Stay-at-home parents make personal sacrifices in order to focus on raising their children and allowing their spouse to fully pursue their career. The parent at home may have paused or given up their career, as well as their financial independence. If you are a stay-at-home parent who is unhappy in your marriage, you may have several questions about how you could afford to divorce and how it would affect you. Being a stay-at-home parent presents some obstacles during divorce, but they are all manageable if you work with an experienced divorce attorney. Paying for Divorce Your first question might be…

It is hard to predict how a child will react to divorce, but parents should prepare for a difficult transition period. Your child’s reaction will partially depend on the environment you create for them. A supportive and caring environment should help your child, while exposure to divorce conflict could cause further trauma. Your child’s personality is another important factor in their reaction. Some children are more prone to depression and anxiety than others. Child therapy is an option you have if your child is struggling to adjust to the divorce, but how do you know whether therapy is right…

The U.S. has increasingly recognized the rights of couples who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ) in the past decade. The national legalization of same-sex marriage was a landmark decision for the LGBTQ community. The normalization of LGBTQ divorce naturally came with the broad legalization of LGBTQ marriage. On a basic level, divorce for LGBTQ spouses is functionally the same as for other spouses. Most divorce laws are gender-neutral, meaning gender identities should not affect how properties are divided or parental rights are allocated. However, LGBTQ spouses may have a different divorce experience than heterosexual spouses: The…

Getting a divorce can cause uncomfortable interactions between you and your spouse. That behavior sometimes escalates to the point of harassment from your spouse. Fortunately, you can file for an order of protection against your spouse if they are continually harassing you. How do you know when your spouse’s behavior qualifies as harassment? You should explain your spouse’s behavior in detail to your divorce attorney, who can advise you on whether a court order could stop that behavior and what you need to do in order to receive that order. Harassment in Divorce Illinois defines harassment as conduct that knowingly…

Most couples view marriage as a contract to share their lives and care for each other when they are in need. After all, the common wedding vows include “in sickness and in health.” However, caring for a sick spouse is trying on your marriage if your spouse has a condition that is unlikely to improve. Especially for couples who have reached old age, there may be a point at which one spouse is physically or mentally incapable of functioning on their own. The caregiver spouse may feel conflicted between their commitment to their marriage and their feelings of unhappiness. Sometimes,…

Child support is mandatory for all divorces that include children. Whichever parent has a smaller share of parenting time will be required to pay monthly child support to the other parent. Illinois bases its child support amount on an income shares model that considers how much raising the children should cost and the comparative incomes of the parents. If you are the parent who is required to pay child support, you have multiple methods by which you can send the payments to your co-parent. It is important to use a dependable method so that the payments get to your co-parent…

You have many important decisions to make about your marital home during a divorce, including whether you should sell it. Some spouses decide that selling their home is their best option if neither of them needs a home of that size or would be able to afford the home on their own. Selling the home could give both of you a significant amount of money to use in starting your post-marriage life. If you decide to sell your marital home, choosing an experienced real estate agent will be important in ensuring a successful sale that helps your divorce. There are…

Keeping your business separate from your marriage is difficult to accomplish when you are getting a divorce. There are many ways that your business can become part of your marital property, whether you: Started the business during your marriage Grew the business’s value during your marriage Invested marital money into your business Mingled your business properties with your marital properties For many small business owners, their spouses may be involved in the business as either an employee or part owner. A divorce can affect your business’s finances and your working relationship with employees and partners. However, you can minimize any…

In some divorces, a parent is allowed to have sole responsibility for their child, including complete control over parenting time and decision making. This most often occurs when one of the parents is physically abusive towards the child or shows a total lack of interest in being part of the child’s life. However, most parenting plans will allocate parental responsibilities between both parents. In Illinois, the presumption is that one parent will have a majority but not all of the parenting time. Still, some parents try to receive sole parental responsibility for personal reasons. You should consider whether seeking sole…

Many people approach their divorce by hiring not just a divorce lawyer but a divorce team, which could include a divorce coach. Divorce coaching is a fairly new profession that works with people on the personal side of dealing with divorce. This allows the divorce attorney to more efficiently focus their efforts toward the technical side of divorce. You may wonder whether you need a divorce coach for your divorce. The truth is that a divorce coach can benefit anyone, but we understand that many divorcees are concerned about the cost of hiring additional professionals for their divorce. Here…

One of the requirements for anyone in the U.S. who wishes to adopt a child is to participate in a home study. The purpose of a home study is to evaluate the home environment that the adopted child would be joining and to educate the prospective parents about raising an adopted child. If you are adopting by using a public child welfare agency, the study helps the agency match you with a child. You may have questions about how a home study is conducted and whether it will be a major obstacle to your plans to adopt. The following answers…

Completing a divorce will drain your personal finances to a certain extent. You are giving up a portion of your marital assets and losing your spouse’s income as a means of helping pay expenses. Some people’s debt problems following a divorce become bad enough that they need to file for bankruptcy. You can work with your divorce attorney to try to avoid this outcome by ensuring that you receive a favorable division of properties and debts, as well as spousal maintenance if your spouse has a greater income than you. However, your former spouse may have their own financial struggles…