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The average U.S. adult has just over $90,000 in debt. Mortgage loans, auto loans, credit card debt, student loans, and home equity lines of credit are just some of the debts Americans contend with.
If you are getting divorced, you may have many different questions about what happens to your debt. Who is responsible for the mortgage? What if my spouse ran up credit card bills without my knowledge? Does my spouse have to pay my student loans? Will I have to pay my spouse’s debt if we get divorced?
Debts are subject to the same rules as assets during a divorce. This means that debts acquired during the marriage are typically considered marital debts (unless excluded from the marital estate by a prenuptial agreement). Debts acquired before the marriage began are typically considered non-marital debts. For example, if a spouse took out a student loan before the marriage, the loan would likely remain with the spouse who took it out. However, property and debt division can be complicated, and there are a few exceptions to these general rules.
Ending a marriage when there are children involved is complicated emotionally and legally. To make the divorce process even more complicated, divorce laws and terminology describing child custody and divorce frequently change.
Illinois no longer uses the term “sole custody” in official proceedings. Instead, parents will have “parental responsibilities” or decision-making authority over a child. The term “visitation” is also outdated. Instead, parents enjoy “parenting time” with their children.
If you are questioning whether you will have most or all of the parenting time and parental responsibilities after your divorce, you are not alone. This is a common concern among divorcing parents. This blog will explain how custody arrangements are determined during an Illinois divorce.
Sometimes, divorcing parents can discuss their wishes regarding parenting time and parental responsibilities and reach an agreement without the court’s involvement. If you want to assume most or all of the parenting time and parental responsibilities and your spouse agrees to this, you will draft a parenting plan describing the arrangement and submit it to the court for approval.
Divorcing spouses must resolve several crucial issues before they can end their marriage. Marital property and joint debt will need to be divided between the spouses. If the couple had children, they will need to develop a parenting plan and determine the allocation of parenting time and parental responsibilities. If there is a large financial discrepancy between the spouses, they may need to address spousal maintenance.
Some couples are able to negotiate an agreement about these issues without the court's involvement. However, litigation is often necessary in complex and contentious divorce cases. A deposition is one of the many legal proceedings that may take place during divorce litigation.
In divorce cases, a deposition is an oral examination of a spouse or witness. The deponent is placed under oath and asked questions by one or both spouses' attorneys. Depositions are recorded and transcribed so that the court can consider the information at trial. The questions center around the deponent's knowledge of the facts surrounding the disputed issues.
Getting divorced is a painful and often heartbreaking process to go through. However, there is often a silver lining. Divorced individuals are able to move on with their lives and embark on new beginnings. This can include forming a new relationship and eventually deciding to remarry. If you live in the state of Illinois and plan to enter into your second marriage, keep the following considerations in mind.
Most family law attorneys recommend prenuptial agreements for individuals getting married for the second or third time. Prenuptial agreements have multiple financial and legal benefits for both parties. A prenup may be used to protect each party's assets, designate certain assets as non-marital, and provide financial security if the marriage ends in divorce. If you plan to enter into a second marriage, it's wise to consider drafting a prenuptial agreement with your soon-to-be spouse.
If you are a stay-at-home parent in DuPage County, getting divorced can be especially difficult. You might be worried about how you will support yourself and your children financially. You may also worry about how your children will handle the split. There is no way to completely eliminate the stress and difficulty involved in the divorce process, but there are some things you can do to ease the transition.
Going through a divorce can be an incredibly upsetting experience, and it is important to understand that you are not going through it alone. There are so many other parents out there who find themselves in a similar situation, and it can be reassuring to know that you are not the only one struggling to make sense of the process. In addition to legal support from a qualified attorney, seeking out support from parents in similar situations is a great way to gain insight into your new life and understand that you are not alone.
