Posted on April 15, 2020 in Property Division

If you are a homeowner who is getting a divorce, a real estate appraisal is essential to ensuring that you have a fair division of property. Appraising your home is a natural step if you plan to sell it as part of your divorce. You need to know what your home is worth before you entertain offers for it. However, you also need an appraisal if one of you plans to keep the home following the divorce. The value of the home is part of calculating how to equitably divide your marital properties.

Preparing for an Appraisal

A real estate appraiser will estimate the value of your home based on factors such as its size, amenities, condition, and comparative market value. Your responsibility is to prepare your home so that it looks favorable to the appraiser. This may include:

• Cleaning and organizing the interior and exterior of the home

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 Posted on April 15, 2020 in Divorce

Prenuptial agreements have historically been considered taboo. After all, who plans their divorce before they are even married? In recent years, prenups have become increasingly popular and are no longer just for celebrities. Couples from all walks of life have begun to recognize how a prenuptial agreement could be beneficial to their marriage and peace of mind. In the event that you do get divorced, a prenuptial agreement acts as the framework for the divorce agreement, making the entire legal side of the divorce process easier.

A Prenup Cannot Include the Following

If you end up getting divorced, your prenuptial agreement will save you some time, as long as your agreement is valid. However, there are certain things that you cannot include in a prenuptial agreement for it to be considered legally valid. If your prenup is found to include some of these details, the court can decide to throw out the invalid parts, or the entire agreement may be considered invalid. Here are a few things that cannot be included in Illinois prenuptial agreements:

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 Posted on April 10, 2020 in Child Custody

Despite reasons to not get along, many co-parents manage to have an amicable relationship following their divorce or separation. You do not have to be friends with your co-parent but do need to communicate and cooperate with each other, which allows you to focus on making decisions that are best for your children. A crisis such as the one the world is currently experiencing can test your patience as a co-parent because of the way it disrupts your normal routine and creates uncertainty. It is important to continue to cooperate with your co-parent during any crisis for the sake of creating stability for your children. Here are a few suggestions for co-parenting during our current crisis:

1. Put Health First: The most important thing for you to do right now is to protect the health and safety of everyone in your household. This may mean following public health guidelines and taking extra precautions at home. If you have not already, you should talk to your co-parent about what actions you believe are necessary to protect your children.

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 Posted on April 08, 2020 in Family Law

Even if you love your spouse and are happy with them when you get married, you cannot predict the future. People change and evolve over time, and it is impossible to know what will change down the road. The way you feel about your spouse when you get married may not be the same as the way you feel about them 5, 10, or 15 years later. When things get tough in a marriage, one or both spouses may begin to consider divorce. The decision to divorce does not take place overnight, nor is it an easy one to make. When a couple is unhappy, yet not quite ready to call it quits, talking with a divorce lawyer and creating a postnuptial agreement may actually help save the marriage.

What Is a Postnuptial Agreement?

A postnuptial agreement is very similar to a prenuptial agreement, which is a legally-binding agreement that is signed before the marriage. The main difference between the two is that a postnuptial agreement is signed after a couple is already married. The two types of agreements may also address different areas — a prenuptial agreement tends to focus on issues that might come to light during the marriage, such as infidelity or financial issues, whereas a postnuptial agreement typically looks at the current life that you have built and what that will look like moving forward.

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 Posted on April 07, 2020 in Divorce

April is normally the end of tax season, though the U.S. has extended the deadline to July 15 for this year. Still, it is good to get a headstart on filing your federal income taxes if you are dealing with new circumstances, such as your recent divorce. Depending on when your divorce was completed, you may have a decision to make about your tax-filing status. If possible, filing a joint tax return with your former spouse will qualify you for a greater standard deductible and other deductibles and credits. However, you may be forced to file a separate tax return.

