Posted on January 25,2018 in Kane

In recent years, the movement to get divorces out of the courtroom has gained significant momentum. Alternatives like mediation and collaborative divorce have attracted a growing number of supporters, but there are just as many who are unsure of the benefits of these relatively new approaches. Before making a decision either way, it is important to understand the features of all the methods so that you can get a better sense of what might be right for you and your divorce.

Courtrooms Offer Familiarity

The divorce process in an Illinois courtroom has changed little over the years, even as the laws relative to divorce have changed significantly. To initiate divorce proceedings, you or your spouse must file a petition in the relevant county court, and from there, the other may either respond or choose not to contest the divorce. Judgment will be entered if and when a court is able to verify that irreconcilable differences have resulted in an “irretrievable breakdown” of the marriage.

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 Posted on January 22,2018 in Main

The purpose of child support is to help the parent with the majority of the parenting time to pay expenses related to the care of the child. The state of Illinois takes the obligation to ensure children are adequately cared for very seriously. The courts will do everything in their power to make sure a child is receiving the funds necessary to maintain the same quality of life he or she had when his or her parents were married.

Consequences for Non-Payment

Child support is a requirement, not a suggestion. Those ordered by the courts to pay who consistently skip payments can face serious consequences. The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services' Division of Child Support Services (DCSS) is in charge of recording and monitoring child support payments. When a parent who should be receiving support notifies DCSS of the other parent's failure to pay court-awarded child support, DCSS will take steps to retrieve the support funds from the obligated parent. This happens automatically if the recipient parent is receiving public assistance. If the DCSS cannot convince the payer parent to pay his missed child support payments, they will use an Income Withholding for Support request. This orders the paying parent’s employer to withhold an additional amount in child support from the parent's earnings. Other methods of recovering child support payments from a non-paying parent include:

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 Posted on January 15,2018 in Main

Over the last few months, sexual harassment has been all over the news. From movie stars to politicians many influential people have been accused of sexual harassment. At the recent Golden Globes award show, actors and actresses wore a black-and-white pin inscribed with the words “Times Up.” The pin—which worn by stars like Justin Timberlake and Michelle Pfeiffer—references the idea that time is up for men who have been allowed to be sexually inappropriate with un-consenting women. Sexual harassment, however, is not something that only happens to celebrities.

Studies have found that bartending is the profession third-most vulnerable to nonfatal workplace violence. Only law enforcement and security are more dangerous is this regard. Much of this violence is due to sexual harassment. There is no one conclusive reason for this statistic to be true, but the consumption of alcohol and the party-like atmosphere of many bars are almost certainly factors. People also tend to see friendly and social behavior by a bartender as an invitation to make sexual advances.

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 Posted on January 08,2018 in Kane

Spousal maintenance, also called spousal support or alimony, refers to the payments one spouse (the obligor) makes to the other (the obligee) after a divorce. The purpose of spousal support is to provide "reasonable and necessary" financial support to the lower-earning spouse.

In Illinois, there are four main types of spousal support: temporary, permanent, reviewable, and rehabilitative. Temporary maintenance is sometimes ordered by a judge in order to help a spouse financially during the divorce proceeding. If a judge orders permanent maintenance, the obligor makes payments until the spouse passes away, remarries, or cohabits with a new partner. If the obligor passes away before the recipient, the decedent’s estate does not have to continue payments.

Permanent maintenance is generally ordered in instances where the marriage lasted 20 years or more. Rehabilitative spousal support is a temporary support measure which allows the obligee time to acquire the education, skills, training, work history, and licensure needed to become financially independent. Finally, reviewable alimony refers to orders for spousal support which are made with the intention of being reviewed and possibly modified or discontinued by the courts in the future.

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 Posted on January 02,2018 in Main

Same-sex marriage has been legal since June 2015.  In Obergefell v. Hodges, the United States Supreme Court ruled that state-level bans on same-sex marriage were unconstitutional. As with any marriage, marriages between same-sex couples do not always work out as the couple originally planned. A couple in Hawaii has found themselves in the national spotlight as their unique parenting dispute continues.

Unusual Circumstances

The lesbian couple was first married in Washington, D. C. in 2013 before moving to Hawaii. The couple had previously discussed having a child together and while one of the women was deployed through the military during 2015, her spouse got pregnant via a sperm donor. The woman who was deployed filed for divorce, and the baby was born while the divorce was pending. The non-biological parent now wishes to sever her parental rights regarding the child. She claims that she did not know of her ex-spouse’s plans to get pregnant, was not there for the birth of the child, and has not developed a relationship with the child. She does not believe that she should be responsible for child support and is willing to give up her legal parental rights to the child.

