marriage. Those who have been through the process offered their own insight as to what they learned from divorcing, and some of the pieces of advice follow:
Many people who have been through the process of divorce may consider it one of the worst times in their life. Anything from contentious legal battles to lingering bitter feelings about the marriage can contribute to this view. However, not everyone has the same experiences with divorce. Some see it as a new beginning and another chance at being happy. According to a recent article, a family law attorney from Arizona published a book framing the concept of divorce in a new light, and urging others to do the same.
Path to a Happier Life
The book referenced above focuses on talking about the process of divorce as a pathway to a happier life. The book reportedly contains strategies that people who are divorcing can employ in order to more easily navigate the process of divorce and move on with their lives, all while seeing such change as a positive thing. The author’s purported desire with the book is to reshape the conversation about divorce, especially in the beginning stages. She suggests that if people are able to change their thinking about divorce in this way, they may approach the process of divorce in a more collaborative and healing way, which can lead to more positive outcomes. This new approach would ideally serve to better support each family member after divorce, children and adults included.
When a family is experiencing difficulty, very often the focus turns to the well-being of any children involved. Parents are likely concerned with how children cope with such situations and the chances they will emerge from such huge life changes relatively unscathed. While much evidence suggests that kids who go through their parents’ divorce can deal with the event successfully, certain factors, such as stability and support, must be in place in order to give them the best chances at doing so. In other situations, a difficult home life may directly contribute to challenges children face in their everyday lives, as is pointed out by a recently published article.
A New Approach
One area that may be significantly impacted when children are experiencing problems at home is in their learning at school. These problems can include anything from a parent’s unemployment, to violence, a marital separation or divorce. Each of these scenarios create unstable home environments that lead to challenges for children at home. Often, kids who are living under such circumstances have upsetting feelings about them which they may struggle with and which affects their behavior, therefore affecting their school day.
There are many children across the United States who are in need of a home. Whether this is accomplished through adoption, foster care, or some other type of living arrangement, many children benefit from having a safe and stable living environment. Illinois has previously established a program in which youths can be matched up with families who are willing to open up their homes to them in order to provide them with shelter and care. Now, according to a recently published news article, other states are taking Illinois’ lead and using the program as a model to implement their own such program.
Safe Haven
The state of Oregon used Illinois’ example as a lead in implementing a shelter program aimed at providing youths with a stable home environment. Such programs match stable host families with kids who are at risk for homelessness because their own home lives are affected by drugs, alcohol, abuse, or other troubles. The purpose of the program is to intervene in the lives of at-risk kids before they reach the point of homelessness or become the victims of abuse.
With divorce so common in today’s society, it is no wonder that many look at examples of long-term successful marriages to try to determine what factors played a part in them. Of course, every relationship is different and even rules that generally hold true will have exceptions. In addition, it is safe to say that many factors are usually at play in making a relationship work over the long term. A recent news article suggests that one such factor that may increase a couple’s chance of having a lasting marriage is growing up in a big family.
Large Families May Lead to Enduring Marriages
The article cites examples of two sisters, both of whom married in their late teens, going on to celebrate their 50th and 60th wedding anniversaries. They came from a family of nine siblings total, seven of whom remained married for at least 50 years when only about six percent of couples supposedly do. This statistic, coupled with the high rate of long marriages that exist in the family mentioned above, are prompting many to ask why people who come from big families seemingly have a better chance of enjoying a long marriage.
With the legality of same sex-marriages changing in many states across the country, legal issues involving the status change are sure to arise. Since this is a relatively new social change in society, it may take a while for the law to catch up and apply appropriately to many situations involving same-sex marriages. A recent article discussed the fact that divorce laws in many states have yet to keep up with the changing definition of marriage that is being accepted in many states.
Different Laws in Different States
One common problem that arises for same-sex couples who decide to marry presents itself where the couple has a marriage ceremony in a state that legally recognizes same-sex marriage, but reside in another state, where they may later seek to divorce. An issue comes up if the state in which the couple seeks a divorce does not recognize same-sex marriage to begin with. Cases like this can potentially present many legal obstacles. If the state in which the couple lives does not recognize same-sex marriage, they would most likely lack any jurisdiction to void the marriage, something many judges in such states are reportedly deciding.
The issue of domestic violence continues to be a popular topic in national news. Many describe it as an epidemic, perhaps in part due to its inherent capability to reach broad bases of socioeconomic victims as well we perpetrators. Likely due in large part to the media attention this topic has received recently, data regarding domestic violence is being analyzed by experts on a frequent basis.
Data Reports
Statistically speaking, there are two very different sides to the story when it comes to matters of domestic violence. On one hand, states that incidents of domestic violence between romantic partners has dropped by about 60 percent since the mid-1990s, according to figures released by the Justice Department. However, that decrease has been essentially stalled since approximately 2004, with similar numbers holding constant for the past several years. It is estimated that approximately 1,000 “serious” violence incidents involving intimate partners were committed per day in 2013. Such incidents are defined as involving either sexual assault or aggravated physical assault.
NOTE: As of July 2017, the law governing child support in Illinois has changed. Please see our Child Support page for more information.
Child support issues are often only part of a family law case before the court. These cases usually involve other issues such as an underlying divorce or child custody and visitation schedules. However, that does not prevent child support matters from being hotly debated and becoming the subject of much contention between opposing parties. Some may even argue that the current system of determining child support payments encourages litigation, or at least draws out the negotiation process. A past article discussed possible reform to the child support guidelines in Illinois.
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