Recent Blog Posts
Reasons to Wait until January to Divorce
According to a report by Reuters, it may be a good idea to wait until after the new year to file for divorce as opposed to doing it around the Christmas season. Many people would think that it is just about making the holiday a good one, however there are more reasons to consider waiting.
End of Year Bonus
If your spouse receives a holiday bonus from the job, they usually receive right around the Christmas time. Waiting until January makes those funds part of the family’s finances. Filing for the divorce before the disbursement of this money nullifies it from being community property. For some these bonuses can be pretty significant.
Emotions are Flying High
Emotions are always flying high during the holiday season as it is. Even though there are enjoyable times, it is also very stressful. You may have house guests and you may even see family that you only see once a year. This is not a good time to be going through divorce proceedings. Waiting until after the holidays helps both parties to keep a level head about the situation.
Dealing with Divorce during the Holiday Season
While Christmas is a special time of year for many, there are many others that are seeking solace from the pain of divorce. A report by the Huffington Post offers some great activities to help get over your ex and start the year anew with a better outlook on life.
Stocking Stuffer
If you have a Christmas stocking for your ex, it may be too painful to just throw it in the garbage. That may also make it confusing for the children. Instead, write yourself positive messages on small strips of paper and drop them into the stocking. When you are feeling down, pull a message from the stocking to remind yourself that things will get better! Make sure that you do this at least once a day.
Don’t Take Down the Mistletoe
Just because you don’t have a sweetie to kiss under the mistletoe does not mean that you shouldn’t have it hanging there. When your kids go under the mistletoe, give them the biggest hug and kiss that you can. Don’t forget to give yourself kisses too. Remember loving yourself is a part of the healing process.
Keep your Business together after divorce
A small business is more than just an asset to the owners; it generates income, but also is a physical representation of hard work and dedication that you have put into the business.
Divorce can be a very big threat to a small business. With the right strategies and help from the right people, however, you can ensure that your business survives the divorce and remains strong long afterward.
Strategy #1: Getting an accurate and complete business estimate is essential
According to Illinois law, family businesses are assets and, therefore, subject to equitable division in the case of divorce, just like any other marital property. Equitable division means that if both parties cannot reach an agreement, property will be split based on what the court deems fair, including factors such as the length of the marriage, the age, health, and income potential of each property, and the contributions of each spouse to the marriage. Equitable marriage does not mean a 50-50 split.
Christmas for the divorced
As we are closing in on Christmas celebrations, there is a group of people, who might not be enjoying this season, for a good reason, wholeheartedly. This group would be the recently divorced and separated. Divorce and separation are always stressful, especially with children, and having to figure out what is essentially a family holiday will not make it easier. If you look for them, you can quickly find a story addressing the issue.
The biggest factor that makes Christmas challenging for the divorced and separated is memories. Memories of past Christmases can make the thought of not having a traditional, family-style Christmas very painful. This does not, however, mean that Christmas could not be enjoyed even if your family is going through a divorce. You can always come up with new traditions, and having a challenging holiday season this year does not mean it will always be like that.
Surprisingly, Christmas and divorce do have one thing in common. Both are something you should not try to handle alone. To make Christmas easier, you can reach out to friends and family for support or enjoyable company during the holidays. As for divorce, you can still contact your friends and family for support, but it is important to also contact an experienced divorce attorney in your area.
A hardworking wife could mean you're headed for divorce, study suggests.
In the midst of all the far-fetched theories of omens and signs that your marriage is headed for a divorce, a U.K. study found that there is a possibility that some wives are literally working their way towards a divorce. For once, you are going to read about a sign that does not include a husband working suspiciously hard at the gym or a wife&s new enthusiastic approach to tennis. This new theory comes from a study conducted in the United Kingdom that suggests women whose marriages are about fail spend more time working. Aol. did a story on this discovery.
The study, conducted by the London School of Economics and Political Science, suggests that for a 1% increase of their marriage failing, women put in 12 more minutes of work in a week. Berkay Ozcan with his co-researches based the study on statistics from before and after the 1996 legalization of divorce in Ireland. The main idea was to compare women&s participation in the workforce before and after the legalization of divorce.
