Recent Blog Posts
Types of Orders of Protection and How to Modify Them
Obtaining an order of protection is one of the most helpful actions that Illinois victims of domestic violence can take. An order of protection legally prohibits your abuser from having contact with you and other victims. Forms of domestic violence include:
- Physical abuse;
- Harassment;
- Intimidation; and
- Obstruction of personal liberties.
A domestic violence incident may be an emergency for the victim, but obtaining and keeping an order of protection requires following a legal process. The steps are meant to provide immediate and lasting protection for domestic violence victims, while also protecting the accused from false or unfair claims.
Types of Orders
An order of protection determines who the offender may have contact with and may require that support payments be made to the victim. However, a court will not impose any long-term conditions on the accused until it rules on the case in a hearing. At the same time, the law recognizes that victims need immediate relief from their suspected abusers. There are three types of orders of protection that are used at different stages of the legal process:
Forgiveness Heals After Your Divorce
Before your divorce has even finished, you may feel anxious to move forward with your life. The end of your marriage was painful, but your life as a newly single person fills you with optimism. However, the anger and hurt from your marriage can linger long after your divorce. You can try to forget your resentment, but that is not the same as moving past it. Divorce therapists believe forgiveness is one of the most powerful healing tools for divorcees. Before starting a new relationship, you may need to forgive your former spouse for the end of your previous relationship.
Reasons for Resentment
You are unlikely to reach the point of forgiveness without first recognizing your resentment. You may have a valid reason to be angry at your former spouse if he or she was involved in:
- Infidelity;
- Physical or verbal abuse;
- Criminal activity; or
Challenging Paternity Fraud in Court
When a child is born out of wedlock, establishing legal paternity is consequential for the father, mother and child. The legal father may need to provide child support payments to the mother but also has the right to request some allocation of parental responsibilities. Because DNA testing is not required to establish paternity, some men discover they are not the biological father of the children they are legally responsible for. The false paternity may have been an honest mistake by both legal parents, but mothers may also mislead men into believing they are fathers. Paternity fraud can be devastating because the man:
- Has been providing monthly child support payments; and
- May have developed a paternal relationship with the child.
Men in Illinois can challenge their legal paternity based on fraud but must meet a two-year deadline and provide convincing evidence.
Tips for Co-Parenting during the Summer Months
Summer is right around the corner and for many families that mean filling the calendar up with vacations, day trips, family outings, and other fun activities. For divorced families, however, summer can also cause stress and strife between co-parents who are trying to make their summer plans with their children included, however, there are steps that they can take to help ensure a fun and no-stress summer for everyone.
Parenting Time Agreement
Spring is a good time to look over the parenting agreement that the court approved when custody was determined. Check and see if the agreement requires each of you to give the other a certain amount of notice when it comes to vacations and/or other events. If you do have plans which go beyond the boundaries set in the agreement, consult with the other parent before going ahead and finalizing those plans.
Understanding Illinois' New Child Support Law
Illinois is schedule to enact a new child support law on July 1 that will switch the state to a income shares model for calculating support payments. The state currently uses a percentage of obligor net income model, but income shares is considered a more equitable method. The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services is responsible for creating the guidelines for the new child support model, but is not required to complete it by the time the law goes into effect. From the language of the law, divorcing parents can expect several changes in how child support payments will be determined.
New Formula
Illinois’ current child support system requires a parent to pay a set percentage of his or her net income, based on the number of children being supported. The new system eliminates that percentages scale in favor of a formula that takes into account both parents’ incomes:
IRS Rules Regarding Spousal Support
The month of April may signal the arrival of spring, but it is also the deadline for most people to file their taxes. For couples who have gone through or are in the midst of a divorce, there are several issues which may come up that could have a significant issue on federal income taxes. One of those issues is spousal support, and unlike child support, spousal support is considered to be taxable income according to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Under the tax laws, any payment that meets the falling criteria is considered to be spousal support and therefore, the receiving spouse needs to claim it as income on their tax return:
- The spouses will be filing separate, not joint, tax returns;
- The payments made by one spouse to the other are “cash” payments. It is important to note that payments can be made via checking account, bank check, or money order;
Life after Divorce: Moving Forward
An Illinois woman’s social media photos that depict her celebrating her divorce have garnered international media attention. The woman hired the original photographer who took her wedding photographs five years ago to document the celebration, which included setting her wedding dress on fire. The woman, who said she was with her ex for a total of 10 years and who she shares a 6-year-old daughter with, said the experience made her “feel free.”
Although setting your wedding dress on fire may feel like an extreme choice to you, there are other steps you can take to help you move forward after a divorce.
Recognize Your Own Value
Many times, people who go through a divorce feel as if they have failed and question their own worth and how much they really do have to offer. Make a list of all your good qualities and read that list on a daily basis. Keep doing this until you really believe what you are reading.
Non-Custodial Grandparent and Great-Grandparent Visitation Rights
The state of Illinois has updated a number of laws regarding visitation rights. One of these changes that have been in effect since January 1, 2017, is House Bill 5656. This new law states that the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) is now required to make a reasonable effort to accommodate and grant visitation privileges to non-custodial grandparents and/or great-grandparents of a child who is in the care and custody of the DCFS.
The Department is now responsible for specific criteria when determining whether to grant visitation, such as:
- The DCFS should try and consider whether or not the child would like to visit with their grandparent or great-grandparent.
- They should determine the child's maturity level. The child may not be able to express how they really feel if they are too young to know the entirety of the situation.
The Emotional Effects of Divorce
Divorce is one of the most stressful life experiences. People going through divorce may withdraw from social circles, feel disappointment and rejection, and lose self-esteem. All of these feelings, when coupled with financial and child custody issues, create an extremely stressful time for someone going through a divorce.
On the Holmes-Rahe Stress Inventory Scale, divorce ranks second only after the death of a spouse. Stressful events ranking lower than divorce on the scale include detention in jail, the death of a close family member and major illness or injury. Stress affects mental and physical health in a pronounced way.
Physical Health Effects
As to physical effects, divorced or widowed people have 20 percent more chronic health conditions than married people. Chronic health conditions include heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.
Debt Division in Divorce
When a couple decides to divorce, it is not only assets that must be divided during the proceedings, but also any marital debt that has accrued. Like with assets, a family court will generally divide debts along equitable lines, meaning that the person who makes more or who has more assets will often be tasked with managing more debt, whether they originally incurred it or not. It may set your mind at ease to better understand the rationales judges use to make such determination, so you can know if you are being unfairly saddled with too much debt.
Illinois Courts’ Common Rationales
When discussing marital assets and debts, equity is the watchword - Illinois is an equitable distribution state, as opposed to a community property state, which means that the courts will divide both marital assets and debts according to each spouse’s ability to pay and the income they make. Generally, it is the fairest approach, as it ensures that each debt is assigned to the person who is most likely to pay it.
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