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Recent Blog Posts
How to Know If You Need a Divorce Coach
Many people approach their divorce by hiring not just a divorce lawyer but a divorce team, which could include a divorce coach. Divorce coaching is a fairly new profession that works with people on the personal side of dealing with divorce. This allows the divorce attorney to more efficiently focus their efforts toward the technical side of divorce. You may wonder whether you need a divorce coach for your divorce. The truth is that a divorce coach can benefit anyone, but we understand that many divorcees are concerned about the cost of hiring additional professionals for their divorce. Here are three signs that you may need to hire a divorce coach:
- You Are Struggling to Adjust to Divorced Life: Getting divorced will change most aspects of your personal life and add new responsibilities. You are now solely in charge of your household and your children when they are living with you. You may also be living on a tighter budget and need to adjust your expenditures. It can be difficult to balance these responsibilities with your professional life and your ongoing divorce case. A divorce coach will teach you ways that you can stay organized during and after the divorce process.
What Happens If Your Ex-Spouse Files for Bankruptcy?
Completing a divorce will drain your personal finances to a certain extent. You are giving up a portion of your marital assets and losing your spouse’s income as a means of helping pay expenses. Some people’s debt problems following a divorce become bad enough that they need to file for bankruptcy. You can work with your divorce attorney to try to avoid this outcome by ensuring that you receive a favorable division of properties and debts, as well as spousal maintenance if your spouse has a greater income than you. However, your former spouse may have their own financial struggles that lead to them filing for bankruptcy. Even though you are no longer married, it is possible that their bankruptcy could leave you liable for some of their debts.
How Does Bankruptcy Work?
To understand how your former spouse’s bankruptcy could affect you, you first need to know what the bankruptcy process entails. A person files for bankruptcy when they believe they are incapable of repaying their debts and are in danger of losing assets to their creditors. An individual will use either Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy, depending on which one they qualify for. At the end of the process, the filer is allowed to discharge most debts that were not repaid during the case. Discharge means that the filer no longer has any obligation to repay the debt.
How Can Domestic Violence Affect Child-Related Issues in an Illinois Divorce?
How Can Domestic Violence Affect Child-Related Issues in an Illinois Divorce?
For decades, the United States has focused much time and energy on public awareness campaigns about the prevalence of domestic violence and what you can do if you are experiencing domestic violence in your home. Unfortunately, domestic violence still remains an issue to this day. According to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, there are around 12 million men and women who are victims of domestic violence each year.
How COVID-19 Has Affected Phone Call Etiquette for Divorced Parents
The public response to the COVID-19 pandemic has required people to change the ways in which they communicate with each other. In-person visits are being replaced with phone and video calls in order to limit travel and contact with other people. Video chats on your phone or through an application such as Zoom have become a popular way for family members to stay in contact with each other – including divorced parents contacting their children. Some parenting agreements will set a limit for how often one parent is allowed to call their children when they are staying with the other parent. With the extraordinary circumstances that we are currently living in, it may be time to add a provision regarding phone calls to your parenting agreement or modify your existing provision.
Call Etiquette
Co-parents may set limits on calls if they are concerned about the other parent interrupting their parenting time. For instance, the parenting agreement can say that a parent may initiate contact with the children once per day or every other day when the children are with the other parent. The children can contact the parent on their own but should be encouraged to focus on the parent they are with. Frequent or long calls with a child can be harmful to them because:
Who Can You Subpoena During Your Divorce?
Filing a subpoena for a witness to testify in court is rarely necessary in a divorce case. A subpoena for documents, known as a subpoena duces tecum, is used frequently. Character witnesses were more common before Illinois became a no-fault divorce state, which made it so that couples no longer needed to cite issues such as infidelity as a reason for divorce. Now, financial records are the most vital evidence you can obtain with a subpoena, and documents can give you all the information you need. An experienced divorce lawyer knows who you need to subpoena to find that information.
