Family law is fraught with emergencies: holiday trips that have been thwarted, medical procedures that need to be done, money frittered away with no hope of recoup.

If you and your spouse, ex-spouse or ex-spouse-to-be, cannot communicate effectively about the day-to-day goings on of your lives…an emergency motion may be the vehicle for communication.

Furthermore, upon receipt of an emergency motion, you will have limited time to prepare for and defend against the emergency motion’s allegations.

What Is A Motion In an Illinois Divorce?

At the end of your divorce case, final documents such as a Judgment of Dissolution …
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Dividing marital assets in an Illinois divorce is not done with a pure 50/50 split analysis. Illinois courts divide marital assets in “just proportions.”

“Just proportions does not mean strict equality but only an equitable division.” In re Marriage of Albrecht, 266 Ill. App. 3d 399, 402 (Ill. App. Ct. 1994)

Illinois courts consider multiple factors when weighing those “just proportions” for the purposes of dividing marital assets.

Illinois divorce courts “shall divide the marital property without regard to marital misconduct in just proportions considering all relevant factors, including:

…

the dissipation by each party of the marital property” 750…
Continue Reading Irretrievable Breakdown Of A Marriage And Dissipation In Illinois

In Illinois, there is only one grounds for divorce: irreconcilable differences.

“The court shall enter a judgment of dissolution of marriage [upon] the making of the finding:…Irreconcilable differences have caused the irretrievable breakdown of the marriage and the court determines that efforts at reconciliation have failed or that future attempts at reconciliation would be impracticable and not in the best interests of the family.” 750 ILCS 5/401

Irreconcilable differences are “persistent and unresolvable disagreements between the spouses” Black’s Law Dictionary (11th ed. 2019)

It is very easy to prove irreconcilable differences in an Illinois divorce. During the prove-up hearing which…
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Divorce is contentious. Often, divorce so contentious that one party to the divorce requests that the other party no longer contact or communicate with them via an order of protection.

There are two types of orders of protection: criminal and civil petitions for order of protection.

Civil orders of protection are prosecuted in divorce court by the party with the petition (and/or their lawyer). A civil order of protection puts the issue of abuse front and center with the judge that will be deciding all the other issues in the case.

If you have a legitimate petition for an…
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On the TV show “Columbo”, the detective and show’s namesake would shuffle around after his initial inquiry, finally say “one more thing…” and then get his final point in…whereupon the case would be solved. Columbo pretended to be a fool when, in fact, Columbo had played the interviewed party for a fool!

Well, a lot of divorce lawyers do the exact same thing in court. A divorce lawyer will appear in a status call or some other kind of hearing and then chime in, “Oh yeah, one last thing judge…dad has a Faberge egg and we want to sell it.”…
Continue Reading Oral Motions And Sua Sponte Orders In An Illinois Divorce

Whenever a celebrity’s child support amount is announced in the news, the child support always seems absurdly high. Kelly Clarkson pays her ex-husband $ 45,601 in child support. Nick Cannon pays $2.2 million dollars a year to the mothers of his nine children.

Celebrities do not live in Illinois. So, celebrities are not a useful guide to what the actual upper limits of child support are in Illinois. What is the cap on child support in Illinois?

How Is Child Support Calculated In Illinois?

“The court shall determine child support in each case by applying the child support…
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Kids do dumb stuff. Sometimes the consequences of a child’s poor decision are so bad that a parent becomes liable for their child’s actions in Illinois. Illinois law acknowledges that parents have a responsibility to supervise their children.

The Illinois Parental Responsibility Act

The Illinois Parental Responsibility Act governs a parent’s financial obligation to victims of a child’s bad behavior.

“[T]he…purpose of the Illinois Parental Responsibility Act is two-fold: (1) to compensate innocent victims of juvenile misconduct that is willful or malicious; and (2) to place upon the parents the obligation to control a minor child so as to prevent…
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Curfew is “[a] regulation that forbids people (or certain classes of them, such as minors) from being outdoors or in vehicles at certain hours.” Black’s Law Dictionary (11th ed. 2019)

Like my mother always said, “Nothing good ever happens after midnight. So, be home by then.”

Illinois has a state curfew statute and numerous local municipal citations that govern curfew regulations.

“Illinois curfew law properly further[s] the State’s valid interest in protecting its children.” Village of Deerfield v. Greenberg, 550 NE 2d 12 – Ill: Appellate Court, 2nd Dist. 1990

“The [Illinois curfew] statute proceeds upon the basic assumption that when a…
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People move a lot of money around during an Illinois divorce. Sometimes, parties to a divorce even move real estate around. It is not uncommon for a divorce litigant to suddenly sell real estate to his brother and declare, “that house was always really my brother’s, anyways.”

Unfortunately, there is no “automatic stay” that keeps Illinois divorce parties from selling or disposing of possible marital property.

Therefore, each spouse has to put the world on notice that any real estate that either spouse owns may be subject to a future division in their pending Illinois divorce.

This formal notice…
Continue Reading Lis Pendens In An Illinois Divorce

There are very few contested facts in an Illinois divorce. In fact, there are really only two sets of facts that matter, financially, in an Illinois divorce: the parties’ respective incomes and what assets will be marital property.

W2s, Tax Returns and paystubs quickly establish what the incomes are for 90% of divorce litigants.

Marital property has no government mandated seals of approval. Instead, every Illinois divorce court must determine what will be deemed marital property in an Illinois divorce. The purpose of deeming a particular property as “marital” is so that property may be divided between the parties.
Continue Reading What Is Marital Property In An Illinois Divorce?

Illinois divorce law is peppered with phrases that you kind-of/sort-of think you might already understand. “No-Fault Divorce” is one of those legal terms where you presume it means that neither spouse needs to show adultery, domestic-violence, or abandonment in order to get divorce…but you might not be 100% sure. So, you look up “what is no-fault divorce in Illinois?”

A no-fault divorce is “[a] divorce in which the parties are not requires to prove fault or grounds beyond a showing of irretrievable breakdown of the marriage or irreconcilable differences.” Black’s Law Dictionary (11th ed. 2019)

In the old days,…
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