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 Posted on December 28,2017 in Main

Sexual harassment has recently been in the news more frequently than ever before. Ever since more than 80 women made allegations that film producer Harvey Weinstein had sexual harassed, assaulted, or even raped them, alleged victims of sexual harassment have been reporting incidents all over the country. The latest industry to be scrutinized for its allegedly lax sexual harassment and sexual assault policies is airlines.

A recent report on the incidence of sexual assault on airplanes shows a troubling 66 percent increase from 2014 to 2017. On average, one in five flight attendants have received a report of a passenger-on-passenger sexual assault. Alarmingly, the police were contacted in less than half of these incidents. The push is now for airlines and other industries to establish and enforce clear policies against sexual harassment in order to help prevent further inappropriate and harmful behavior.

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 Posted on December 22,2017 in Kane

Every day, people make the decision to divorce their spouse. Sometimes, the split is related to adultery or abuse, and other times the spouses simply no longer wish to be married. For many of these couples, divorce is something they never saw in their future. Most couples get married with the hope of spending the rest of their lives together. They share not only their lives but also all of their possessions. This can make the issue of property division especially tricky during divorce.

Couples who are considering divorce may worry about how their savings account, retirement accounts, family home, vehicles, furniture, and other assets will be divided. In Illinois, property is divided based on what is “equitable.” This means that the property may not be split exactly evenly. Instead, it will be divided in accordance with what the court deems to be fair and just. Each case is different, but generally, a judge will consider factors such as:

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 Posted on December 20,2017 in Main

There are nearly 4 million divorced parents in the United States today. For many of these parents, the holidays can be especially difficult to navigate because they have family visiting from out of town who want to see the children or who brought presents for them. How is a divorced parent supposed to please everyone during the holidays and still stay sane? The short answer is that it is impossible to please everyone when you are sharing parenting responsibilities with an ex-spouse. But with some planning and flexibility, it is possible to have a happy holiday season as a divorced parent.

Be Proactive

As the old saying goes, “failing to plan is planning to fail.” This is especially true when it comes to issues of parental responsibilities and parenting time. If you already have a parenting agreement in place, sit down with a calendar and note how your regular parenting schedule aligns with the holidays. In some formal Parental Responsibility Agreements, holidays are treated like regular days and sometimes, they have their own schedule and rules. Once you know who will have the children and when, you can start to figure out how to arrange the holiday activities or family visits. Do not wait until the last minute to make plans.

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 Posted on December 13,2017 in Main

The issue of sexual harassment has never before been talked about with the candor and seriousness that it has been of recently. Allegations of sexual harassment that were made against many high-powered individuals such as President Donald Trump, Senator Al Franken, and film producer Harvey Weinstein, have started a fury of backlash against perpetrators of sexual abuse, both famous and unknown. In fact, Time Magazine recently announced that its prestigious “Person of the Year” designation goes to the “silence breakers”: Those brave individuals who came forward with their stories of sexual harassment and started a movement. Women and men of all ages, ethnicities, and income levels are reporting past instances of sexual harassment, assault, and other sexual misconduct.

What Is Sexual Harassment?

Sometimes the terms sexual harassment, sexual misconduct, inappropriate behavior, and abuse are used incorrectly or interchangeably. It can be confusing to know exactly what the law is. Sexual harassment is technically a form of sex discrimination under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission defines sexual harassment as "unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitutes sexual harassment when submission to or rejection of this conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual's employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual's work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment." Sexual harassment can include behaviors such as:

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 Posted on December 08,2017 in Kane

The purpose of child support is to help the primary residential parent of a child or children to be able to afford basic necessities such as rent or mortgage payments, the child’s clothing, school supplies, and their meals. Those who receive child support often depend on that extra income in order to pay their bills and maintain a good quality of life for their children. For some parents, a missed payment here and there will not cause a major financial crisis. For others living on a tight budget, a missed child support payment can be devastating. During the holidays, many parents rush to the stores to buy their children Christmas gifts. However, it is important to note that the money spent on children’s Christmas gifts cannot count toward child support payments.

Changes to Child Support in Illinois

Recently, several major changes were made to the way Illinois courts calculate child support. The amount of child support that is awarded to a parent is now based on an “income shares” or “shared parenting” model. The incomes of both parents are now taken into account, rather than solely that of the paying parent. The new model also takes into consideration how much time the parents each spend with their children on an overnight basis. This is intended to help alleviate the child support costs for those parents who also spend money on their children during their parenting time. The new model is based on three main factors: the estimated total amount of money needed to raise the child, extra costs that a parent may encounter such as expenses for health care, education, and after-school activities, and the amount of overnights the child spends with each parent.

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