Parents have strong opinions about what is best for their kids. When divorcing parents disagree regarding a child-related legal concern, the situation can become quite acrimonious. Some parents experience conflict because they both believe that they should have all of the parental responsibilities, including the authority to make decisions about their child’s education, medical care, extracurricular activities, or religion. Other divorcing spouses disagree on who should have the majority of the parenting time or how parenting time should be divided between them.
Serious conflict can also arise when one parent believes that the other parent is not capable of providing a safe home for the child and seeks to have that parent’s parenting time restricted in some way. In situations like this, the court may assign a child custody evaluator to investigate the case and offer a professional recommendation to the court.
When spouses can agree on the terms of their divorce and avoid a trial, they can save significant time, money, and frustration. Depending on the circumstances of a divorcing couple's life, the spouses may need to address the division of assets and debts, the allocation of parental responsibilities, parenting time schedules, spousal maintenance terms, and other crucial issues before they can finalize the divorce.
Reaching an agreement between two divorcing spouses is rarely easy. If you are getting divorced and you plan to negotiate an out-of-court agreement with your spouse, the following negotiation techniques may help.
Effective negotiation is difficult under the best circumstances, and it can be especially challenging when the individuals involved are in the middle of a divorce. However, if the spouses are willing to negotiate in good faith, put emotions aside, and work diligently toward an agreement, they may be able to reach a settlement. Before you begin the process, keep the following tips in mind:
Under Illinois law, guardianship gives an individual authority over another person's financial and healthcare decisions. Usually, guardianship is used to care for a minor child or a disabled adult. A guardianship action is initiated by filing a petition for guardianship and attending a hearing. The court evaluates the evidence presented and makes a determination about the proposed guardianship. This process can be lengthy and complex.
An emergency guardianship or temporary guardianship covers the time between when the petition is filed and the final order is entered by the court. It is used if there is an imminent threat of harm to an individual or an individual's estate and there are no reasonable alternatives.
Often, emergency guardianship is needed to protect someone from financial exploitation or abuse. The person seeking emergency guardianship must show that emergency guardianship is needed to protect a person or a person's estate from immediate harm. An emergency guardianship is usually only valid for up to 60 days or until a final guardianship order is entered by the court. During this time, the guardian is responsible for acting in the ward's best interest and protecting his or her health and finances.
In Illinois, divorced parents create a parenting plan that describes how the parents will handle childcare and child-related responsibilities. This parenting plan includes several different elements, including the allocation of parental responsibilities and a parenting time schedule. There are several popular parenting time schedules that help divorced parents share time with their children. An important part of the divorce process is working out a parenting time schedule that works for both parents and the children.
Parents are encouraged to negotiate their own parenting time schedule and formalize that schedule through their parenting plan. However, if parents cannot agree, the court will step in and decide the parenting time schedule for the parties.
No visitation or parenting time schedule is perfect, and the type of schedule you will use depends on your work obligations, the children's school and extracurricular activities, and how close you and the other parent live to one another. The following are some of the more common parenting time schedules that divorced parents in Illinois use:
When it comes to divorce, there are numerous myths floating around. It is easy to get overwhelmed by the amount of information out there. This blog aims to clear up some common misconceptions about the divorce process in Illinois. Here are five myths about divorce that you should know if you’re considering or going through a divorce.
False! In the state of Illinois, either spouse can file for divorce without their partner's consent or agreement. This means that if one party wants a divorce but the other does not, the filing spouse can still move forward with the process. However, keep in mind that filing for a divorce without your spouse's permission will likely make an already difficult situation even more challenging.
This is probably one of the most commonly held myths about divorce in Illinois and other states. People often assume that they need to be separated from their spouse for at least six months before they can file for divorce—but this is not necessarily true. Divorces can be filed immediately after the decision has been made. The only time a couple must separate before a divorce is when a spouse contests that there are irreconcilable differences and tries to prevent divorce from occurring. In a situation like this, being separated for six months guarantees that the grounds for divorce have been met and allows the divorce to proceed.
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