Posted on February 12, 2024 in Family Law

A postnuptial agreement, also known as a postmarital agreement, is a written contract entered into by a married couple that outlines what happens in the event of divorce or death of a spouse. While not necessarily a romantic topic, postnups can provide important legal and financial protections for both parties if done thoughtfully. An Illinois family law lawyer can provide guidance on when you might want to discuss a postnuptial agreement with your spouse.

Changes in Financial Circumstances

One of the most common reasons couples pursue postnuptial agreements is a significant change in their incomes or assets. For example, perhaps one spouse will inherit substantial money or property during the marriage. Or maybe one spouse decides to start a business, putting them at higher risk of lawsuits. Dramatic increases in earnings can also prompt couples to spell out in writing what happens if the higher wage earner dies or the couple splits up. A postnup allows you to thoughtfully decide on a fair distribution of assets instead of leaving it solely up to divorce laws in your state.

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 Posted on January 30, 2024 in Mediation and Collaborative Law

Many people are familiar with divorce scenes from the movies and TV showing two people screaming at each other and a judge banging on a gavel demanding for order in the court. In truth, there is more than one way to get divorced and the vast majority of divorces today are not this contested. 

Litigation in court may suit your needs if you cannot trust your spouse to play fair. The legal system has rules and regulations in place to ensure they do. However, if you and your spouse have a more amicable dynamic, and especially if you have children and you want to work together to ensure that their best interests will be served in whatever arrangement you come up with, collaborative law might be your best step forward. If you are considering divorcing a spouse who you are able to work with and communicate productively, a knowledgeable DuPage County, IL divorce lawyer can review your case and help you understand whether collaborative divorce might suit your needs.

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 Posted on January 22, 2024 in Domestic Violence

Even though suffering domestic violence is a horrible experience, victims sometimes refrain from coming forward and taking steps to protect themselves out of fear that their abuser might find out. For people in this situation, urgent help is needed and a long, drawn-out divorce is not something they have the luxury of considering. If there are children, it might feel even more urgent to end the situation as quickly as possible. Luckily, the State of Illinois has ways to help that do not take much time. A Naperville, IL family law attorney can walk you through your options and fight aggressively to protect you and your rights.

Order of Protection

An Order of Protection, otherwise called a restraining order, is something you can file with the court. It will place enforceable limits on where your spouse can and cannot be, restricting them from coming within a minimum distance of you and/or your children, your home, your place of work, your children’s school, and whatever other areas are deemed a risk. 

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 Posted on January 08, 2024 in Prenuptial Agreements

Nobody likes to think about negative outcomes in their life. When you start dating someone, you might want to imagine that one day, you will fall in love and get married. If you get married, you likely want to imagine that you will start a family and grow old together. Trying to figure out how you might protect your finances if you end up getting a divorce is not something a lot of people want to do when they are at the beginning of a relationship, even though having a prenuptial agreement can provide a lot of peace of mind. If you never signed a prenup and you regret it, a Naperville, IL family law attorney can help you figure out whether a postnuptial agreement might be right for you.

What Is Involved in a Postnuptial Agreement?

Think about drawing up a will. Most people do not like to think about dying, but when they make themselves consider it, they can plan for how their assets can be left for the people they love. A postnuptial agreement is similar - in this case, making yourself think about something that you might rather not think about can be extremely helpful and can make a difficult period just a bit easier for your loved ones in the future. 

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 Posted on January 04, 2024 in Child Custody

When parents go through divorce, they need to come up with a parenting plan that explains how they will raise their children once their marriage has ended. This plan needs to set out which parent the children will live with. If the parents share custody, their parenting plan will need to include specifics about where the children will be when, how often they will switch from one parent to the other, who they will spend holidays and birthdays with, and more

However, these plans are drawn up based on the parents’ and children’s circumstances at the time of the divorce. Conditions might change and this could require some changes to the parenting plan. If your boss is asking you to relocate but you share custody of your children, an experienced Naperville, IL divorce lawyer can help you make sense of this confusing situation and explain what your rights are.

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 Posted on December 27, 2023 in Divorce

While all divorces are different, one of the most common aspects of any divorce is the fact that the couple will need to divide their assets and debts. This is a careful process aimed at making sure neither spouse ends up in financially dire straits as a result of the divorce while the other spouse reaps all the benefits. Unfortunately, even though it is illegal to hide assets during a divorce, it is something that is commonly done by people who want to hurt their spouse and take everything for themselves. If you are about to get divorced and you suspect that your spouse might be hiding assets, a dedicated Naperville, IL divorce attorney can help you try to get to the bottom of it.