If Your Divorce Was Completed by Dec. 31

If you finalized your divorce during the 2019 tax year, then you are considered divorced for the entire year and must file separately. The standard deductible for filing as a single adult is half the amount of what you would receive if you filed a joint tax return. You can receive a higher deductible if you file as the head of the household. In order to qualify, you must:

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 Posted on April 03, 2020 in Divorce

Getting divorced can be a blow to your mental wellness, though each person will react differently to the experience. The stress of completing your divorce agreement and adjusting to your single life can cause depression and anxiety. Sometimes, a decline in your mental health will affect your physical health, such as:

• Changes in your eating habits
• Increased consumption of alcohol or drugs
• Struggles with insomnia
• Higher blood pressure
• A weakened immune system

It is important to take care of your health during and after your divorce. Unfortunately, people are currently limited in the activities they can do. You do not know when you will be able to join a fitness club or go to social gatherings. You may not even have the option of going to work, which would have given you something to focus your thoughts on. There are still several ways that you can improve your physical and mental health:

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 Posted on March 31, 2020 in Child Support

If you are one of the millions of Americans who have recently lost their jobs, you are understandably concerned about your ability to pay for living expenses. For some adults, child support is part of their monthly expenses. Fortunately, you do not have to continue paying the same amount towards child support if you have become unemployed. By requesting a modification of your child support payments, you can reduce your payments to something more manageable, though it is unlikely that you could ever get it reduced to nothing.

Changing Child Support

During a divorce or separation, Illinois calculates child support payments based on the parents’ comparative incomes. Your combined incomes help determine how much you both should be spending on child-related expenses each month, and your comparative incomes determine what percentage of those expenses you will each pay for. You can request an immediate modification of child support if you have a change of financial circumstances, such as losing your job. If the court grants your request, your child support payments will be reduced if you are the paying parent, or the payments you receive will increase if you are the recipient parent. There are a few conditions to the modification that you need to understand:

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 Posted on March 27, 2020 in Children and Divorce

Children of divorce need their parents’ attention to console them and remind them that they will always be loved. If you are worried about your divorce causing lasting emotional damage to your children, active parenting will allow you to watch for signs of emotional stress. However, it is possible to be too active in your parenting, to the point that you may harm your relationship with your child. You need to find a balance in which you are attentive to your children’s needs without becoming controlling or overbearing.

How Divorced Parents Smother Their Children

An overly involved parent can smother their child with positive and negative attention – both of which can be unhealthy:

• Positive attention may be spoiling them with gifts or being overprotective of them.
• Negative attention may be harsh punishments for misbehavior or setting strict rules.

It may not be your intention, but smothering your children is emotionally manipulating them to serve your own desires. Your children may become overly attached and dependent upon you, which hinders their maturation. Your overbearing parenting could also have the opposite effect, causing your children to rebel against you.

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 Posted on March 26, 2020 in Family Law

The coronavirus has been in the news for weeks now. The virus, also known as COVID-19, has spread rapidly across the world and the United States. There are currently more than 140,000 cases of Coronavirus in the United States, with over 2,400 deaths to date. The virus has been quickly spreading across the country, and currently, the primary recommendations made by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) are to practice social distancing. This has led many states, including Illinois, to enact stay-at-home orders, requiring residents to only leave their homes for life-sustaining reasons. This has also led many people to wonder how this order will affect their parenting time and parenting plans.

Understanding the Executive Order

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued an executive order on March 20, 2020 that requires all Illinois residents to stay in their homes and avoid social gatherings. The order still allows people to leave their homes for outdoor activities, such as walking the dog or exercising, or for other essential errands, such as going grocery shopping, getting gas, or picking up prescription medications. Travel has also been restricted to essential travel only, though roadways will still be open. Essential travel includes travel to care for the elderly, minors, or other vulnerable people, travel to return to one's residence, and travel for other essential tasks.

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 Posted on March 23, 2020 in Divorce

The coronavirus epidemic has created shockwaves throughout society, and some marriages may be part of the collateral damage. Millions of residents in the U.S. – including those in Illinois – have been ordered to stay at home as much as possible. Some of those residents have lost their jobs, leaving their financial future in doubt. With couples feeling immense stress and unable to escape each other, they are more likely to argue and feel resentful towards each other. Increased time together can also make it more obvious if they no longer love each other or feel unhappy in their marriage. Some couples may conclude that they would like to divorce. However, should they delay getting their divorce until after the epidemic has calmed down?

Reasons to Wait

If your mind is made up that you want to divorce, you may feel restless to get started. However, this may not be the best time to do so. Consider these questions:

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