“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” – Albert Einstein.
After an Illinois divorce, your obligation to pay child support ends when a child has turned 18 or graduated high school (whichever comes last) but you are still obligated to contribute to your child’s college education. But what if your child elects to attend a college that is simply not worth the expense? “The court
Did you know that all of the filings in your Chicago, Illinois, divorce are accessible to the public? How do you keep your divorce file private? An order forbidding the perusal of otherwise public divorce records is called sealing your divorce court file. In Cook County, Illinois, (which includes Chicago) you can’t look at the
In Chicago, Illinois, the general rule is that courts have the exclusive authority to modify child support and are not bound by the parties’ agreements concerning child support. Blisset v. Blisset, 123 Ill. 2d 161, 167 (1988). In Blisset, Illinois’ supreme court held an out of court agreement to waive child support in exchange for
Illinois divorce law is specific that at least one of the child’s parents should be with the child if possible. If not, you can invoke “the right of first refusal.” Often a parent will exercise his parenting time without actually being with the child. The worst cases of this phenomenon are when a parent just
Living with someone else isn’t easy. Living with someone who you are divorcing is even harder. How do you live in the same house as your spouse during an Illinois divorce? My divorce clients first questions are usually, “should I move out? If I move out won’t I be accused of abandoning the family or
ATTENTION: There is new case law since I wrote this that may effect any Chicago, Illinois out-of-court agreements. Learn more here. Typically, all agreements in the context of a divorce or parentage case must be entered with the court as an agreed order. This memorializes the agreement and gives the agreement the court’s “stamp of
Oftentimes, a Chicago, Illinois family law lawyer will suggest to his client they can do the case on a “limited scope appearance.” A limited scope appearance is exactly what it sounds like: an appearance by an attorney in a case for a very specific issue or hearing, and not for the entirety of the case.
When non-marital funds are used to purchase the family home in a Chicago divorce, it is difficult to determine exactly what happens to that marital home in the event of a divorce. In short, it depends how the family home was held. If the family home was held in your name exclusively and you used
Break ups are always hard, but breaking up from your spouse can be a particularly painful process. Not only are you separating apart from someone you’ve loved; you are also uplifting and recreating a whole new life for yourself. Divorces are messy. They require moving out and finding a new place to stay, making
The term “pre-nup” is part of pop culture’s nomenclature. We hear about it on television, we hear about celebrities and athletes entering into pre-nuptial agreements, and we hear about it in music. However, how does a pre-nuptial or premarital agreement actually work, and what is the legal reason people actually enter into pre-nuptial agreements? Pre-nuptial