If you recently went through a divorce and have minor children from your marriage, you may also have a parenting plan in place that allocates parental responsibilities. Your parenting plan may include the allocation of significant decision-making responsibilities under Illinois law, as well as the allocation of parenting time. There are a wide variety of reasons that one or both parents may want to modify an existing parenting plan. One of the parents, for example, might have started a new job that has significantly different hours and limits that parent’s ability to provide caretaking functions on certain weekends that are currently part of that parent’s parenting time. Or, for example, the child’s extracurricular or school schedule might have changed, meaning that the parents’ schedules will also need to change.

Whatever the reason is for modifying an existing parenting plan, and especially an allocation of parenting time, it is important to know what your options might be. If you have questions or need assistance, one of the experienced DuPage County child custody attorneys at Farooqi & Husain Law Office can speak with you today.

Parents Can Agree to Modify a Parenting Plan

The Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (IMDMA) clarifies that modification of an existing parenting plan is always possible by “stipulation of the parties.” In other words, if one or both of the parents want to modify the existing parenting plan and both parents agree to that modification, they can do so. In general, modifications are generally straightforward and relatively easy when both parties agree to a modification—whether for a parenting plan or another post-divorce order.

There are many different reasons that family law conflicts can arise in DuPage County, from one spouse’s desire to file for divorce to difficulty coming to an agreement over a parenting plan after a marriage has been dissolved. Mediation can be extremely helpful for many families and in many different legal contexts. To be sure, there are benefits to mediation that simply do not exist in a courtroom. However, it can be difficult for Muslim individuals and Muslim families to find a mediation model that fits religious and cultural values, as well as the parties’ religious and cultural upbringings.

As such, it is important to work with an experienced DuPage County family law attorney who has experience serving members of the Muslim community. At Farooqi & Husain Law Office, we are dedicated to providing compassionate and informed counsel to Muslims in Oakbrook Terrace and throughout DuPage County.

Why It Is Important to Consider Mediation for Muslims

When you are considering divorce or already have filed for divorce in DuPage County, you should be thinking about hiring a divorce attorney who can assist with your case. Divorce law in Illinois is complicated, and legal issues arising in a divorce can be particularly contentious. Nearly all matters pertaining to divorce are governed by the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (IMDMA). Divorce attorneys should have experience handling cases similar to yours, such as those involving complex property division, high asset divorce, contentious custody issues, or concerns about maintenance and support. But how do you pick the best attorney for you? A publication from the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML) provides some tips for choosing a divorce lawyer who is best for your case.

Seeking Out Particular Criteria in a Divorce Attorney in Oakbrook Terrace

To pick the best divorce attorney for your case, you should have a sense of some of the particular criteria you are looking for in an advocate. For example:

The holiday season in DuPage County is upon us, and with it comes the looming threat of divorce. Whether you celebrate Christmas or are a member of the Muslim community of Oakbrook Terrace, the general holiday season in the country — from Thanksgiving through the New Year — is often a time in which married couples reevaluate their positions and consider the possibility of making a change as part of a New Year’s resolution. And it is not simply the winter holiday season that results in a spike in divorce rates. A recent divorce study concluded that a majority of divorce filings occur soon after the winter holiday season, and then soon after summer vacations come to an end.

What else should you know about filing for divorce after the holidays?

Divorce Day or the Beginning of the Work Week after the Holiday Season

How often do residents of DuPage County file for divorce, and how frequent are those divorce rates in comparison to the national average? We often hear that a high number of marriages end in divorce, but how often is that actually true? And for marriages that do end in divorce, are there certain predictors that might help us to determine a couple’s risk for divorce? We often hear similar questions from our clients, and we know that residents of Oakbrook Terrace who are thinking about filing for divorce have questions about divorce rates in the area.

We have some statistics to help you understand the facts and figures surrounding divorce in DuPage County, as well as across the country.

Getting the Facts About American Divorce

If you are in the process of getting divorced in Oakbrook Terrace, you already may know about changes to Illinois family laws regarding child support. In brief, under Illinois law (750 ILCS 5/), child support has been determined based on a percentage-based model (or formula) that looks at the number of children for whom support is awarded, and the payor and payee parents are determined by who has primary physical custody of the child. For each child, a certain percentage of the payor parent’s income is the amount of child support awarded. However, as you may know, there have been a number of changes to family and divorce law in Illinois over the last year or so, and one of those changes concerns child custody. Parents are no longer awarded legal and/or physical custody, but instead, those terms have been replaced with “parental responsibilities” and “parenting time.”

Why is this important for child support? Another major change to the law concerns how child support is determined, and the new law will take effect in July 2017. When July 2017 rolls around, how will “parenting time” have an impact on the amount of child support paid?

Understanding the “Income Shares” Model of Child Support