Posted on December 22, 2015 in Child Support

In Illinois, Courts have discretion to include, as part of a child support order, a requirement that parents contribute toward post-secondary education expenses of their non-minor children. Historically, the guidelines for determining whether such support could be required were vague and confusing. The passage of the Family Law Reform Bill addresses these concerns by creating a new protocol for determining when non-minor support is appropriate.

Existing Law

The current version of the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act allows a Court to order educational support for a child, including college or professional training expenses, as part of a custody agreement. Previously, Courts were only instructed to consider the following when making their determination:

• The financial resources of each parent and of the child;
• The standard of living established prior to the parents' divorce; and

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 Posted on December 08, 2015 in Family Law

After a divorce, alimony is important to the economic well-being of many spouses. However, sometimes, a spouse's circumstances change and an alimony award is no longer appropriate. Fortunately, Illinois law provides that an alimony award may be modified or terminated in certain cases.

Modification

To modify an alimony award in Illinois, a spouse must demonstrate a substantial change in circumstances that warrants modification. In determining whether a substantial change in circumstances has occurred, the Court must review the factors initially considered in making the award, along with additional factors, including:

• Any change in either spouse's employment status or income;
• The payee spouse's efforts to become self-supporting;
• Any impairment of either spouse's earning capacity;
• The tax consequences of alimony payments;

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 Posted on December 02, 2015 in Child Custody

The Hague Convention is an international law which regulates child custody. One key requirement of the Convention is that a child who is taken across international borders by one parent must be returned. In a recent decision, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment of an Illinois District Court that stated that evidence of sexual abuse falls within the “grave risk” exception to the Hague Convention's requirement.

Ortiz v. Martinez

In 2011, a mother of two children, Zulima Martinez, refused to return with her children to the family's home in Mexico City after a family vacation in Illinois. Julio Ortiz, the father of the children who had returned ahead of the family, alleged to the Court that Ms. Martinez's action constituted an infringement of the Hague Convention, which makes it illegal for parents to abscond with their children across international borders.

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 Posted on November 23, 2015 in Family Law

In Illinois, the Probate Act regulates the guardianship of minors and disabled adults. The statute creates three types of guardianship under the Act: guardian of the estate, guardian of the person and guardian of both the estate and the person. The type of guardianship sought will largely dictate what is required in the process of petitioning for guardianship.

Establishing Guardianship of a Minor

The amendments to the Probate Act create a rebuttable presumption in favor of short-term guardians who are initially appointed by a minor's parent or guardian. The petitioner seeking guardianship then has the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that remaining with the appointed short-term guardian is not in the child's best interest. While this presumption cannot be rebutted, the appointment of a short-term guardian does not represent the Court's consent for a Court appointment of a guardian.

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 Posted on November 10, 2015 in Child Custody

In any divorce involving minor children, one important issue that must be resolved regards each parent's legal ability to make life decisions concerning his or her child. Under current Illinois law, this is referred to as joint or sole custody.

Joint and Sole Custody

Currently, Illinois Courts can issue joint or sole custody to a child's parents. Joint custody requires cooperation and communication between the parents. Additionally, a child's parents must work together to make major life decisions regarding their child's health, safety and well-being.

Sole custody, on the other hand, means that only one parent has the right to make major parental decisions and does not need the other parent's approval. However, during a non-custodial parent's parenting time, he or she has the ability to make minor, routine decisions for his or her child as well as emergency decisions affecting the child's health and safety. This is true regardless of whether that parent has any parental decision-making responsibilities.

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 Posted on November 03, 2015 in Child Custody

Illinois requires parents to financially support their children. Therefore, when a child's parents are divorced, separated or single, state law governs child support payments and how the support payments will be made. A child's parents may come to an agreement regarding how to pay child support; however, the agreement must meet minimum standards as required by state law.

Calculation Guidelines

Basic Illinois child support is calculated as a percentage of the payor parent's net income after certain deductions are made. The percentage increases with the number of children:

• 20 percent for one child;
• 28 percent for two children;
• 32 percent for three children;
• 40 percent for four children;
• 45 percent for five children; and
• 50 percent for six or more children.

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 Posted on October 20, 2015 in Divorce

Ashley Madison, a dating website designed for people who want to cheat on their spouses, was hacked in late August. Various account information, including the names and personal information of more than 30 million users, was revealed. The leak of such sensitive information is expected to result in many couples divorcing.

Adultery occurs when a married person carries on a sexual relationship with a person who is not his or her legal spouse. However, under Illinois law, there is little effect on the process or result of a divorce when one spouse commits adultery.

Grounds for Divorce

Illinois currently allows for fault divorce until the state's family law overhaul takes effect January 1, 2016. One of the fault grounds for divorce is adultery. Therefore, under current law, a spouse can get an immediate divorce based on adultery. Unlike no-fault divorce, there is no waiting period for a fault-based divorce in Illinois. Current law requires a waiting period of two years for no-fault divorces. However, if the spouses agree, they may reduce the waiting period to six months.

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 Posted on October 13, 2015 in Child Custody

With the recent passage of the “modern family” bill, Illinois family law will soon undergo drastic changes. The Bill amends the law in areas including child custody, the grounds for divorce and parental relocation. Senate Bill 57, signed by Gov. Bruce Rauner, goes into effect January 1, 2016.

Child Custody

One major alteration to Illinois law is the abolishment of the concept of child custody. Instead, Judges will allocate parenting time and parental responsibilities between the parents. Each parent will be assigned specific childcare tasks that deal with different areas of upbringing. These tasks may include decision-making responsibility in areas, such as education, religion, nutrition, health care, the child's daily schedule, discipline, relationships with others and childcare.

Parental responsibility will be allocated, according to a child's best interests, dependent on the circumstances of each child's situation. To determine a child's best interests, Courts will examine factors including each parent's abilities and weaknesses, the child's relationship with each parent and the wishes of the parents and children.

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 Posted on October 06, 2015 in Division of Property

In Illinois divorces, Courts divide spousal property, according to the principles of equitable distribution. Therefore, marital property is divided fairly between spouses. Equitable distribution, however, does not necessarily mean equal property division.

Waste

One instance in which marital property will not be equally divided is in the event of marital waste. Marital waste, or the dissipation of property, occurs when one spouse dissipates assets prior to the divorce. Dissipation of both marital and separate property is taken into account. If the Court finds that one spouse has committed waste, the Court will take the waste into account when determining a fair division of property.

Marital waste occurs when one spouse used marital or non-marital property:

• For his or her sole benefit;
• For a purpose unrelated to the marriage; or

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 Posted on September 28, 2015 in Child Support

For children whose parents are separated, and for the parents who have custody over them, child support is key to financial stability. However, if parents fall behind in their child support payments, they can cause their children and co-parents economic distress.

However, a new Bill, recently signed into law, addresses these issues. The Bill is aimed at ensuring that children and their parents receive timely child support payments by studying the root causes of the failure to pay child support. Additionally, the Bill calls for policy recommendations on how to address these root causes and how to streamline the child support system.

The Bill

House Bill 2791, sponsored by State Rep. Camille Lilly, D-Chicago, requires the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity to conduct a study researching the reasons why parents do not pay child support. Often, parents fall behind in their support payments because they are unable to pay, not because they do not care.

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