What if you want a divorce and your spouse wants a divorce too? Do you need to go through the entire divorce process? The formal service, the mediation, the exchange of documents and the trial can all be avoided if there is a full agreement of the parties. Joint Simplified Divorce If you both want…
The Parenting Plan When two parents are no longer living together, they must come to an arrangement regarding the time each parent will spend with the children. Hopefully, the parents can come to an agreement without the help of lawyers or the courts. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. In any case before a…
Looking into divorce in Chicago means learning about the rules that govern divorce in Chicago, Illinois. Divorce in Chicago is governed by a series of rules: The Illinois Complied Statutes, the Illinois Supreme Court Rules, The Cook County Court Rules, case law and the standing order of whichever domestic relations judge your divorce case is…
You’ve spent years planning your life together. All of your plans involved you both remaining together as a couple. You got a house big enough for the two of you. You took a job with better insurance but less opportunity so your partner could do the opposite. You saved your partner’s income and you spent…
This is number four in my series of things to do with children while you’re parenting alone. Whether you are divorced, separated or just alone for the day with the kids, I hope these posts can be a guide of things to do with your kids in a city that isn’t set up for kids,…
Divorces can take years and there is always the possibility that a party in a divorce case may pass away during the divorce. This means the divorce will not be finalized and then the marital estate remains unsettled and undistributed. In Illinois, when a party in a divorce dies, the case is dismissed at the…
Life insurance is an insurance against a person’s life in that it pays out money upon the death of the person. People typically purchase life insurance to support their family if, God forbid, they are no longer able to support their family due to death. What happens if you get divorced? You probably no longer…
In Illinois, there is not a specific “lock changing law” when it comes to divorce or any other domestic relations matter. But effectively, you are evicting your spouse from the marital home when you change the locks. If you and your spouse are co-owners of the property or co-signers of the lease then you both…
Black’s law dictionary defines bigamy as “the condition of having two wives or two husbands at the same time” In Illinois, bigamy is a crime whether you are the person that is married twice or you are one of the husbands and/or wives. “A person commits bigamy when that person has a husband or wife…
Social Security is the United States’ federal government’s system for making regular payments to people if they are disabled and/or elderly. People who are getting divorced and also receiving a social security benefit (or their spouse is receiving it) need to know how a divorce will impact that benefit. The law does not treat social…
