Divorce can stir up a wide range of emotions, including anger, resentment, and betrayal. Some divorcing spouses take out their anger on the other spouse by intentionally wasting or destroying marital property in an act of revenge. For example, a spouse infuriated at the thought of divorce may throw the other spouse’s personal property in the trash, drain the joint checking account at the casino, or spend thousands of dollars on luxury items.

If you are getting divorced and your spouse has wasted marital assets or funds, It is important to be aware of your legal options. In this blog, we will discuss the types of wasteful spending that constitute dissipation of assets and how a dissipation of assets claim can help you recoup the value of wasted, destroyed, or lost assets.

What is a Dissipation of Assets Claim?

A dissipation of assets claim addresses reckless spending or intentional destruction of marital property during the divorce process. If a spouse is found to have dissipated assets, the court will consider this dissipation when dividing marital property. The spouse who dissipated assets may receive a proportionately lesser share of the marital estate, while the spouse who did not dissipate receives a greater share of the remaining marital estate.

By now, most people know that sexual harassment or discrimination against an employee on the basis of sex or gender is unlawful. However, less is known about the laws regarding retaliation.

An employer is prohibited from retaliating against an individual who makes a sexual harassment complaint. For example, if an employee files a sexual harassment complaint with human resources and then finds that his or her work hours have been drastically cut, the employee may be able to sue for retaliation. The employee may be entitled to monetary damages or other legal remedies.

However, the law does not stop there. Individuals are also protected against retaliation for participating in a sexual harassment investigation. For example, consider an employee who witnesses a supervisor touching a colleague inappropriately and later testifies about what he saw during a sexual harassment investigation. This employee is also protected against retaliation.

 Divorce officially and permanently ends a marriage. However, divorcing spouses may still be involved in each other 's lives, and there may be times when they need to return to court to modify part of their divorce decree. For example, parents who experience life changes such as remarriage, relocation, or a new job may need to modify the allocation of parental responsibilities or parenting time. Similarly, a significant change in financial circumstances may warrant modifying the child support or spousal support order.

Under the right circumstances, these types of issues may be modified after the divorce is finalized. However, modifying the distribution of marital property after the divorce is finalized is a much different issue. In this blog, we will discuss the limited circumstances in which property division may be modified after a divorce.

Changing Property Division After a Divorce

Divorcing spouses must undo the financial entanglement that occurs during marriage. Property accumulated during the marriage is typically considered marital property to which both spouses have an ownership stake. Marital property may include real estate, furniture, jewelry and other valuables, retirement funds, investment income, and more. Spouses may be able to negotiate a property division settlement, or the court may determine an equitable distribution of property based on Illinois law.

No industry is immune from harassment and discrimination. However, certain industries tend to have greater problems with sexual harassment than others. Multiple studies have shown that the healthcare industry is one of the top industries in which sexual harassment reports are filed.

One study found that over 40 percent of female nurses had experienced sexual harassment on the job. However, nurses, doctors, surgeons, nurses assistants, aides, and other workers of both genders may be victims of sexual harassment.

If you were sexually harassed at work or threatened with retaliation for filing a sexual harassment complaint, it is crucial that you understand your rights and legal options in this situation.

Everybody falls on hard times now and then, and sometimes a parent finds himself or herself unemployed. Many parents wonder what happens when a parent who is required to pay child support is unemployed. Does an unemployed parent still have to pay child support? What if a parent purposely quits or takes a low-paying job to try to avoid child support? The answers to these questions depend on the reasons for unemployment, and a few other factors.

Is the Parent Voluntarily Unemployed?

Unemployment is a term that can apply to a wide range of situations. Some people find themselves unemployed because they were laid off due to cutbacks. Others choose not to work because they simply do not want to.

In some cases, a court will grant a reduced child support obligation to a parent who is unemployed. One of the major questions the court will need to answer before determining whether to modify a child support obligation is whether the unemployment is voluntary or involuntary. There is a huge difference between a parent genuinely trying to gain adequate employment and pay his or her child support obligation and a parent who chooses not to work to evade child support.