What Can You Do if Your Spouse Is Hiding Assets?

Illinois is an equitable distribution state, as opposed to one that divides assets according to an equal division. As such, Illinois law prioritizes fairness over symmetry in asset division. In some marriages, both spouses work for a similar number of years, contribute to the marital assets, and support each other's careers and abilities to continue advancing professionally and earning in the future. For such couples, it is possible to feel comfortable with an asset distribution meant to help each side leave the marriage with a fair share. Some people, especially in an acrimonious divorce, might be so angry or hurt that they simply want to make the other person suffer. In such cases, one spouse might start hiding away assets even before divorce proceedings begin, to ensure that the courts only actually divide a portion of the assets and they end up with more.

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 Posted on December 15, 2023 in Divorce

For a lot of people, life follows a path that moves from childhood and school to professional training to a career. However, your circumstances could change and once you begin working, you might find that the career path you had planned for yourself is no longer suitable. When you were getting your degree as a young single person, you likely didn’t picture how the career you were training for could fit with your later life as a married parent. Many parents find that juggling a full-time job while also raising children and undertaking household responsibilities is too demanding. That is why the concept of a stay-at-home parent has become so common. However, most couples that have one working parent and one stay-at-home parent have made their financial plans with the idea that they will be together. If you are a stay-at-home parent considering divorce, a knowledgeable Naperville, IL divorce lawyer can answer your questions and start working on a plan to protect your rights and interests.

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 Posted on December 07, 2023 in Child Custody

Divorce can be an extremely difficult process for a couple to go through. When the couple are parents, it can be even more complicated for the entire family. Sometimes, a couple can get divorced amicably. They recognize that they should not remain together as a married couple, but they are still able to communicate productively and try to figure out how their entire family’s best interests can be served. Other times, the divorce is more acrimonious. The people who once married each other now consider each other the enemy and they are no longer able to even sit in the same room peacefully. In cases like this, when the parents simply are unable to forge a parenting plan together, a guardian ad litem, or GAL, might be appointed by the court to try to determine what would be in the child’s best interests. If you believe you are headed toward an acrimonious divorce and you have questions about how a court-appointed GAL might affect your divorce, an experienced Naperville, IL divorce lawyer can walk you through the entire process and answer your questions. 

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 Posted on December 01, 2023 in Paternity

When a couple has children after they are married, the hospital and relevant government authorities automatically determine that the woman who gave birth to the baby is the mother and the man she is legally married to is the father. Even though this might not always be the case, the man who is married to a woman who gives birth is automatically and legally recognized as the child’s father unless proven otherwise. But if the two parents are not married, things can be a tad more complicated for a father who wants to be involved. If you aren’t married but you know you want to be an involved father in your child’s life, an experienced Naperville, IL family lawyer will be able to walk you through establishing paternity and answer any questions you may have.

Why Do Fathers Need to Prove Their Paternity?

When a baby is born to a married couple, that couple is automatically considered the baby’s parents. If the couple decides at some point later to get a divorce, the fact remains that those two people are the child’s parents and they will need to settle on a joint parenting plan that accounts for how they will raise this child separately. The fact that they are no longer married does not affect the father’s claim of paternity, although it could impact how much time he gets to spend with his children and how much authority he can have over decisions that relate to them.

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 Posted on November 27, 2023 in Child Support

When parents go through a divorce, many issues need to be worked out in their divorce settlement. These issues lay out how the couple will continue raising their shared children once they are no longer married. The two sides will need to reach agreements that become legally binding through the courts. They need to agree on things like child support payments, parental rights and responsibilities, and the other things that need to be decided regardless of whether the couple getting divorced has children, like division of assets, distribution of debt, and spousal support.

The decisions about these matters are made based on each spouse’s financial situation at the time of the divorce. If you were only able to hold down a part-time job due to all your household responsibilities, but the fact that you took care of household maintenance meant your spouse was able to work full-time and advance in his career, you likely were granted child support payments. If you are a divorced parent who depends on shield support payments to help you meet all your financial responsibilities and your spouse has just quit his job, an experienced Naperville, IL, divorce lawyer can help shed light on this difficult situation so you know how to move forward.

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