Posted on May 30, 2025 in Divorce

Selling a home, particularly one you have spent a considerable amount of time living in or raising your children in, can be difficult. Going through a divorce can also be difficult and emotional. When you are forced to do both these things at the same time, you may end up feeling emotionally exhausted. There are many different scenarios in a situation like this. The court may have ordered the sale of the marital home, with the proceeds from the sale to be split in a specific manner.

One spouse may be allowed to remain in the house with the understanding that he or she will manage the sale, or both spouses may move out and work together to sell the house. In most cases, the Marital Settlement Agreement will set forth the details of the home sale and may even include a specific time limit for the sale.

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 Posted on May 27, 2025 in Child Custody

Disputes regarding visitation ("parenting time" in Illinois) can be frustrating and emotionally draining for all involved. During a divorce, if the parents are unable to work out the allocation of parental responsibilities, parenting time, and a parenting plan on their own, the court will do it for them. Once those decisions are made and the terms are outlined in the parenting plan, both parents are legally required to follow those terms.

When one parent refuses to allow the other his or her assigned parenting time, the parent-child relationship can be damaged, plus the noncompliant parent may be violating Illinois law. To be clear, there are very few instances where a parent can legally deny parenting time to the other, absent a court order. If your ex prevents you from having your court-ordered parenting time, speaking to an experienced Wheaton, IL family law attorney is important.

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 Posted on May 16, 2025 in Child Custody

Parents who have gone through a divorce have likely heard the phrase "in the child’s best interests." Across the nation, every family court in every state makes custody decisions (the allocation of parental responsibilities in Illinois) based on the child’s best interests. But what does that actually mean? Is breaking up a family through divorce actually in the child’s best interests?

The answer to that question depends on a number of factors, not the least of which is whether parents who are unhappy in their marriage are the best parents they can be. Deciding to divorce is rarely an easy decision or one that is made on the spur of the moment without considering how it will affect the children.

That said, your decisions regarding your child’s best interests could be significantly different from what the court has in mind. If you are considering divorce and want an attorney who will take your wishes into consideration while also understanding how the court views your child’s best interests, it is time to speak to an experienced Wheaton, IL family law attorney.

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 Posted on May 05, 2025 in Family Law

The idea of spending any time with your children under someone else's supervision can feel humiliating and unfair, especially if the social worker is a supervisor and you are paying for their services. Yet some parents in Illinois are ordered to live with supervised parenting time every day.

Understanding why this happens and what the court wants to see is essential for getting through this tough time. It is important to remember that supervised parenting time is not necessarily indicative of your skills as a parent and that, with the help of a Wheaton, Illinois parenting time attorney, it is possible to move beyond this stage.

Why Would a Judge Order Supervised Parenting Time?

Supervised parenting time means one parent is not allowed to be with his or her child alone. If supervised parenting time is ordered and the court finds out the parent was with the child without supervision, it could potentially end the parenting time altogether. Parenting time is not supervised unless the judge believes the parent could endanger the child.

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 Posted on April 28, 2025 in Property Division

Going through a divorce is rarely easy. Challenges can still arise even when both spouses want the divorce and agree on most aspects. When both spouses cannot see eye-to-eye on virtually anything, those challenges increase, and the stress can be overwhelming. If your divorce is one of those relatively rare cases where everything appears to be going amicably, you will no doubt still have questions and concerns regarding how marital assets will be divided.   

Getting a handle on the marital assets to be divided and understanding the difference between marital and non-marital assets can make the process much easier. Separate, or non-marital assets, are those that one spouse had prior to the marriage and gifts or inheritances given to one spouse before or after the marriage. This is true unless those separate assets are commingled with marital assets or marital funds are used to make improvements or repairs.

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 Posted on April 23, 2025 in Divorce

Couples who are over the age of 65 are seeing a significant increase in the rate of divorce. Since the 1990s, the divorce rate for those over the age of 65 has tripled, while for those over the age of 55, the divorce rate has doubled. When you consider that one in 10 people who are divorcing in 2025 are over the age of 65, it is a phenomenon that psychologists struggle to make sense of.

Divorce for those over the age of 55 is known as "gray divorce." The increase in divorce among older Americans leaves a growing number of aging adults alone – and often financially insecure – in their "golden" years. Experts have had difficulty pinpointing the exact reasons for gray divorce, but typically attribute it to our increased longevity and the fact that people are less willing to endure unhappy marriages.

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 Posted on April 10, 2025 in Property Division

As the popularity of cryptocurrency continues to rise, it increasingly becomes a factor in divorce proceedings. Cryptocurrency is mainstream now rather than the niche financial asset it began as. In 2024, the global ownership of cryptocurrencies totaled 420 million people. Ethereum and Bitcoin continue to dominate the cryptocurrency market.

For couples in Illinois, understanding how cryptocurrencies are treated during a divorce can significantly impact asset division and financial settlements. The new administration enacted crypto-related orders on day one, and as digital currencies become increasingly common, their presence in the distribution of marital assets during divorce has grown significantly.

Dividing cryptocurrency during a divorce presents its own set of challenges that are both distinct and more complex than those associated with traditional marital assets. If cryptocurrency is a factor in your divorce, discuss with an experienced Wheaton, IL family law attorney what implications it may have on your divorce proceedings. Your lawyer will be able to provide clear insights for individuals facing a divorce involving cryptocurrencies.

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 Posted on April 04, 2025 in Child Custody

Often, when couples divorce, at least one of them will move. Whether this move is within the state of Illinois or crosses a state line can make a difference in how parenting time works. Divorce and the allocation of parental responsibilities begin in the most appropriate venue, which is almost always where the children live and will continue to live and attend school.

If the parents are living in different states during the divorce and the parental responsibility allocation, then the state where the children have lived for the past six months has jurisdiction. Many times, however, the parents may have lived in the same state during the divorce before one of them moves out of state.

There are many ways this can affect parenting time. Speaking to an experienced Wheaton, IL family law attorney can help you and your ex determine how parenting time will work from a significant distance. While it can be extremely challenging to exercise the right to parenting time from another state, it can be done.

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 Posted on March 28, 2025 in Property Division

You might be surprised to know that more single women (including widowed, separated, or divorced) are homeowners than single men, with the homeownership rate among single women at 53 percent. Women are also more likely to make financial sacrifices to own a home than men (42 percent vs. 32 percent). That said, women or men might decide to buy a home while the divorce is ongoing, especially if the divorce seems to be taking longer than expected.

The emotional implications of divorce can certainly be difficult to contend with, yet the logistical and financial consequences of divorce are often just as taxing. If you and your spouse have recently split up, you are probably looking for a new place to stay. Many people choose to rent an apartment or stay with family or friends while their divorce is pending, but others choose to actually purchase a home.

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 Posted on March 21, 2025 in Child Custody

Virtual visitation is sometimes used when a parent has parenting time following a divorce but is not geographically close to the child. Perhaps the other parent moved out of state, and it has become difficult to get time away from work and the financial means necessary to travel that distance every other week.

Virtual visitation is also known as electronic visitation or Internet visitation. The concept became much more popular during the pandemic when social distancing kept many divorced parents and their children apart. Virtual visits often take place using apps like Zoom, Skype, and FaceTime that use a webcam on a laptop, tablet, or cellphone.

Virtual visits are generally seen as an addition to "standard" electronic forms of communication like text messaging, instant messaging, email, or messaging through social media apps like Instagram or Facebook. These forms of communication lack the personal aspect of actually seeing the other person, which is why virtual visitation can help both the parent and child who are not able to see one another frequently.

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