Your Spouse
When gathering information in preparation for your divorce, you may realize that there are vital documents that you do not have access to, such as:
- Financial statements
- Receipts
- Contracts
Your spouse may possess those documents and would ideally be willing to share them if you ask. If your spouse refuses to share the documents, you can obtain a subpoena requesting the documents, which would force them to comply.
Can "Empty Nest Syndrome" Lead to an Illinois Divorce?
For many people, having a child and starting a family is a life goal. Having children can be extremely fulfilling, but they do not need to be taken care of forever. Eventually, children grow up and head off to college or move out of the home. During this time, many parents develop feelings of loss and emptiness. These feelings have been named "empty nest syndrome," and they can lead to a great deal of stress for many parents that can affect their marriages. It is not uncommon for couples to have marital issues after their children have left the home. In some cases, the issues in the marriage could lead to a divorce.
What Is Empty Nest Syndrome?
If you have children, you have spent years, even decades, dedicating yourself to them. You took care of them while they were babies, helped them through the tough adolescent years, and guided them through heartbreak and other difficulties as teenagers. Now, they are ready to leave the home and explore the world. You are left behind, with the same home, same life, and same spouse, and you may struggle to adjust to your children being gone. The feeling of loss and emptiness that you may experience is known as empty nest syndrome.
What Protections Does a Disabled Person Receive in a Divorce?
The decision to divorce may be more difficult than normal if you are someone with a disability. Though you may be unhappy in your marriage, you may also worry about whether you will be able to support yourself after a divorce. You may rely on your spouse’s income and health insurance if you are unable to work or are limited in your ability. If you have children, you may wonder whether your disability will limit your parenting time. Your disability does not have to trap you in an unhealthy marriage. Illinois divorce laws can help support you financially and protect your parental rights.
Support Payments
In any divorce, a person who is financially dependent on their spouse will usually receive spousal maintenance to support them as they adjust to life on their own. Spousal maintenance is particularly crucial for someone with a disability because they may:
How to Nurture Resilience in Your Children After Divorce
As a parent who decided to divorce, you may be concerned about how the divorce will emotionally affect your children. You know that they will be upset, but will the divorce cause long-lasting emotional trauma? The good news is that it is possible for children of divorce to become more resilient because of their experience, making them more capable of handling other hardships that may occur in their lives. There are several ways that you can create an environment that enables your child to build that resiliency:
- Healthy Communication: To understand how the divorce is affecting your children, you need to listen to what they say and watch how they behave. Encourage them to be open about their feelings without forcing them to talk when they are clearly not in the mood. When they do decide to talk, let them finish speaking without interjecting to correct them or add your own opinion. Resist your instinct to want to solve their problems for them or to reassure them that things are not so bad. The most important thing for you to do is to show sympathy towards their feelings and answer the questions that they ask.
How to Address Your Business During Your Illinois Divorce
During a divorce, one of the biggest issues you must deal with is the asset division process. Everything that you and your spouse own together must be allocated between the two of you during this process. Illinois is an equitable division state, which means marital property should be divided in a fair manner. However, fair does not always mean equal. Most assets are easy to define and allocate, but what happens when you or your spouse own a business or a private practice that you must address?
Options For Your Business
Before you make any decisions, you should get a fair valuation of your business. It is important to know exactly what your business is worth before you start figuring out how to deal with it. There are various methods you can use to determine the value of your business. Your divorce attorney should be able to recommend an appraiser who can offer advice about your valuation.
Why Some Couples Choose Legal Separation Over Divorce
Filing for divorce is a serious and final decision to make about your marriage. Even when couples know that they are unhappy in their marriages, they may be unsure about whether they want to go as far as divorce. One alternative that couples in Illinois have is filing for legal separation. With a legal separation, you can act as if you are divorced without ending your marriage. If you decide you want to stay together, you can simply end the separation agreement. If you decide to end your marriage, you can file for divorce to make your separation permanent.
Why Should You Use Legal Separation?
Couples can separate from each other at any time without needing any official documents. However, they may lack legal protection when it comes to their individual property and parental rights. A separation agreement can work similarly to a divorce agreement, allowing you to settle on issues such as:
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