Posted on February 26, 2017 in Domestic Violence

Attempting to understand why some spouses choose to remain in abusive relationships is never easy. An overwhelming number of married partners find themselves with the need to seek out domestic violence protection and pursue a divorce, often after they have endured months or even years of physical and emotional abuse. The reality is that the reasons behind someone’s drive to stay with a physically or verbally violent partner is extremely multifaceted. Time Magazine reports multiple studies that reveal individuals stay with their abusers usually for more than one reason, further emphasizing the fact that there is never a single, simple answer for why someone remains in an abusive environment.

Why Victims Stay

The statistics surrounding abusive relationships are alarming: one in four women experience domestic abuse at some point in their lifetime. Only one-fifth of all rapes are reported to the police, and only one-quarter of all physical assaults are reported. Domestic abuse is considered one of the most underreported crimes across the board, and yet many of the partners who make up these statistics stay put. Here are some of the most common reasons victims opt to avoid divorce and instead choose to remain in an abusive marriage:

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 Posted on February 23, 2017 in Divorce

Wading through the divorce process is a different experience for everyone. For some couples, the process can be rocky from start to finish, while it can be generally smooth throughout for others. A great source of tension usually stems from financial issues, which can impact other matters in the divorce, such as childrearing styles and employment circumstances for each spouse. This applies especially to the stay-at-home parent, who has been accustomed to taking care of the home while their spouse earns the income. One major fear can often trigger a domino effect, resulting in multiple anxieties about the present and the future.

Common Anxieties for the Stay-at-Home Parent

Given the amount of energy that must be expended during the divorce journey, it is understandable how adding the stress of issues like parenting arrangements and the division of property can quickly become overwhelming. It is very common for the parent who has been removed from the workforce for some time to feel stretched thin, fearful of their financial future and how they will care for their family, and what the overhaul of their life will look like and feel like when all is said and done. If you are a stay-at-home parent going through a divorce and are experiencing these common anxieties, take a moment to consider the following:

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 Posted on February 21, 2017 in Child Support

The subject of your child’s future college expenses and who will be responsible for them following the end of your marriage can be difficult to address, especially in the midst of an impending divorce. Whether you and your spouse discussed the funding of your child’s education early on in your marriage or did not discuss it at all, you may be wondering who will be responsible for paying tuition and other expenses once you are separated.

Who Pays for What?

While preparing for your child’s education may not be at the forefront of your mind during the divorce process, there are certain discussions you can have with your spouse and attorney to ensure your child’s education is secure when the time comes for them to attend college. The Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act works in favor of your children and their higher education. Revisions to Illinois state family law in 2016 enabled courts to order a parent to pay for the child’s college if the child is no longer living at home but attending school. Before either parent is ordered to contribute a certain amount to college expenses, however, there are multiple factors that the court takes into account:

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 Posted on February 16, 2017 in Divorce

If you are an Illinois resident currently in the midst of the divorce process, you may have concerns about recent changes in divorce law that passed in 2016 and how they might affect you and your family once your divorce is final. The good news is that a majority of these changes were put into motion to ease common divorce tensions, with the goal to reduce conflict and simplify the process as a whole. While there will always be some level of conflict where divorce is concerned, revisions to our state’s laws serve to streamline the experience for each party involved.

Here are a few ways recent law changes have changed how couples divorce, but for the better:

1. Revisions to Grounds for Divorce

Spouses seeking divorce were once able to cite grounds for the dissolution of marriage, such as adultery, mental anguish, or impotence, but that is no longer the case. Now the law only allows one ground for divorce, and that is irreconcilable differences. The goal is to reduce conflict that usually results from one party accusing the other of a certain act. For example, previous grounds could include habitual drunkenness - a valid claim, of course, but one that could be heavily disputed and add further fuel to the fire.

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 Posted on February 14, 2017 in Divorce

Divorce is different for everyone who experiences it, and the length of time it takes to move through the grieving process can vary greatly from person to person. We all hear a variety of accounts from friends, family members, and co-workers of their personal experiences with divorce, but none of them can ever prepare you for how you feel when the event actually happens for you. Even more unpredictable is how you will end up coping, how long it will take to process the loss, and ultimately, how long it will take to finally heal from the whole ordeal.

Signs You are Moving in the Right Direction

Experts from Psychology Today report that a person’s emotional recovery time depends on a number of factors. The grieving process is not cut and dry, and it does not unfold the same way for everyone. Whether you saw the end of your marriage coming, you were abandoned, or were abused can all affect the length of your recovery time. Whether you share children together, are unable to support yourself financially, or experienced infidelity can also impact how long it takes for you to navigate the loss.

