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Should My Fiancé and I Sign a Premarital Agreement?
Premarital agreements, often call prenuptial agreements, are contracts entered into by two people planning to be married. Although the agreement does not take effect until marriage, it must be prepared and signed well in advance of the wedding.
With the increasing prevalence of divorce, more and more couples are choosing to record their intentions in this way, especially if they are marrying later in life, when they have built up more assets, or if they have been married before and have children from a former union, whose inheritance they wish to keep intact.
The Elements of a Binding Premarital Agreement
Most premarital agreements spell out the assets and debts of the spouses-to-be, and set a plan for how property will be shared once they are married, and later, if they are separated through death or divorce. Often, a premarital agreement will address whether alimony or maintenance will be paid by either spouse in the event of a divorce.
Taking Your Child Out of Illinois
Are you planning a trip with your child that would take you beyond state lines? If you are separated from your child’s parent, and you have a custody agreement, there are a few steps that you must take before you can depart.
First, you are obligated under Illinois family law to inform the other parent any time you travel out of the state with your child. You should share information about the length of the trip, where you will be staying, and how you can be contacted.
If the other parent is notified and agrees, you may take your child out-of-state for a short trip or vacation. However, if they do not agree, you would have to get permission from a judge, called an Order of Removal.
Moving Out of State
If you plan on leaving Illinois permanently to move to another state or country, you will need to get an order from a judge, even if the other parent agrees. However, if you and your ex agreed to allow your child to be removed from Illinois when you signed your marital settlement agreement, this permission will apply to the present circumstances, and you will not need new permission from a judge.
Liability for Your Spouse's Bills After Separation
If you and your husband or wife have separated, and your ex is claiming that you need to help pay his or her bills, beware. Under Illinois law, you are liable for any family expenses incurred by your spouse before you separated. On the other hand, once you are divorced, you cannot be held legally responsible for new expenses that your ex-husband or ex-wife incurs. However, if you are separated but not divorced, any bills that your spouse owes could become your responsibility.
Types of Bills you Could be Liable For
The Illinois Rights of Married Persons Act makes spouses liable for “the expenses of the family and of the education of the children.” Even if you did not agree to an expense, authorize it, or even know about it, you can be held accountable for it, as long as it was incurred for the benefit of the family.
Adoption by a Stepparent
If you have a child from a previous relationship, and you are now married to someone else, you might be considering having your spouse officially adopt your child. Such a step can bring stability and legal force to one of the most important relationships in your child’s life.
Under Illinois law, adoption by a stepparent is considered a “related adoption,” which can be completed in a much more straightforward manner than adoption by a non-related person (750 ILCS 50/2). Your spouse would not need to get a criminal background check, unlike for adoptions involving non-related parties. However, you would still need to have a guardian ad litem appointed. A guardian ad litem is a lawyer who represents your child and his or her best interests, and their role is to assess you and your spouse and recommend a course of action for a family law judge who is presiding over the adoption case.
What Constitutes “Income” for Child Support Purposes?
NOTE: As of July 2017, the law governing child support in Illinois has changed. Please see our Child Support page for more information.
If you ask an individual person what his or her income is, he or she would likely give you the amount of his or her salary. While that is, of course, income, it would not be the only number included within the term income for child support calculation purposes. What payments, then, will be counted as income for a non-custodial parent’s child support calculations? The Statute
Section 505 of the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act deals with child support and the accompanying calculations. The statute clarifies that when calculating child support amounts, the statutory percentages must be applied to the payor’s (non-custodial parent who will be responsible for paying the child support) net income. The statute then goes on to state that net income is defined as “the total of all income from all sources” less the specific deductions listed.
Contribution to Nonmarital Property: What is It and How Can It Affect Me?
Aside from child custody issues, property division can be one of the most contentious issues in a divorce. Illinois courts apply principles of equitable distribution when determining which party should end up with what property at the end of the divorce. The first step during the property division process is generally classifying property as marital or nonmarital. The issue of contribution, however, can complicate this process during the very first step.
What is It?
