Bloomington Divorce Blog

Typically speaking, Illinois family courts will award both parties of a divorce custody of the child or children. Joint custody is the preferred custody setup, as it grants both parents equal decision-making rights and ample time with the child. Visitation, on the other hand, is one of the least favorable options.

According to FindLaw, the Illinois courts may choose to restrict one or both parents' parenting time by awarding visitation if it believes that doing so will prevent serious endangerment to the child. The courts may determine that serious endangerment exists if a parent's conduct leading up to or during a divorce or custody case is such that it would adversely affect the child's emotional development. Generally speaking, for the courts to award visitation over custody, one parent or another party must prove by a preponderance of evidence that a parent's exercise of parental rights would seriously endanger the child's mental, emotional, physical or moral health.  

Even if you opt for a collaborative process rather than litigation, divorce in Illinois can be a difficult process to navigate. A collaborative divorce requires both you and your spouse to hire an attorney to represent you. However, there are tasks involved in the process that are beyond the purview of a divorce attorney to perform. A divorce coach serves a different function than an attorney in a divorce proceeding, providing you with personalized encouragement, guidance and motivation throughout the process as an independent third party.

Divorce Magazine cites the American Bar Association in defining a divorce coach as someone who takes your particular needs, concerns and interests into consideration to help you make the best decisions for your future during the divorce process by means of a flexible, goal-oriented approach. You can identify the areas that you need help with during a divorce and ask your divorce coach to help you specifically with those issues. 

This tax season is the first year that residents in Illinois will be filing returns based on a majorly revised tax code. The new Tax Cuts and Jobs Act has taken full effect and for divorcing or divorced couples, this law has ushered in some significant changes that you should be aware of.

As explained by MarketWatch, taxation for spousal support payments is getting a lot of attention these days. Historically, the person who received alimony was required to claim the money as income on their federal tax return. This meant that they were solely responsible for the income tax payments on those funds. In addition, the person who was ordered to pay alimony was able to deduct the amount from their return. This deduction often softened the blow for people required to pay spousal support.

If you and your spouse in Illinois are contemplating a divorce and you own a home together, you are likely wanting to know how to best deal with the house. If you have young children, you may well feel a strong emotional pull to keep the house so the kids do not have to move. You might want to do this whether you stay in the house with the kids or whether your spouse stays there with the kids and you move somewhere else.

Despite the understandable desire to keep a home, it may not be the right financial decision and certainly is one that requires care to avoid potentially serious financial consequences. If you end up leaving the home, you will want to ensure you are not financially liable for it, unless that is part of your overall divorce settlement. As explained by Bankrate, even if your divorce decree stipulates that your spouse must make the mortgage payments, if your name remains on the loan, you can still be held responsible for this debt.