Posted on March 30, 2019 in Illinois Family Law

You might have heard that approximately 50 percent of marriages in the U.S. end up in divorce, but that the statistic has declined in recent years. Or you may have heard that millennials are getting married at much lower rates than people in older generations. Everyone seems to know something about divorce, to have some idea about supposed statistics surrounding divorce, or to be able to identify interesting facts about the divorce process. But what do you really know about divorce? We have collated information from a wide variety of sources to bring you some surprising statistics about divorce.

Divorce Rates in the U.S.

What are the facts when it comes to divorce rates in the U.S.? The following represent some statistics that you may find surprising:

• Approximately 42 percent to 45 percent of marriages now end in divorce;
• Fewer millennials are getting divorced, but at the same time fewer millennials are getting married;

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 Posted on March 16, 2019 in Illinois Family Law

Family law issues in the U.S. can be especially complicated for Muslims, whether they were born and raised in the U.S. or are recent immigrants. For instance, many Muslims in DuPage County have ties to non-Western cultures and traditions that often are seen as being in conflict with Western values that often are seen as more prevalent in the U.S. Yet more American Muslims are filing for divorce than ever before.

To be sure, it is important to recognize that many American Muslims are filing for divorce at higher rates. These divorces highlight a growing number of Muslims in the United States deciding to end their marriages for various reasons.

Rates of Divorce Among American Muslims

Currently, the overall divorce rate in the U.S. is right around 45 percent. The divorce rate in the country has declined since the 1970s and 1980s, but it still remains relatively high. In Canada, the divorce rate is at about 37 percent—less than the overall rate in the U.S., but still comparatively high. How does the Muslim divorce rate in the U.S. and Canada compare? In short, there is not a lot of research that has been conducted on this topic, and as such, there is very little data. Back in 1990, one study suggested that the divorce rate among Muslims in North America was just over 30 percent, which was less than the average divorce rates in the U.S. and Canada but significantly higher than divorce rates among Muslim communities in other parts of the world.

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 Posted on February 21, 2019 in Illinois Family Law

Making the decision to get divorced is never easy no matter what the circumstances might be. Depending upon the specific facts of your case, the divorce process can take months before property division occurs and the court can issue an allocation judgment concerning parental responsibilities. If you are thinking about filing for divorce, you may be asking yourself: should I file for divorce first? Keep in mind that, regardless of whether you are the one who files the petition for divorce, the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (IMDMA) will govern the process for your divorce.

While the outcome may be similar whether you are the petitioner (the spouse filing for divorce) or the respondent (the spouse being served divorce papers after the other spouse files first) in an Illinois divorce, there may be some advantages to being the petitioner. In other words, the spouse who files for divorce first may see some benefits over the spouse who is ultimately served with divorce papers.

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 Posted on February 16, 2019 in Islamic Divorce

Many DuPage County residents realize that their marriages are not working out and that it may be time to separate from a spouse. For most people, this results in a decision to file for divorce. Yet we also speak with many people who want to know what the difference is between divorce and annulment, and whether they may be eligible for an annulment instead of a divorce. To be sure, there is a common misconception that annulment can be an alternative to divorce and that it can be quicker and easier.

It is important to understand that annulment and divorce simply are not interchangeable. In the most basic terms, a divorce is the only way to dissolve a legal marriage, while an annulment is how two parties would officially dissolve a marriage that was never legal in the first place. We will say more about how these distinctions work.

Annulment: When a Marriage Is Invalid

Annulment is a process that is only possible when a marriage is invalid. While the law in Illinois concerning annulment falls under the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (IMDMA), it cannot be used when a couple is legally married.

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 Posted on January 29, 2019 in Business Law

The start of the New Year is an important time to revisit the financial and legal documents governing your business. Depending upon the type of business you currently own and the structure of your company, reviewing your business documents and updating them could involve many different tasks. At the start of 2018, you should have reviewed your partnership agreement and the partnership audit rules that took effect on January 1, 2018, as part of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015. Whether or not you reviewed your business documents at this same time last year, it is important to work with an experienced DuPage business law attorney to review your company’s agreements, financial materials, and legal considerations for 2019.

Reviewing and Amending a Partnership Agreement

If your business is a partnership, the New Year is a good time to review your partnership agreement and to amend it if necessary. If all partners agree to amend the partnership agreement, then an amendment is possible at any time under the Uniform Partnership Act (805 ILCS 206/) in Illinois.

