When divorce proceedings begin, it can throw everything else in your life into a state of uncertainty. Life continues while the legal issues are getting worked out, with bills to pay and obligations to meet. Because of this, sometimes an Illinois court will order temporary relief to one spouse in order to get through the period of the proceedings, including temporary parental responsibilities, child support, or spousal support. 

Parental Responsibilities and Child Support 

Most temporary relief orders asked for in Illinois courts have to do with the arrangements for any children of a divorcing couple. It is common for one parent to seek a temporary order of parenting time simply to ensure the children are permitted to remain in their current situation. Forcing children to move abruptly, only to possibly return them to the previous situation, is generally held to not be in their best interests. Alternatively, parental responsibilities can be contested for more malicious reasons. For example, in some divorce cases, particularly those that are contentious, it is not unheard of for one parent to attempt to get possession of the children solely to cause a disruption in the lives of the children and the former spouse.

Child support is another major factor. The costs of raising a child cannot be paused while the divorce is ongoing, so a temporary order is often necessary. The court will generally assess the request by considering each parent’s income, the current situation, and the needs of the child. 

High net-worth couples who are going through a divorce often face special issues that require extra planning and attention. Because of the complicated nature of the assets involved, care must be taken to divide the property in a way that does not compromise their value. Often, such couples also hope to keep the details of the divorce as private as possible for personal, safety, and business reasons.

Protecting Assets

Illinois law presumes that any asset acquired after the date of the marriage is a marital asset, subject to a few exceptions. In the absence of an agreement between the spouses, the law requires a judge to decide what is a marital asset and then divide those assets equitably. While there are certain legal factors a judge must consider when dividing assets, without proper preparation and representation, you risk having your assets undervalued or split in such a way as to diminish their value.

Divorce planning, asset valuation, and vigorous representation can help protect your assets and preserve them for the future. This means that with the help of your attorney, you may wish to assemble a team of financial professionals, including financial planners, appraisers, and others, whose knowledge and resources will be crucial in safeguarding your wealth and property.

If you are planning to divorce, you may have questions about how you can protect your rights and reach a divorce settlement that is reasonable and fair. You may want the legal protection and support that comes with hiring a lawyer but are worried that bringing lawyers into the equation could make your divorce more adversarial. Whether your worries are accurate or not, there is an option in Illinois that allows divorcing couples to work with attorneys under a non-adversarial process. Collaborative divorce, or a divorce resolved by means of collaborative law, is an alternative resolution method that has helped many couples settle divorce issues without resorting to stressful and often antagonistic litigation.

What Happens During a Collaborative Divorce?

During a collaborative divorce, each spouse retains his or her own lawyer who provides legal guidance throughout the collaborative process. The spouses and their respective lawyers will work together to negotiate unresolved divorce issues during a series of informal meetings. The purpose of these meetings is not to “win” or “lose,” but instead to reach mutually agreeable solutions regarding the division of marital property and debt, spousal maintenance, child custody, and other divorce-related disputes. Once an agreement has been reached, the lawyers submit the necessary paperwork to the court and the agreements are written into the final divorce decree.

Millions of adults struggle with addiction and substance abuse problems in the United States. Sadly, drug and alcohol addiction can make someone a shell of who he or she was before the addiction began. Being married to an alcoholic or drug addict is often just as miserable as having the addiction yourself. In some cases, salvaging a marriage that has been devastated by drug and alcohol addiction is simply not a possibility. If you are planning to divorce your spouse and he or she has a substance abuse problem, it is important to educate yourself about how your spouse’s addiction may influence your divorce case.

Addiction May Impact Asset Division

Illinois is now a pure no-fault state when it comes to divorce. This means that you will not list your spouse’s addiction or any other fault-based grounds as the reason for your divorce. When you petition the court for a dissolution of marriage, the only ground available to you will be “irreconcilable differences.” However, your spouse’s addiction still has the potential to influence your divorce settlement. If your spouse spends a great deal of money or sells any property to finance his or her addiction, you may have a valid dissipation claim. Dissipation occurs when a spouse uses marital funds for a purpose that does not benefit the marriage after the marriage has begun to experience an “irretrievable breakdown.” The funds your spouse spends on drugs or alcohol during the end of your marriage may be considered dissipated assets. This means that you may be entitled to a proportionally greater share of the marital assets during property division as a form of reimbursement.

As a part of the divorce process, divorcing parents are asked to create a parenting plan and submit it to the court. The parenting plan is a detailed description of numerous different child-related issues. Reaching a decision about each element of the parenting plan is an essential part of establishing each parent’s legal rights and responsibilities. A well-written parenting plan can also help prevent disputes about these rights and obligations in the future. However, parents sometimes struggle to see eye to eye about the issues contained in the parenting plan.

Elements Required in an Illinois Parenting Agreement

There are several different issues that all Illinois parenting plans must address. You will need to decide how you intend to make significant decisions about your child, including decisions about his or her education, religious upbringing, health needs, and extracurricular activities. Another major component of the parenting plan is a parenting time schedule which dictates where the child will live on given days. Parents must also describe how the child will be transported between the parents’ homes. The parenting plan will include provisions about each parent’s right to access important child-related information such as the child’s medical records and school reports. Provisions addressing potential future modifications of the parenting plan, any future parental relocations, the right of first refusal, and several other matters are also typically addressed.