The issue of contribution in regards to property division involves the situation where one party adds value to a particular piece of property that the other spouse claims to be nonmarital. Think of the following example:
The wife inherits her parents’ beautiful home in Naperville while single. Years later, the wife marries her husband and he moves into his wife’s inherited home. The husband, a carpenter by trade, makes substantial improvements to the home by remodeling the kitchen and basement. When the parties decide to divorce, the wife claims she should walk away with her home because it was inherited prior to the marriage and is therefore nonmarital.
Can A Court Really Order My Spouse to Help Pay My Attorney's Fees?
While it is vital to hire an attorney to help guide you through a dissolution of marriage, the idea of paying that attorney’s fees can be daunting. At the beginning of a divorce, it is very common for one spouse to not have a significant paying job outside of the home. Even in marriages where this is not the case, it may be that one spouse primarily controlled the household finances. For someone who was never the primary wage earner or never had much to do with the marital finances, the thought of paying his or her own attorney’s fees may be especially scary. Fortunately, there are laws in Illinois that allow trial courts to order one party to contribute to the other’s attorney’s fees under certain circumstances.
The Law
As a general rule, each party to the dissolution is responsible for paying his or her own attorneys fees. However, trial courts are allowed to order one party to pay, or at least contribute to, the other’s attorney’s fees at the end of the divorce in certain situations. In determining whether or not they should award the payment of attorney’s fees by the non-client spouse, courts are told that they should consider the following:
Interfaith Marriages and Divorces: The Impact on the Children
Studies show that interfaith marriages are happening much more frequently than in the past. With increasing interfaith marriages often, unfortunately, comes interfaith divorce. Although many aspects of divorce are the same regardless of the religions of the spouses, one particularly unique issue in interfaith divorce becomes the religion of the children.
Even if one of the spouses converts to the religion of the other prior to or during the marriage, it is not uncommon for that converting spouse to return to their original religion upon a divorce. This situation raises serious complications for the children of the divorce, even if the parents had previously agreed to raise their children in one particular belief system. Think of the following real world example:
Bob, raised Jewish, meets Sue, who was raised Catholic. Before marrying, Sue converts to Judaism. The two have three children, whom they agree to bring up Jewish. When the parents divorce years later, Sue returns to the Catholic religion. Soon, an issue develops as to what services the children are/are not allowed to attend on the weekend with their respective parents.
Children With Special Needs and Child Support: How is the Situation Different?
Generally, the duty to pay child support terminates when the child turns 18 or graduates high school, whichever happens last. The law is structured this way because there is presumption that after a child turns 18 or graduates from high school, he or she would be capable of supporting him or herself. However, under certain circumstances the legal duty to pay child support can continue past these two occurrences. One common situation where child support continues is when there is a child with disabilities.
The reason behind continued child support for a disabled child over the age of majority stems from the simple fact that the child is unable, for whatever disability, to support him or herself. Because of this, the legal and financial responsibility often falls on the disabled adult’s parents to continue the support. Unfortunately, disabled adults often have unique financial demands – like tuition for specialized educational institutions or excessive health care costs.
What Happens When a Family Business is Involved?
Property division is often a hotly contested issue of divorce. When a family business is involved, property division becomes even more complex and often much more contested. The parties must establish what the business is actually worth and ultimately, what to do with it.
Remember that under Illinois law, property acquired during the marriage (absent property acquired by gift, inheritance, or other special circumstances) is considered marital property subject to the equitable division of the courts. Any business started by either of the parties during the marriage would therefore qualify as marital property.
Valuation of the Business
The first step to including a family business in a property division is to determine the fair market value of the business. Unlike the marital home or family cars, parties generally don’t have an immediate and easily accessible way to value the family business. To make matters more difficult, one spouse is often more involved in the financial matters of the business than the other, which may lead to doubts as to the correct value of the business. The spouse primarily controlling the finances of the business may argue that the business is worth less in an attempt to persuade the other spouse that it isn’t worth that much. Alternatively, the less-involved spouse may have an unrealistic idea of how much the business is actually worth and may insist that the business is worth more than the records reflect.
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