Visitation or parenting time refers to the time a parent spends caring for his or her child. In Illinois, parenting time is typically divided between unmarried parents or divorced parents. For example, one parent is responsible for the child Monday through Wednesday, while the other parent is responsible for the child Thursday through Sunday.
However, there are situations in which a court may grant visitation to an individual who is not the child’s biological parent. If you are a grandparent, great-grandparent, sibling, or step-parent interested in receiving court-ordered visitation with a child, read on.
Illinois Laws Regarding Visitation for Non-Parents…
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If one thing is certain in life, it is change. People change jobs, get divorced, remarry, and move to new residences. As life events unfold, the circumstances that gave rise to certain court orders may also change. Consequently, some individuals find themselves in need of changes to their divorce decree. When it comes to making modifications after a divorce, modifications are possible in many situations—but not all.
Modifying Child Custody After a Divorce
Your parenting plan outlines each parent’s rights and responsibilities regarding the care of your children. When it comes to changing a parenting plan after a…
Continue Reading Post-Divorce Modifications: What You Can and Cannot Change in Illinois

Some of the major benefits of marriage are the federal tax benefits that come along with being able to file married jointly. When a married couple shares children, the tax credits and exemptions they can claim are usually even higher and are often enough to make a significant difference in a couple’s financial situation in any given year. When a couple gets divorced, however, several questions about taxes and children arise. Unlike most questions about taxes, getting the answers to these questions is not always a simple matter of consulting an accountant because certain issues require making decisions in…
Continue Reading Who Gets to Claim Children as Tax Dependents After a Divorce?

Getting divorced is a complex process with many moving parts. Each of these parts – such as child custody, alimony, and asset division – has subsequent pieces of its own that require careful attention and management throughout the divorce process. Of all the things that must be decided during divorce, asset division has the potential to have the most long-term consequences, as the financial future of a divorcing couple can be highly influenced by the outcome of their property division agreement. This means assessing the correct value of assets is essential, and, because the family home is often the most…
Continue Reading Appraising Your House is an Important Part of Divorce

For many married couples, student loans are an inevitable part of life. Getting an education is an incredibly expensive investment, and when a couple gets married before or during one or both spouses’ years in school, student loans may be taken on during the marriage. But what happens to such a significant amount of debt when a couple decides to get divorced? While the spouse whose education was paid for using student loans may seem like the natural person to take on responsibility for the loans, allocating student debt actually depends on a number of factors.
Who is Responsible…
Continue Reading Do I Have to Help My Spouse Pay Their Student Loans if We Get Divorced?

For most parents in Illinois, paying child support is an obligation that ends once a child turns 18 or graduates from high school. However, for other parents, child support can continue for several years or even indefinitely. It is important to know when child support can be ordered after a child reaches legal adulthood so you can financially prepare yourself for any obligations you may have, as well as ensure that your child’s needs are met throughout their life.
Child Support for an Adult Child in College
Illinois is one of the few states that allows judges to order divorced…
Continue Reading How Does Child Support for an Adult Special Needs Child Work in Illinois?

Few people get married with the expectation that they will eventually get divorced. However, even after several decades of marriage, life can bring insurmountable challenges that completely change our expectations of what we thought the future would hold.
This is especially true for people who suffer from degenerative brain diseases like Alzheimer’s or Pick’s Disease. Even if a marriage was rock solid before signs of dementia began setting in, the way that the brain’s essential functions break down with neurodegenerative diseases can quickly make a quality relationship impossible. People who have degenerative brain disease can become very difficult to…
Continue Reading Can I Get Divorced From a Spouse Who Has Dementia?

On average, people are putting off getting married and having children until their late twenties and early thirties. In addition to giving people more time to accumulate assets of their own, those who wait until later to get married may be more likely to have pets when they enter the relationship. Other times, a couple who is already married might test their ability to keep a helpless creature alive by getting a pet before they commit to trying to have a baby.
However you come to pet ownership, one thing is certain: If you and your spouse end up getting…
Continue Reading Is a Prenuptial Agreement That Discusses Pets Enforceable?

A compromise leaves everyone unhappy, as the old saying goes, and nowhere is this more true than with a divorce decree. The hallmark of a good divorce decree seems to be that both spouses are left wishing they had more control over the outcome and that the terms of the decree benefitted them more personally.
Although certain parts of a divorce decree can only be changed in very rare circumstances, other parts can be modified to better suit your circumstances. However, it is important to know when a divorce decree modification petition is likely to be approved so you do…
Continue Reading Should I Appeal My Illinois Divorce Decree?

One of the most challenging aspects of divorce is the need to divide assets and debts that a couple has accumulated during a marriage. A divorcee’s long-term financial stability can feel threatened by this process, as a typical divorce leaves both partners with less in asset ownership and cash savings than they had before the divorce. Naturally, this can have implications for retirement.
Those interested in getting divorced can rest easy, however, knowing that certain things are not changed by divorce. One of these is Social Security benefits, a major piece of one’s overall financial picture. Understanding what your benefits…
Continue Reading Will I Need to Split Social Security Benefits with My Ex-Spouse?

No matter what your marital arrangements look like, parenting involves making significant sacrifices for your children. Unfortunately, some parents end up making major economic sacrifices to raise their children by staying home to provide childcare and then are left in a vulnerable position when they need to file for divorce. If you are in this situation, understanding your options for getting divorced is an important part of protecting yourself now and in the future.
Temporary Spousal Support
When only one spouse works outside the home, that spouse often ends up controlling most or all of a couple’s finances. That…
Continue Reading How Can a Stay-At-Home Parent Get Divorced Without Money?

Questions or disputes over paternity are very common, especially when the parents of a child have already separated or never had a formal relationship in the first place. Prospective mothers, who may be facing pregnancy and childbirth without a partner, are often torn between the benefits of establishing paternity and the drawbacks of establishing a permanent legal relationship between a child and a man whom she may not trust or know very well – or worse, that she fears.
If you are pregnant or recently gave birth to a child and are wondering whether the benefits of establishing paternity for…
Continue Reading Do I Need to Establish Paternity?

College is notorious for being exorbitantly expensive; even if a child attends an in-state school, they could be paying tens of thousands of dollars a year to earn a degree in a field that may or may not have good prospects for future financial success.
Many parents, especially those who are divorced and who do not share values and priorities, are torn over whether the cost of sending a child to college is ultimately worth it. While parents who are still married cannot be compelled to pay for an adult child’s college education, many parents who are divorced may…
Continue Reading Can a Parent Be Required to Pay for an Adult Child’s College Expenses?