Posted on February 18, 2022 in Divorce

Thanks to the landmark Obergefell v. Hodges supreme court case, same-sex families in Illinois can get married. Along with an increase in LGBT marriage has come an increase in couples who want to adopt or have children through methods such as egg donation and gestational surrogacy. While these methods are wonderful for building families, they do have legal complications and it is important to understand how Illinois law handles cases where one or both parents do not have a biological relationship with the child.

Illinois Egg Donors Do Not Have Parental Rights

When an egg donor helps an individual or couple conceive through assisted reproductive techniques, the donor completely gives up their legal parental rights to any children that result from their donation. Because an egg donor does not have parental rights, both members of a same-sex couple may have parental rights for a child conceived through egg donation.

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 Posted on February 14, 2022 in Divorce

Most couples do everything they can to reconcile their differences before resorting to divorce, especially when there are children involved. While couple’s therapy, family counseling, and renewed efforts to revive a relationship may work for some people, for other couples, divorce is inevitable.

Some couples agree that divorce is the best option, but it is common for one spouse to be confident about the decision to divorce while the other spouse still hopes or wishes to reconcile. A spouse who is determined to exhaust all possible options cannot ultimately prevent a divorce from happening, but he or she can slow things down and make it more difficult for a divorce to proceed. One way this might happen is through trying to convince a court that reconciliation may still be possible and asking for a conciliation conference.

What is a Conciliation Conference?

Couples in Illinois no longer have to prove fault in a divorce case. In the past, abandonment, infidelity, and abuse could be difficult to prove and were not necessarily present in marriages that spouses wished to end. Today, fortunately, couples in Illinois need only list “irreconcilable differences” as their cause for divorce.

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 Posted on February 07, 2022 in Divorce

While divorce is difficult for everyone involved, it often presents a different set of challenges to men and women. Women are more likely to become depressed than men and the divorce process is littered with complications that can rattle the confidence of even the most self-assured woman. Women also tend to earn less than men and are nearly always the primary child caregivers, meaning that their financial, physical, and mental burdens are often increased substantially during divorce. If you are a woman considering divorce in Illinois, here are five things that you should know.

It is Normal to Feel Emotional

Many women resist feeling the full extent of their emotions because they need to think clearly. But emotions are powerful and useful, and they can have a place in making wise decisions. It is perfectly normal to feel angry, hurt, frightened, confused, and even happy during the divorce process. Whether or not you allow these feelings to drive your decision-making process is ultimately up to you, but you should never feel shame for allowing your emotions to run strong during this period of major upheaval.

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 Posted on January 31, 2022 in Divorce

On January 1, 2019, a new federal law called the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) changed the way that divorced spouses could deduct taxes from spousal maintenance (also known as alimony or spousal support). Because tax deductions are under the purview of federal law, this law applied to all states, including Illinois. While each state could still set their own guidelines for how spousal maintenance payments would be calculated, the tax implications of these payments changed. Naturally, many people may have questions about what this means for their divorce or spousal maintenance renegotiation.

Which Spouse is Responsible for Taxes on Spousal Maintenance?

Before 2019, the spouse making spousal maintenance payments could deduct those payments from his or her taxable income. The spouse receiving payments would pay taxes on the spousal maintenance as if it were income. With the TCJA, the spouse making payments now cannot deduct them from his or her taxable income and the spouse receiving payments does not pay taxes on them. This means that the spouse who makes payments is also responsible for paying taxes on that amount.

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 Posted on January 31, 2022 in Estate Planning

More and more modern couples are choosing not to marry. Each couple has their own reasons for making this decision. Some feel that they do not need "a piece of paper" to demonstrate their love and commitment. Others simply are not comfortable with the idea of marriage. However, there are certain legal protections that marriage offers in the event that one spouse becomes incapacitated or passes away. Spouses almost automatically inherit from each other in the absence of an estate plan, and will likely be called upon to make medical decisions for each other when necessary. Unmarried couples do not enjoy these protections.

Fortunately, there are ways other than getting married for committed couples to protect each other. Through a little careful estate planning with the help of a qualified attorney, unmarried couples can set in place largely the same safety nets that married couples are granted. It will likely cost much less than a wedding.

What Documents Should Committed but Unmarried Couples Have in Place?

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 Posted on January 25, 2022 in Estate Planning

When you think of estate planning, you probably think of wills and trusts - the ways people decide how their property should be distributed after they pass away. This is known as testamentary planning. It is a very important goal of estate planning. However, there is another side of estate planning that addresses what will happen to both you and your belongings later in life should you one day lose the capacity to make your own decisions. This is known as incapacity planning. A comprehensive estate plan will involve both testamentary planning and incapacity planning.

