Posted on December 00,0000 in Main

When a parent goes through a divorce and later remarries, he or she may have concerns about how the new family will impact support obligations to the old family and vice versa. Questions may arise regarding whether new children will affect earlier child support orders and if a new spouse's income will be used to increase child support payments. The attorneys at MKFM Law can help answer these questions.

Child Support Modifications in Illinois

In Illinois a parent can be ordered to pay child support with a minimum payment amount calculated according to guidelines set by law. Illinois judges must follow the guidelines, unless circumstances exist which would allow the court to deviate from the guidelines to award greater or lesser amounts in child support. Two factors judges may consider when deviating from the guidelines are the financial resources and needs of both the custodial and non-custodial parents.

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 Posted on December 00,0000 in Main

When married couples split on bad terms, one or both spouses may try to gain an upper hand by taking money from the couple's bank accounts for their own purpose. While this may feel satisfying for a while, a court will factor the taking of funds in this manner when later dividing the marital assets.

Dissipation of Marital Assets

The taking of marital funds or other marital assets by one spouse for his or her, own personal use, unrelated to the marriage, during a divorce or legal separation, is referred to as dissipation of marital assets. For example, if a spouse is spending marital funds to support a paramour, this would be considered dissipation of marital assets.

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 Posted on December 00,0000 in Main

Parents have a legal duty to support their children. This duty includes providing for each child's educational, physical, mental, and emotional health needs. Therefore, when spouses divorce and a parent is ordered to pay child support, the payments are meant to meet these needs until each child reaches 18 years of age or graduation from high school, whichever occurs later. However, under various circumstances, the requirement for support may be extended. With respect to monthly child support, Illinois law requires that if a child has not graduated from high school when he or she reaches the age of 18, a parent's obligation to pay support can be extended until the child reaches 19 years of age.

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 Posted on December 00,0000 in Main

The process of legally ending a marriage can take longer than most people expect. Additionally, life and all of its expenses continue while a divorce is pending. Illinois law provides for temporary relief. Spouses going through a divorce can seek temporary custody, temporary child support, and temporary spousal maintenance in order to address these issues while waiting for a judgment of divorce.

If a couple is married and have children together, both parents have parenting rights under the law. Therefore, in a divorce, each parent could move for temporary custody. Usually, the parent who is the primary caregiver wants the children to stay with him or her while the divorce is pending and while the court decides matters of final custody.

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 Posted on December 00,0000 in Main

When a married couple decides to divorce, it may come as a shock to one spouse when the court rules his or her non-marital property has actually been converted to marital property, and it is therefore subject to equitable division. In fact, the transmutation of non-marital assets into martial assets can happen by accident by either party.

The Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (IMDMA) identifies non-marital property as the following:

• Property acquired by gift, legacy or descent;
• Property acquired in exchange for other non-marital property;

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 Posted on December 00,0000 in Main

When parents decide to divorce or separate, they are faced with several issues—especially when determining what is best for their children. One issue may be determining which religion their children will follow if the parents have different religious beliefs. Depending on the level of the parents' ability to cooperate with each other after the divorce, the issue of religion can be a simple compromise or a drawn out conflict.

Parents can always come together to make decisions as to which religion the children will follow. Under Illinois law, the agreement the parents enter into can specify a parent's powers, rights, and responsibilities for the religious training of the children. If parents agree to a religion, and present the court with the agreement in a parenting plan, the court is likely to enforce it.

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 Posted on December 00,0000 in Main

Advances in science have given couples great opportunities to overcome fertility issues, and in other cases, opportunities to preserve their chances of having children by freezing embryos. However, when a couple decides to have a child, either through surrogacy or by preserving embryos for future use, they need to consider the consequences of those decisions in the event of a divorce or separation.

Frozen Embryos

There is not a specific Illinois law or court case that outlines what happens to embryos when parents divorce or separate. In fact, this is a question that an Illinois Appellate Court will soon rule; a prospective father wants to stop a prospective mother from using embryos without his consent.

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 Posted on December 00,0000 in Main

Court ordered child support is very helpful to a parent who is primarily raising a child; unfortunately, not all parents fully comply with their obligation to pay the ordered amount. According to one statistic, Illinois children were once owed $3 billion in unpaid back child support. When the money cannot be collected, it can be very frustrating for a parent who depends on these funds to help with their child's daily needs.

Collecting Child Support through Wage Garnishment

In Illinois, one of the primary ways in which child support is collected is through wage garnishment. Under Illinois law, an employer can withhold money from an employee's check if an employee has been ordered by a court to pay child support. The money is then sent to the Illinois State Disbursement Unit for distribution to the parent with a child support order.

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 Posted on December 00,0000 in Main

What can a parent do if he or she believes a former spouse is acting in a manner that is harmful to their child during visitation? Moreover, what if the court orders visitation but a parent is reluctant to take his or her child to the former spouse's home due to certain individuals residing in the home?

In some cases, custodial parents may find themselves concerned about the kind of environment their child may be in when they visit the other parent. A concerned parent may want to protect their child and request supervised visitation. However, it is not always simple to have the court order supervised visitation, and a parent requesting such visitation would have to show by clear and convincing evidence certain factors in order to prevail.

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 Posted on December 00,0000 in Main

In divorce cases, due to the discretion afforded a trial court, the calculation of maintenance can vary significantly from judge to judge and county to county. However, this should change as of January 1, 2015. The Illinois legislature has enacted a new law that impacts how courts will determine maintenance in divorce cases, and it will have a significant impact on future maintenance determinations in Illinois.

In many divorce cases, maintenance calculations have been difficult to ascertain. Judges have often had great discretion in awarding maintenance. However, a new Public Act impacts how courts will award maintenance to couples with a combined income of less than $250,000.

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