Legal Separation or Divorce

There are key differences between a legal separation and divorce. The main difference is that you're still married during a legal separation. But a divorce legally ends your marriage. Other differences include:

• Health care/other benefits: Legal separation may allow for the retention of some benefits, such as health insurance and certain Social Security benefits that end with divorce.
• Marital status: Legal separation allows you to keep your marital status. That means you're not free to marry anyone else. You can only remarry when you're divorced.
• Decision-making: States consider a separated couple to be next of kin. Separated spouses can make medical or financial decisions for the other. Divorced spouses are no longer next of kin.
• Debts/liabilities: Separated spouses are responsible for joint debts taken on during the marriage. But they are not responsible for new debt incurred by the other spouse. The court will divide marital debt when the couple moves on to divorce.
• Property rights: Legal separation preserves a spouse's property rights when the other spouse dies. A divorce extinguishes these rights.
• Remarriage/reconciliation: Reconciliation is easier with legal separation. A divorce is final.
  
  
  ust remarry if you want a legal reunificatio #legalseparation, #divorce,

Grounds for Divorce

In order for a person to get a divorce in the past, they had to prove their spouse did something wrong. The reasons could be things like desertion, cruelty, or adultery.

In 2016, Illinois made some huge updates to its divorce law. One of the biggest changes was that Illinois officially became a No-Fault divorce state. This means that you no longer have to prove any sort of wrongdoing to get a divorce. Currently, the only reason accepted for divorce in Illinois is irreconcilable differences.

Many people expect a cheating spouse to be “punished” as part of a divorce. They think that proof of infidelity is enough to sway a judge when deciding child custody or alimony. However, this is not the case. Adultery can’t be used as legal grounds to make decisions on property division, child custody, or support. #adultery, #nofaultdivorce, 

Covid and Divorce

 Divorce rates have spiked in the U.S. during the coronavirus pandemic as couples have been stuck at home for months.

The number of people looking for divorces was 34 percent higher from March through June compared to 2019.

The combination of stress, unemployment, financial strain, death of loved ones, illness, homeschooling children, mental illnesses, and more has put a significant strain on relationships.

The data showed that 31 percent of the couples admitted lockdown has caused irreparable damage to their relationships.#covid, #divorce,

Coronavirus and Divorce

It seems the ripple effect of coronavirus has infected everything, and divorcing individuals are not immune. The most apparent impact is that most, if not all, courthouses are closed except for emergencies. This may delay your divorce, along with applications for temporary support and custody. There are other less obvious issues as well. .

Your divorce is a lawsuit, and that means it’s dependent on proper and timely functioning of the court system to become final. Court systems across the country are responding in multiple ways to balance handling the pandemic with ensuring the health and safety of all the people they touch – employees, litigants and attorneys. #divorcecoronavirus, #covid-19divorce,

Grounds For Divorce

llinois no longer recognizes "grounds" for divorce. There is only one option: "irreconcilable differences." Irreconcilable differences needs little definition.  Technically, to be granted a divorce, one must prove:

1. irreconcilable differences have caused the irretrievable breakdown of the marriage;
2. past efforts at reconciliation have failed, and
3. future efforts at reconciliation would be impracticable and not in the best interests of the family. #groundsfor divorce, #schaumburgdivorcelawyer, #marderandseidler,
   
   
   

Schaumburg Divorce Lawyer

With texting, email, and Facebook Messenger rising in popularity as methods of communication in relationships, so is their use as divorce evidence. As divorce attorneys, we used to look for evidence in files, notebooks, ledgers, memos and photo albums. Now we have to also look at emails, text messages, Facebook, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and even Pinterest for what divorce evidence that is called Electronically Stored Information (ESI).

Schaumburg Divorce Lawyer

For divorces entered on or before December 31, 2018, alimony (maintenance) has been deductible to the maintenance payor. And the spouse receiving maintenance includes it as income for tax purposes.  What this means is that generally the alimony payor has received a tax break on alimony as paid.

Yes, there have always been exceptions.  These exceptions have included situations where the parties agree in writing as part of their divorce decree that alimony would not be tax deductible to the payor.  There have been other exceptions and the law has been complex including provisions for what is called alimony recapture, etc.  This post will not discuss those complexities.

For divorces and separation agreements entered on or after January 1, 2019:

• No longer will maintenance be deductible for the spouse who pays maintenance.
• The recipient no longer includes maintenance as taxable income.

The loss of the tax break of maintenance will have a significant negative impact on divorce cases where one spouse has high income.

New Law Alters Pet's Status In Divorces

A new law in Illinois allows judges in divorce proceedings to consider the well-being of pets in allocating sole or joint ownership, by taking the best interest of the animal into consideration. Previously, pets have been treated no differently than other pieces of property to be divided up between the couple.

Contested Divorce

Contested divorce can be described as a process where both parties may want the divorce, but cannot agree on all the issues necessary in order for a divorce to be entered such as: child custody, child support, spousal support and property division. Sometimes one spouse does not want the divorce, but a divorce will happen if pushed for by either spouse. Every divorce, contested or uncontested, begins with the filing of a Petition for Dissolution of Marriage. Every divorce ends with a court date, either a “prove up” or a ruling for a judge. In the interim the lawyers and spouses attempt to settle their case and may have interim or temporary hearings on issues with the Judge before case is finalized. This process can take anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of years. There are many variables to how long a divorce will take to be resolved.