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Common Situations in Which Filing for Bankruptcy May Be Your Best Option
Bankruptcy is designed as a way of helping honest people who are struggling to pay their debts. It can give you a fresh start at managing your budget and spending while allowing you to get established on a more secure footing. The details involved in each individual case are unique, but there are certain types of situations in which filing for bankruptcy makes the most sense.
When to Consider Bankruptcy
There are a number of common scenarios in which bankruptcy may be the best available option. These include:
1. When you are a small business owner and overwhelmed with debt. Starting, promoting, and maintaining a business requires both time and money. When outstanding debts threaten your ability to operate, filing for bankruptcy can provide the relief you need, and may even help keep you from going under.
2. When dealing with a job loss. Even those who work for large, secure employers can find themselves facing sudden layoffs and other types of job losses. Bankruptcy can help protect you from creditor harassment and alleviate debts, providing some much-needed relief while you look for a new job.
Reducing the Risk of Contention in Your Illinois Divorce
Divorce can be an emotionally trying process, full of sadness, anger, and regret. Unfortunately, letting those feelings run the proceedings can cause serious issues for everyone involved. Learn how reducing the level of contention in your Illinois divorce can mitigate against such issues, and discover how an experienced divorce lawyer can assist you through the complex legal process.
Understanding the Potential Implications of a Contentious Divorce
Contentious in divorce can drive up your stress levels, which can increase the odds of you experiencing health issues during the proceedings and long after. For example, studies have indicated that extreme stress in divorce may increase one’s risk of developing depression and heart-related health conditions. The extended amount of time that it typically takes to complete a contentious divorce can further increase the risk of such complications.
Another major concern in contentious divorces is the cost; arguments during negotiations can rack up legal fees, appeals in court add to the fees, and certain assets or debts may cause issues for either of the parties during the proceedings. These are not the only ways that a contentious divorce may cost you, however; high-contention divorces often lead to vengeful spouses that attempt to hide money or run up debts under your name.
Ways Divorce Can Negatively Impact Your Credit (and How to Mitigate Against Them)
Divorce, in and of itself, does not typically cause credit issues, but events and situations that arise during the proceedings could negatively impact your credit. Thankfully, divorcing parties can mitigate against potential credit problems that may occur during and after their divorce proceedings. Learn how, and discover what an experienced divorce attorney can do to improve the overall outcome of your case.
You May Need to Refinance the Family Home
If you and your spouse have agreed that you will keep the family home and that it should be only in your name, you will likely need to refinance. On the one hand, refinancing removes your spouse, which takes away any rights they might have otherwise had to the home. On the other, it typically requires a hard hit to your credit report, which can decrease your score. It may also result in a higher debt-to-income ratio for you. Consider carefully whether these issues are worth keeping the home over, or if it might be more prudent to sell the house and split the settlement.
Helping Your Adult Children Cope with Divorce
Gray divorce – one that occurs when the couple is nearing retirement – has been on the rise for a while now. Experts say there are several reasons for the trend, but the main contributor is that, with no job and no children, couples have more time alone together. In that extra time together, many are finding they are not happy or no longer in love, or that maybe they stayed together out of necessity, or for the sake of the children. In this scenario, the decision to divorce is not altogether bad, but there are some drawbacks.
One of the biggest is issues is that, sometimes, parents with adult children forget that divorce still has an impact. In fact, one college counselor recently spoke out about how divorce was impacting students on campus. Adult children with kids of their own can feel the stress of your divorce as well. Learn how you can help them cope, and discover what an experienced attorney can do to assist you through the complex legal process that lies ahead.
Coping with the Pain of Infidelity During Your Illinois Divorce
While divorce is, at its core, a legal process, one cannot deny its emotional aspects. Infidelity, whether physical or emotional, can heighten those feelings and further complicate the process – but it does not have to. Instead, you can learn to cope with the pain of your betrayal while still acting in a diplomatic way in the legal proceedings of your case. Learn how, and discover what an experienced attorney can do to help in the following sections.
Understanding How Emotion Can Complicate Divorce
The end of a marriage can be immensely painful for all parties, and infidelity often strengthens the blow. Yet, in divorce, emotion can be your worst enemy. Capable of clouding your judgment, it can cause you to become retaliatory, which may drive up your legal fees and court costs. High levels of contention in a divorce may also impact any children that you and your spouse share. As such, it is highly recommended that you attempt to remove as much of the emotion from the legal process of your divorce as humanly possible.
What is Chapter 13 Bankruptcy?
