“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” – Albert Einstein.
Almost anything is allowed to be asked in a deposition. You could ask a deponent “what color underwear are you wearing?” There are no questions provided for the deposition provided in advance. Everything is a surprise. In a divorce, there are so many possible embarrassing questions. After all, your soon-to-be former spouse knows (almost) everything
Depositions are powerful. In a deposition, the opposing counsel can ask a person any kind of question under oath with zero warning as to the substance of the questions with no one supervising the appropriateness of the questions. “Information is obtainable as provided in these rules through any of the following discovery methods: depositions upon
Discovery is the term for the process where litigants exchange required and requested documents in order to have all the necessary information to either settle or try their case. “The purposes of litigation are best served when each party knows as much about the controversy as is reasonably practicable.” Mistler v. Mancini, 111 Ill. App.
Illinois divorce law can be confusing. The most confusing element of the Illinois divorce process is probably the discovery process. Discovery is the “compulsory disclosure, at a party’s request, of information that relates to the litigation” Black’s Law Dictionary (11th ed. 2019) Discovery is largely accomplished through a variety of different discovery requests: notices to produce,
Your spouse has left the marital home…but their mail keeps arriving. What’s in those envelopes? Is it important? Is it secret? Can you open your spouse’s mail during an Illinois divorce? No. You cannot open someone else’s mail…even if you are married to the person on the mail’s address. It is a federal crime to
Has anyone really been surprised that they got a divorce? I don’t think so. Instead, couples facing divorce plan for months or years for their divorce. They organize their schedule around the kids. They build up an emergency divorce fund. They compile evidence of their spouse’s misdeeds. People even try to hide assets they believe
There are a lot of ways to gather discovery in an Illinois divorce. Notices to produce, interrogatories, depositions, exchange of financial affidavits and subpoenas. One of the more curious discovery requests has the latin name “subpoena duces tecum” which in English means “under penalty you shall bring with you.” What is a subpoena duces tecum
Being married to someone means you know A LOT about them. You may need to know more about them, however, in order to adequately divide your assets and debts, determine support and establish an appropriate parenting schedule. The request and exchange of such information during the Illinois divorce process is called discovery. “The purposes of
Answering discovery in an Illinois divorce is not fun. No one keeps track of every detail of their life so they can later turn over those ancient documents to someone who is suing them. The older the document, the less likely it is that you’ll have control or possession of that document. There’s got to
Most divorces don’t have any question of fact. Both parties agree to the basics; how much they earn, what’s in their 401ks, where the kids are registered for school. The final outputs of the divorce, the Judgment, the MSA and the Allocation, may be negotiated but it is relatively rare that the inputs, the facts,