Bloomington Divorce Blog

While a divorce can certainly introduce a lot of uncertainty into your situation, one inevitability you can count is your life continuing on. That may include new personal or professional opportunities that may prompt you to relocate. This can cause pose quite a challenge to your current custodial situation. You moving away from Bloomington will impact every member of your family, from your ex-spouse potentially needing to change their expectations in terms of custody and visitation to your kids having to re-establish themselves in new neighborhoods and schools. Such complexities cause many to come to us here at the Stange Law Firm questioning what is needed to keep their relocations from becoming family catastrophes. 

The first thing you need to understand are your legal requirements. Per Illinois' Compiled Statutes, the state considers "relocation" to be any of the following: 

• Moving a child to a new residence that is more than 25 miles away from their current home
• Moving a child to a new county that is more than 50 miles away from their current residence 
• Moving a child to a new state that is more than 25 miles away from their current residence 

Despite shifts in people's attitudes and changes in societal awareness, many men in Illinois may remain very concerned about their ability to stay connected to their children during and after a divorce. The role of fathers in children's lives is essential and it is important that a parenting plan or custody agreement take this into account for the good of the kids.

As explained by Fatherly, a leading digital brand for dads, there is an increasing amount of scientific exploration happening into the impact on children of having fathers actively involved in their lives. A dad does not need to be married to a child's mother for the child to gain benefits from his participation in their life. Kids with involved dads have a reduced risk of aggressive behavior, experiencsing psychological problems, engaging in risky sex, struggling with obesity and even of becoming homeless.

As you prepare for you divorce proceedings in Bloomington, one thing you may be hearing from multiple sources is how (if your ex-spouse was the primary income earner in your home) you will be entitled to alimony. This assumption is likely due to many perceiving alimony to be some form of punishment that is inflicted on one side of a divorce case. In reality, however, alimony is only meant to be a temporary source of assistance, and this is only if the court deems it is even needed. 

So how are you to know if alimony will even be considered in your case? Section 5.504 of Illinois' Compiled Statutes says that the court considers the following factors when determining whether to award alimony: 

• Yours and your ex-spouse's income, assets (including those apportioned to each of you in the divorce) and any liabilities your divorce settlement has left either of you with
• Each of your individual needs
• The realistic and present earning capacity of each you (as well as any impairments or obligations that might impair either of you from securing gainful employment)
• The duration of your marriage and the standard of living you achieved while still together
• Any sort of public or private assistance (including disability and retirement) either of you may qualify for
• Any sacrifices or contributions you made to your ex-spouse in helping to support their career

When you choose to seek a divorce from your spouse in Bloomington, one of the first important points to enter your mind will likely by how you will support your children. The deterioration of your relationship with your spouse has little bearing on your feelings towards your children, so your willingness to continue to provide for them is likely not an issue. Having said that, you also do not want to be left having to bear the entire burden of doing so if it is not necessary. This speculation all leads to one simple question: how does the state determine child support? 

A general overview of the process is provided in Section 5-505 of Illinois' Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act. According to this law, child support determinations are made as follows: 

• Yours and your ex-spouse's monthly net income is determined
• Those two amounts are combined to determine a total monthly household income
• An appropriate amount is selected from the state's schedule of basic child support obligations based on the number of children you share and your total monthly household income
• Your share of that amount is determined based on your contribution to the total monthly household income