What is Testamentary Planning?

Testamentary planning is the classic form of estate planning. During this process, you will decide who should receive your property when you are gone. The two most common instruments for testamentary planning are wills and trusts. In modern times, trusts are increasingly becoming the preferred vehicle for transferring assets. They offer a number of advantages, most notably by allowing you to bypass probate.

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 Posted on January 24, 2022 in Child Custody

Even after going your separate ways in an Illinois divorce, your ex will still have a significant impact on your life when you share children. For many divorced couples, raising children after a divorce is a very challenging issue, and finding an arrangement that works can be frustrating and time-consuming. When parents struggle to work within traditional parenting agreement constructs, it may be helpful to get creative and turn to alternative methods of co-parenting. Depending on your needs, one of these three unique co-parenting methods may be helpful.

Parallel Parenting

For some couples, every point of contact is a fight waiting to happen. When one or both parents are uncooperative or hostile towards each other, they risk constantly exposing their children to conflict. To protect the children from the psychological damage this can cause, parallel parenting offers co-parents an opportunity to treat parenting as a business enterprise. Couples who use parallel parenting strategies only communicate when absolutely necessary, and will usually do so with designated communication channels like a special email address. If you choose to use parallel parenting, be sure to include as many details as possible in your court-approved parenting plan. That way, when issues arise, you already have solutions and can avoid further conflict.

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 Posted on January 21, 2022 in Divorce

Pets of all kinds are often loved and cared for as another member of the family. Children who grow up with a dog or cat in the home may have known that animal their entire lives and feel very attached to it. So when a couple decides to get divorced, the issue of how to manage the family pet can become quite contentious. Spouses often want to know who will get to keep the pet, how such a decision will be made, and who will pay for the expenses of caring for the pet in the future. If you are getting divorced and wondering what will happen to Fido, read on.

Does Illinois Have Pet “Custody” Laws?

Illinois law recognizes that people love their pets and want to give them the best possible life, even after divorce. Although pets are technically still considered property under Illinois law, a pet cannot be “divided” the same way another asset, like a bank account, could be divided.

Pet parents cannot enter into pet custody proceedings quite the same way as they can for children, but the law does distinguish between a dog or cat and a piece of jewelry or a car. If a pet-mom owned Fido before getting married, Fido will likely be considered personal property and will go with her after the divorce. If a couple got Fido during their marriage, he will likely be considered a marital asset and Illinois courts can consider the well-being of Fido when making decisions about who he will belong to or spend time with. However, there are exceptions to these general rules.For example, if one spouse has been responsible for caring for Fido and has a stronger relationship with him than the other spouse, that spouse who cares for Fido will likely get ownership. Pictures, videos, and receipts can all illustrate which spouse cared for a pet and may be useful if a spouse is seeking full ownership.

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 Posted on January 14, 2022 in Family Law

Every day, men and women all over Illinois deal with domestic violence. Fear of an intimate partner or relative can have serious negative consequences on a victim’s mental health, to say nothing of the physical dangers of living with a violent person. Sometimes, victims want to leave their situation but fear their abuser will pursue them wherever they go - even if they leave the state.

Fortunately, Illinois law recognizes the importance of protecting victims of domestic violence and offers Orders of Protection for men and women who want legal help. If you are living in fear of your abuser, you have options. There are many organizations that help domestic violence victims escape dangerous situations and an experienced Illinois attorney can help you file for an Order of Protection when necessary. To learn more about Orders of Protection and how they work across state lines, read on.

The Violence Against Women Act

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 Posted on January 12, 2022 in Divorce

Every day, there seems to be a new kind of digital asset making the news. Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and non-fungible tokens are just two examples of digital financial assets that we commonly associate with money. But other digital assets must be divided as well - personal photos and videos that exist on each spouse’s phone, streaming accounts, and even purchased media like downloaded videos all need to be dealt with. During the Illinois divorce process, all marital assets must be divided fairly - even the ones that only exist on the internet. If you are getting divorced and wondering what will happen to your digital assets, read on.

Pictures, Videos, Movies, and Streaming Services

Couples can spend thousands of dollars on downloaded videos, games, and other online entertainment over the course of a marriage. If a couple has amassed a valuable digital library of content, this will need to be divided in the divorce decree. Because online content is usually associated with a specific account and these accounts must only be owned by one partner after the divorce, spouses will need to agree about how to split them.

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