Frequently Asked Family Law Questions

Lindsey Arnold

Here to kick off our brand new blog is our law clerk Lindsey Arnold. She has summarized the answers to the frequently asked family law questions that we hear most in our practice. This is an excellent place to start if you have questions about the divorce or family law process. She has included some excellent links for people who want to dig in and do some research.

Scroll down for the answers to these questions:

As of January 2016, Illinois eliminated all fault-based grounds for dissolution. This means grounds such as infidelity and mental cruelty are no longer viable grounds for divorce. Now the only grounds for divorce is irreconcilable differences.

Most Illinois counties use a system called Judici. This is a public database used by the courts to track what happens in your case. It is very user friendly, you can search by county and name.

If you are our client, you can log in to our client portal at My Case and find your court date quickly and easily.

Previously, Illinois used a percent of the non-custodial parent’s income to determine child support. As of July 2017, Illinois now uses an income shares child support guideline, which takes several factors into consideration. To get a general idea of how much child support should be awarded in your case you can use the child support estimator found here.

Currently, Illinois follows 750 ILCS 5/504 which states:

(A) The amount of maintenance under this paragraph (1) shall be calculated by taking 30% of the payor’s gross income minus 20% of the payee’s gross income. The amount calculated as maintenance, however, when added to the gross income of the payee, may not result in the payee receiving an amount that is in excess of 40% of the combined gross income of the parties.

(B) The duration of an award under this paragraph (1) shall be calculated by multiplying the length of the marriage at the time the action was commenced by whichever of the following factors applies: 5 years or less (.20); more than 5 years but less than 10 years (.40); 10 years or more but less than 15 years (.60); or 15 years or more but less than 20 years (.80). For a marriage of 20 or more years, the court, in its discretion, shall order either permanent maintenance or maintenance for a period equal to the length of the marriage.

These terms used to be referred to as custody and visitation. Parental decision-making responsibilities typically refers to the big life decisions like education, healthcare, extra- curricular activities and religion. These categories can be shared equally by both parents, one parent can have all decision-making responsibilities, or one parent can have sole healthcare decision-making responsibility while the other parent has sole education decision-making responsibility, etc.

Parenting time, just like it sounds, refers to the time each parent spends with the child(ren).

The county where you or your spouse currently reside. Occasionally it will make sense to file in a different county. If you think that is the case in your situation, talk to us about it and we will determine which venue in which to file.

Yes! Next to living in marital bliss, agreed to divorces are one of the best outcomes for a family, especially if children are involved. By working together to settle issues of child support, parenting time, marital property, and maintenance, parties are typically much happier with the outcome than leaving it for the courts to decide or taking months to come to an agreement.

A civil divorce can save families mountains of unnecessary stress and expenses.

No. You ultimately cannot stop your divorce if your spouse is determined to divorce. The law contains provisions to request reconciliation and we would be happy to request that for you, but please know that it is not commonly awarded.

If your spouse is missing or you are unable to contact them, you can still get divorced. This is called a Divorce by Publication.

It depends. One parent cannot petition the court to terminate another parent’s rights. However, the court can terminate a parent’s rights in a juvenile case or concurrently with an adoption. It is unlikely for a judge to terminate parental rights, unless another person is adopting the child. It is possible for a parent to adopt their own child in some limited cases.

No. Although emotions may be high, it is never advisable to withhold parenting time from the other parent solely for unpaid child support. Child support and parenting time are two separate issues. The parent is not earning the right to a relationship with his/her child by paying support but rather, it is your child’s right to have a relationship with both parents.

If your household is below or close to the poverty line, you might be eligible for free legal services from Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance. The application process can be found here :.

If Land of Lincoln is unable to help, you might qualify for a joint simplified divorce. If you and your spouse agree to the divorce, have been married less than eight years, have no real property (a house or other real estate), have no kids, each make less than $20,000 per year (less than $35,000 total per couple), and a few other factors, you can use the forms for a joint simplified divorce. These are available at the circuit clerk’s office or online.

If neither of those solutions apply to you, check back to our blog in the next week. Our attorney, Julie Quinn, will be doing a series on how to reduce the cost of your divorce.

Thank you for checking out our answers to the most frequently asked family law and divorce questions. If you have another general question about family law or divorce, comment on this post or contact us on our Facebook page, because we would love to do another blog post on this subject if there are still a lot of questions that you have.

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