Former Bulls Great Ordered to Pay Child Support
Dennis Rodman was known as a rebounding machine before he joined the Chicago Bulls in 1995. While he played for the Bulls, he won three titles alongside Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. His personal life was considerably wild; he was notorious for his "bad boy" persona and willingness to act outlandish both on and off the court. He ever showed up to a book signing in a wedding dress and claimed he was marrying himself in 1996.
In 1999, Rodman met Michelle Moyer who he had two children with in 2000 and 2001. They were married on his 42nd birthday in 2003. There union was tenuous, as Michelle filed for divorce in 2004 yet the couple spent years trying to reconcile. During that time, Rodman had multiple issues with alcohol and spousal abuse. The divorce was finalized earlier in 2012. At that time, Michelle claimed that Dennis owed back child and spousal support.
How to Make Holidays Happy When You Are a Single Parent
Getting through the holidays when you are married and have children can sometimes be difficult. But if you are divorced, the holiday visits and all the other fuss can make your holiday a real pain if you do not plan ahead. Your children are the most important thing, of course, and you should try to make it easy for them. A divorce does not have to ruin the holidays either for you or your children. Relationship expert Maria Sbrochi mentions a couple of tips that may prove useful:
1. If you and your ex will be celebrating the holiday in the same city, you can split up the day. One parent can spend time with the chlidren until afternoon and the other parent gets the kids after that.
2. Older children can celebrate one year with dad and the other with mom. You can make your own traditions or take the family on the road. Come up with a location to celebrate the holiday with your kids.
Interstate enforcement issue highlighted by Florida and Illinois case
This case began with the Illinois divorce of Donald and Lois Weiss.
At the time of the divorce, Donald was required to maintain three policies of life insurance on his life to benefit Lois. Lois sold her rights to one of the life insurance policies back to Donald in 1994, but he was still required to maintain the other two policies.
By 2007, 25 years after the divorce, Donald decided to stop paying on the two insurance policies. Lois took him back to court, and after Donald did not show up to defend himself, the Illinois Court swayed in Lois’s favor for just over $80,000 and awarded the ownership of the policies to her. The court also found Donald in contempt.
As Donald apparently had moved to Florida, Lois domesticated her judgment there. Soon after, the Florida court also entered judgment against Donald for an additional $80,000.
The Florida court also found Donald on contempt of both the Illinois and Florida orders, and ordered him to pay $2,500 per month to purge the contempt. A Writ of Garnishment was also entered against Donald’s monthly income for the full amount of the judgment.
Interstate Child Support Case Results in Overpayment by Father
The Chicago Tribune recently featured an article about a Chicago man who is ordered to pay child support for his twin daughters in Illinois. His children’s mother subsequently moved to a few different states, but the man continued to pay his support and it was sent to the woman in whatever state she happened to be living. When his children’s mother moved to the state of Mississippi several years ago, however, the man began to encounter difficulties. Mississippi reported that the man had fallen behind in his support in 2009, so he paid extra each week toward the deficit. However, Mississippi continued to deduct extra amounts from his paycheck, so he eventually became overpaid.
The problems did not stop there. The state of Illinois began sending the child support payments directly to the ex-girlfriend, bypassing the state of Mississippi altogether. As a result, Mississippi support records incorrectly showed that by 2012, the man owed more than $5,000 in unpaid support, and that state intercepted his federal income tax refund. In reality, the man is owed more than $1,500.00 in overpayments in child support that he has made to the state of Illinois. The man contacted the Problem Solver at the Chicago Tribune after repeatedly seeking help from the state of Illinois and Mississippi to no avail.
Electronic Communications Ease Tensions After Parents Split
Although some couples would prefer to never have contact with one another again following their separation or divorce, those who share children must continue to communicate in some manner, perhaps for many years to come. A recent New York Times article, however, points out that with the advent of technology, formerly hostile and emotional exchanges between former spouses can become relatively neutral and perhaps be avoided altogether. These electronic communications can even allow an almost unworkable joint custody situation to become doable, at least from a distance.
While cell phones allowed for a convenient source of communication, they still require ex-spouses to hear each other’s voices, which can be an automatic source of irritation for some. E-mail and text messages, though, eliminate voices altogether, and allow for a more detached, much less emotional form of communication. Other parents use a mutual Google calendar in order to map out visitation arrangements regarding their children. Whatever the type of electronic communications used, most parents agree that the lack of hostility in their interactions has enhanced their relationship and made it easier for their children.
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