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 Posted on January 27, 2017 in Children and Divorce

Any divorce proceeding can lead to serious emotional and psychological reactions by either spouse. When children are involved, however, the implications of divorce can be even more serious. Many children of divorce often struggle with their new reality and may display behavioral issues, uncontrolled anger, or symptoms of depression or anxiety. Divorced parents may be left wondering if there is anything the court can do in regard to ordering therapy or counseling and splitting the costs of such services. According to the law in Illinois, a family court can order counseling for children of divorce depending on the family’s circumstances.

Custody Evaluations

When a divorcing couple is struggling to reach an agreement regarding parenting arrangements for their child, such decisions are often left to the court. In doing so, the court has the authority to appoint an appropriate professional to conduct an evaluation of the child and each parent. These evaluations may include interviews, tests, and any other accepted methods of determining the child’s needs and his or her best interests. In addition to the court’s appointed professional, a professional retained by either parent may also conduct such an investigation at the court’s direction. The costs for such evaluations—if they are not conducted by an agency of the state—may be divided between the parties in a manner that is fair and equitable.

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 Posted on January 23, 2017 in Child Support

While very few people would dispute the appropriateness or the need for child support, there are differing opinions regarding how support payments should be determined. For many years, Illinois law based child support calculations primarily on the income of the supporting parent and the number of children needing support. Beginning next summer, however, the state’s approach will be changing to one that is seen by many as more equitable since it accounts for both parents’ income and the actual cost of raising a child.

Income Shares Child Support Model

Last summer, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner signed a measure several years in the making. The new law provides a totally updated model for determining a parent’s child support obligation. The method is known as “income shares” and is currently in use in more than three dozen other states. According to the income shares model, the combined income of both parents is used to determine a “basic support amount,” or the amount that the couple would spend on raising their child if they had remained in the same household. The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services has been tasked with developing a table for determining this amount as a percentage of the parents’ combined income.

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 Posted on October 17, 2016 in Family Law

The Social Security Administration provides disability benefits for individuals who qualify to receive them. This coverage is known as Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). Parents who receive SSDI can also receive coverage for their children to help cover the costs of raising a child while being too disabled to earn a sufficient income. Like all other forms of income, one's SSDI benefits can be affected by his or her divorce. This can, in turn, affect your child's SSDI coverage. If you are an SSDI recipient with a minor child who receives SSDI coverage and you are considering filing for divorce, discuss this with your divorce lawyer.

How Divorce Affects SSDI Benefits for Minor Children

Any biological child, adopted child, or stepchild under the age of 18 or up to age 19 if he or she is a full-time student can receive coverage of up to 50 percent of his or her parent's SSDI benefits amount as long as the child is not married. This type of coverage is known as auxiliary benefits. In certain cases, the grandchild of an SSDI recipient can also receive auxiliary SSDI benefits.

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 Posted on August 24, 2016 in Child Support

The recent revisions to the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act clarified the rules regarding parents' obligations to help their children with college expenses. Specifically, they give the court the right to order that divorced parents contribute to their children's college expenses if the child or one of the parents petition for such an order before the child's 23rd birthday. The amount of money a parent can be required to contribute is limited to the cost of attending the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the parent may not be required to continue to contribute past the student's 25th birthday.

Parents are also permitted to dispute orders for financial contributions to college costs. The language in the law states that parents may be required to contribute “except for good cause shown.” There are multiple reasons why a parent might feel he or she has good cause to not be required to contribute to his or her child's college bill, one of which is the sense that the money would not be put to good use.

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 Posted on August 16, 2016 in Divorce

Depending on your cultural background, arranged marriage as a concept might be wildly foreign, an outdated idea that perhaps held some prominence with your parents' or grandparents' generation but is not relevant to you, or a completely normal, even expected, part of life. Globally, 53.25 percent of marriages are arranged, according to a 2016 statistics. In 2012, the global divorce rate for arranged marriages was six percent, a much lower figure than the divorce percentage for couples in non-arranged marriages.

Does this mean your marriage is doomed because it was not arranged or conversely, that it is destined to last because it was arranged? Absolutely not. But what the statistics show is that despite certain stereotypes and assumptions, arranged marriages do exist and flourish throughout the world today.

Factors Present in Modern Arranged Marriages

Generally, parents who arrange marriages for their children do so with their children's best interest in mind. That means choosing partners whose beliefs, social status, and education levels match their own. The most common conflicts in marriages are conflicts borne of incompatibility in these areas, such as conflicts about how to spend money or the religion in which to raise their children. By choosing partners with similar worldviews and backgrounds, parents largely eliminate these conflicts.

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