Posted on July 15, 2019 in Property Division

If you are considering divorce in DuPage County, it is important to understand how property division works under the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (IMDMA), and to understand how property can become commingled. When property is commingled, it can be difficult to classify, and the court ultimately may need to classify it as marital property that is divisible even if it has some traces of separate or non-marital property. We will say more about property division in order to explain the complications of commingled property. If you have questions, a DuPage County divorce attorney can assist you.

Classifying Marital and Non-Marital (or Separate) Property

The first step in dividing marital property in a DuPage County divorce is for the court to classify all property as marital or nonmarital (or separate) property. Generally speaking, all property acquired prior to the date of the marriage will be classified as separate property and will not be subject to division, while most property acquired after the date of marriage will be classified as marital property and will be subject to division. However, there are some exceptions to the classification of marital property. For example, even though the following types of property may have been acquired after the date of marriage, the court likely will classify these types of property as separate property and will not divide them:

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 Posted on June 29, 2019 in Family Law

No parent in DuPage County wants to face a situation in which they cannot afford to make their regular child support payments. However, there are numerous situations that can arise to make it difficult or even impossible for a parent to contribute his or her portion of the child support obligation. For example, if a parent gets hurt and cannot work, that parent may be hospitalized for a month or longer, preventing that parent from earning money and contributing to the support of the child. Or, a parent might lose his or her job. If you lose your job, can you have your child support obligation modified?

In short, the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (IMDMA) allows parents to modify child support in some circumstances, but it is important to understand how child support can be modified and what limitations might exist. If you need to modify child support, you should reach out to a DuPage County child support attorney as soon as you can.

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 Posted on June 17, 2019 in Child Custody

If you are considering divorce or currently are in the process of getting divorced and have minor children from your marriage, we know that you probably have many questions about child custody in DuPage County. If you have spoken with a family law attorney, or if you have a family member or friend who recently got divorced, you likely know that Illinois does not use the term “child custody” any longer. Courts do not award legal custody or physical custody when parents get divorced, and accordingly Illinois law no longer use the term “visitation.” Instead, you may know that courts in the state now use terms that include “parental responsibilities” and “parenting time” to refer to who makes legal decisions about the child’s upbringing and the amount of time that a parent physically spends with the child.

Yet these new terms can get confusing. We often work with clients who want to know: what is the difference between parental responsibilities and parenting time? In short, parenting time is part of the overarching “parental responsibilities,” but we will explain more about how each of these terms is defined and used under the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (IMDMA). If you need help with your case, a DuPage County child custody lawyer can speak with you today.

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 Posted on June 01, 2019 in Child Custody

What happens when a parent in Illinois wants to relocate with his or her child after a divorce? After you go through a divorce and begin sharing parental responsibilities with your former spouse, it is important to remember that unexpected events may arise that necessitate a modification to your parenting plan or your allocation judgment. One of the reasons that you may seek to modify your parenting plan or allocation judgment is that you want to relocate with your child.

How difficult is relocation, and what do you need to know about how it is handled under Illinois law?

Defining Relocation Under the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act

How far away do you want to move with your child? Whether you have a majority of parenting time or share parenting time nearly equally with the other parent, do you even need to make any changes to your current parenting plan if you are moving to another house or apartment? The answers to these questions depend upon whether your planned move would actually be defined under the IMDMA as “relocation.”

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 Posted on May 18, 2019 in Spousal Support

Anyone who is going through a divorce in DuPage County likely has questions and concerns about the financial aspects of divorce. More specifically, you may be wondering: will I need to pay spousal maintenance, or will I be eligible to receive spousal maintenance? In the event spousal maintenance is awarded, most couples in DuPage County will have spousal maintenance calculated accorded to guidelines based on income. While courts can deviate from these guidelines in some circumstances, the guidelines are a good bet for calculating a likely spousal maintenance award.

Determining Whether a Spousal Maintenance Award Is Appropriate

Before you begin calculating a likely spousal maintenance award, it is important to understand that everyone is not simply entitled to spousal maintenance. Under Section 504 of the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (IMDMA), before the court ever gets to the point of calculating a spousal maintenance award, it first needs to make a finding as to whether a maintenance award is appropriate. To do so, it considers a wide variety of factors listed in the statute. Examples of some of those factors include but are not limited to:

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 Posted on April 30, 2019 in Islamic Divorce

Going through a divorce is difficult under any circumstances, but the prospect of property division can be particularly complex when there is a business that is either partially or entirely marital property. Under the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (IMDMA), marital property includes both assets and debts from the marriage, and it is distributed to the spouses according to the theory of equitable distribution. Classifying property can be one of the more complicated aspects of property distribution, but valuation can also be extremely complex. If you own a business with your spouse, or if your spouse alone owns a business or is in business with other people, it is likely that at least part of the business will be classified as marital property.

When a business is classified as marital property, it must be valued. While valuation should be straightforward, different people can have different ideas about the value of a business. The experienced Oakbrook Terrace divorce attorneys at our firm regularly assist members of the Muslim community with complex asset division issues, including business valuation. We can assist you with your case, and in the meantime, we want to provide you with more information about business valuation during divorce.

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 Posted on April 15, 2019 in Property Division

Whether you are in the early stages of considering divorce or already have filed, it may be time to consider working with a forensic accountant who can assist with asset division. Financial issues often are among the most contentious ones in any DuPage County divorce case, and financial matters can be especially complicated and controversial in high net worth divorces where there are complex assets that will need to be identified, classified, and potentially distributed between the spouses. In some of the most difficult cases, one of the spouses is the primary breadwinner and goes to great lengths to hide marital assets in order to prevent them from being divided in the divorce.

No matter what your financial situation, a forensic accountant may be able to work with your DuPage County divorce lawyer to help with your case.

What Does a Forensic Accountant Do?

If you have never worked with a forensic accountant before and do not usually handle complex financial matters, thinking about hiring a forensic accountant can feel puzzling. You might be asking yourself: what does a forensic accountant do, and do I really need to hire one? According to a publication from the American Bar Association (ABA), more people should work with forensic accountants in their divorces given the benefits.

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 Posted on March 30, 2019 in 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 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 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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