Category Archives: Illinois divorce attorney

The Race to the Courthouse: Does Filing First Matter in Divorce?

Once you have reached the decision to end your marriage, the real work must begin. You and your spouse will need to decide how to divide your property, how to make arrangement for your children, and how to adjust to your new post-divorce lives. Before you can get there, however, one of you will need to start the legal process of divorce by filing a petition for the dissolution of marriage at the county courthouse. Many clients approach us with questions about this, often wondering how important it is to be the one who file for divorce and whether it makes any difference at all.

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Do I Need the Assistance of a Divorce Lawyer?

There are websites and organizations claiming that divorcing spouses do not need to hire an Illinois divorce attorney. Instead, these sources claim, any individual can learn everything they need to know about Illinois divorce laws in a relatively short amount of time. Are these sources correct: can divorcing couples really learn all they need to know about Illinois divorce law from a book or website? Here are some truths to consider:

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Framingham Heart Study: Research Suggests Divorce May Be Contagious

“Approaching the epidemiology of divorce from the perspective of an epidemic may be apt in more than way than one,” wrote Rose McDermott, professor at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies. Dr. McDermott studied interviews with more than 5000 individuals over a 30-plus year period in one of the country’s longest running longitudinal research projects. She continued, “The contagion of divorce can spread through a social network like a rumor, affecting friends up to two degrees removed.”

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Framingham Heart Study: Research Suggests Divorce May Be Contagious

“Approaching the epidemiology of divorce from the perspective of an epidemic may be apt in more than way than one,” wrote Rose McDermott, professor at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies. Dr. McDermott studied interviews with more than 5000 individuals over a 30-plus year period in one of the country’s longest running longitudinal research projects. She continued, “The contagion of divorce can spread through a social network like a rumor, affecting friends up to two degrees removed.”

Continue reading Framingham Heart Study: Research Suggests Divorce May Be Contagious

Parenting Plans: A New Take on Custody Agreements

In a divorce situation, making arrangements for the custody and care of your children will be among the most difficult decisions to be made. Regardless of your feelings toward your ex-spouse, your children still deserve the best efforts of both parents in providing for them. For this reason, many divorced parents are recognizing the importance of a parenting plan that they have jointly negotiated rather than relying solely on a judge’s interpretation of the law.

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Gray Divorce Is on the Rise

Divorced Americans age 50 or older currently outnumber widowed individuals in the same age group for the first time. The American Community Survey, conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, reports that more than 15 percent of the population over age 50 are divorced, while about 13.5 percent are widowed. The divorce rates in other age groups seem to have stabilized in over the last few years, but with “gray divorce,” the rate has risen dramatically.

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Infidelity: Could Your Partner Be E-Cheating?

For married couples, few obstacles are more difficult to overcome than infidelity. A straying partner can destroy trust and cause deep seated resentment that takes years to heal, if it ever truly does. In many cases, a single instance of cheating is enough for one partner to seek a divorce, and in Illinois, adultery is considered legitimate grounds for divorce. What may be more difficult, though, is deciding what constitutes infidelity in your relationship and how to recognize the signs it may be happening to you.

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Alimony Laws in Illinois

Alimony is a difficult and confusing issue for all divorces. The current guidelines for judges to follow in order to decide and calculate alimony are ambiguous and uncertain. Divorcing spouses have little information to go on to guess what alimony will be. However, a new law that will go into effect in January 2015 will make alimony easier to calculate and much clearer.

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Money Arguments Often Lead to Divorce

Money makes the world go round—and marriages. According to a recent Canadian survey found that “couples may be more willing to forgive a cheating spouse than to overlook money problems.” Trouble in relationships arises about disagreements in household finances, but the issue is even more devastating when it involves who is to blame when budgets go awry.

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Guardian Ad Litem’s Purpose in a Custody Battle

In some custody cases, a Guardian Ad Litem (GAL) is appointed to add a non-biased opinion on the matter. It is important for both parties to understand the GAL’s job, focus, and the weight of his/her decision before deciding whether to ask for this form of advocacy in a child custody case.

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