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 Posted on January 14, 2019 in Illinois Family Law

When you have made the decision to file for divorce — or you have at least made the decision to speak with an attorney about the possibility of filing for divorce—the next steps can feel daunting. For most residents of DuPage County, the first step is to schedule a consultation with a divorce lawyer. Once you have scheduled an initial consultation, you will likely be wondering what you need to bring with you when you meet with a divorce attorney for the first time. While preparing for a divorce consultation can feel intimidating, you should keep in mind that this consultation is for you so that you can get a sense of the attorney’s role in the process, whether you want to work with this particular divorce lawyer, and what major issues you are likely to face in your divorce.

The family law advocates at Farooqi & Husain Law Office have years of experience assisting members of the Muslim community in DuPage County with divorce. Recognizing the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (IMDMA) will govern your divorce proceedings, the following is a checklist to consider when preparing for your divorce consultation.

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 Posted on December 28, 2018 in Estate Planning

As we approach the New Year, all families in DuPage County should recognize that it is the perfect time to consider estate planning issues or to review your estate planning documents. You may have developed your estate planning documents earlier this year, or you may have drafted estate planning materials years ago without considering updating those materials until now. Since you last considered estate planning more generally or created documents, laws have changed and your own personal circumstances may have changed.

We want to discuss some important estate planning issues that you should consider revisiting for 2019. No matter what changes you need to make, an Oakbrook Terrace estate planning lawyer can assist you.

New Tax Law Implications for Estate Planning

The first major change to the law that could have implications for your estate planning strategy is the new tax law that took effect in 2018. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) raised the federal estate tax exemption. Between 2017 and 2018, the estate and gift tax exemption went up to $5.6 million per person from $5.49 million. As such, starting in 2018, a person can leave up to $5.6 million to family members without it being subject to a federal estate tax. Married couples who jointly leave an inheritance to their heirs can double the amount, meaning that up to $11.2 million can be exempt from federal estate tax. The federal tax exemption does not result in a change to the Illinois exemption, which is $4 million for an individual.

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 Posted on December 17, 2018 in Illinois Family Law

Many families in DuPage County may realize that, once the holidays come to an end, more friends and neighbors are filing for divorce. Indeed, divorce is so prevalent after the holiday season in the U.S. that many commentators have begun to refer to the Monday after the holiday season ends as “Divorce Day,” or the Monday after Christmas break when the flood of divorce emails clogs attorney inboxes. To be sure, divorce filings at the start of the New Year jump by nearly one-third. And this is not only the case in the U.S. Divorce lawyers in the U.K. also see a spike in divorce filings at the start of January.

What is leading so many people to divorce after the holidays? In short, divorce may have notable seasonal peaks, and there are a couple of different reasons for these spikes in divorce filings. A study conducted by researchers at the University of Washington noted these salient rises in divorce filings at two times of the year and discussed the reasoning behind these trends.

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 Posted on November 30, 2018 in Spousal Support

As you may know, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA)—better known as Trump tax reform—will change the way in which spousal maintenance affects taxes. In short, after the new year, the spouse making alimony payments will have to pay more money in taxes, while the spouse receiving alimony payments will have to pay less in taxes. However, a new Illinois law considers these federal tax law changes and makes it so that the spouse making payments is not as adversely affected as she or he otherwise might have been. We will say more about how spousal maintenance is taxed, and then we will talk about the calculations for spousal maintenance after 2019 when both laws (federal and state) will take effect.

How Spousal Maintenance and Taxation Currently Works

Currently, under Illinois law (750 ILCS 5/504), here is how taxation works when it comes to spousal maintenance: the spouse who makes alimony payments (the payor) can deduct the spousal maintenance payments from his or her income prior to paying taxes, while the spouse who receives alimony payments (the payee) must pay taxes on the spousal maintenance payments in the same way that the spouse would pay taxes on other types of “income.”

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 Posted on November 16, 2018 in Child Custody

As families that have newly gone through a divorce in DuPage County know, the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (IMDMA) was amended relatively recently to do away with the terms of “ child custody” and “visitation.” Amendments to the law changed those terms to “parental responsibilities” and “parenting time,” which reflect the human relationships that exist between parents and their kids and the differences in family structures.

With those changes to the law, Illinois legislators recognized the need for flexibility in allocating important decision-making tasks about a child’s upbringing, as well as flexibility in terms of regular parenting time or spending time with the child and providing caretaking functions. Currently, the IMDMA says the court can take into account a number of different factors in allocating parental responsibilities, which include parenting time.

However, a proposed bill aims to change the presumptions about parenting time in the state. If House Bill 4113 were to pass, courts would have to begin from the presumption that equal parenting time is the best option for all families. We will say more about the potential effects of this bill and what it could mean for different families in DuPage County.

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