Having to file for bankruptcy can be devastating. And while it is a serious issue, there are several facts that many individuals do not know about bankruptcy as a whole. There are two notable types of bankruptcy: Chapter 7 and Chapter 13. To fully understand bankruptcy, it is very important to understand the differences.
What is Chapter 13 Bankruptcy?
Chapter 13 bankruptcy, also referred to as a “wage earner’s plan,” gives individuals with regular income an opportunity to create a plan to pay off their debts.
How Long Does the Process for Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Last?
Debtors make a repayment plan for the individuals filing for this type of bankruptcy to pay off their debts within three to five years. The debtor’s monthly income exceeds the state median, and then the plan will generally last five years. However, if the debtor’s income is less than the state median, the plan will last three years, unless a longer period "for cause” is approved by the court.
Preparing for a Divorce in the New Year
As the holidays come to an end and families move into the New Year, many are considering how they can make positive changes to improve their lives. For some, that may mean finally moving forward with a divorce. Perhaps you have been thinking about it for a while and were hoping things would get better, or maybe you wanted to wait until the stress of the holidays passed. Either way, you can now begin to prepare to move forward with this new phase of your life. Start by using the following tips and then contact an experienced attorney for assistance.
Forgo the Discussion for Now
While you may want to discuss the impending divorce with your spouse, now may not be the time. Spouses can sometimes become retaliatory immediately after learning that a divorce is on the horizon. Others can panic about their financial future, which may cause them to try and hide money from you. Either way, it is often best if you can gather the information you need before you disclose your plans to file for divorce.
Enforcing a Child Support Order When Your Ex Refuses to Pay
While most parents will go to considerable lengths to ensure their child has everything they need, there are those who seem to think of their financial obligations as voluntary. Maybe they simply want to punish the parent who receives support and does not care that it is also harming the child, or perhaps they consider their wants more important. Either way, the failure to pay court-ordered child support can have dire consequences, both for the receiving parent and the child. Thankfully, there are some strategies that you can employ to collect your arrears. Learn more, including how an experienced attorney can assist, with help from the following information.
Garnishments and Property Liens
When an obligated parent has the funds or assets to pay their arrears but refuses to do so, receiving parents can seek a wage garnishment or a lien on any property that the obligor owns. If the parent does not have any wages and is collecting unemployment, the receiving parent may request that child support be withheld from their unemployment benefits. One can also attempt to have the obligor’s tax refund intercepted if they owe arrears. Alternatively, if the parent does not have any real property but has a substantial amount in their retirement benefits, the receiving parent may seek an order to have the funds pulled from the retirement account with a Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO).
Four Warning Signs That Could Indicate Parental Alienation in Your Divorce
In most healthy relationships, parents will work together during a divorce to protect the best interests of their children. They communicate, either with one another directly or through their attorneys, and are sensitive to the feelings and needs of their child when negotiating the details of their parenting plan, especially when it comes to the other parent.
Sadly, this is not the experience that every family has during divorce. Instead, one parent ends up fighting against the other, asserting their parental rights in hopes that they can still preserve the bond they have with their child. These parents are often victims of parental alienation. Why is this problematic, how can you recognize it in your divorce, and what can you do if you suspect that it is happening to you? The following information explains further.
Defining Parental Alienation
Seen most often in high conflict divorces and separations, parental alienation is defined as a set of behaviors that one parent uses to erode the bond that the child has with the other parent. Manipulation and bullying, sometimes at extreme levels, are the most commonly used tactics, and they can have serious, life-long consequences for the child, especially if it is left unaddressed. It can rob a child of the warm and loving relationship they once had with the alienated parent, and it may even increase the child’s odds of a mental or psychological disorder.
Second Divorces and Blended Families – What Every Step-Parent Should Know
Although divorce rates in America have declined over most age groups throughout the last several years, the rate is still high enough to create the perfect conditions for large blended families. Sadly, the risk of divorce is much higher for those in their subsequent marriages. If one does occur, the new family unit could be at risk of a breakdown – and that can be especially damaging to children who have already experienced a divorce. Learn how you can protect your children and stepchildren from the negative effects of a second divorce, and discover how an experienced attorney may be able to help.
The Legal Complexities of Blended Families
While some stepparents legally adopt their stepchildren, this is not always an option. That is because the biological parent retains their rights unless they give them up voluntarily or have had them severed by the courts. In most instances, this is a positive thing. It can increase the chances that the child will have a continued relationship with both of their biological parents, which can reduce their chances of a maladjustment issue after a divorce.
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