Illinois Family Law Resources

Divorce isn’t just emotionally difficult – it also means untangling all aspects of your life that you shared with your partner. It gets even more complicated when you have children together or have large assets in both names, such as a home or a business.

Planning on filing for divorce or being served with divorce often increases anxiety, especially for those who have never been through the process and do not know what to expect. Tamp that anxiety down by learning what divorce will mean for you and how an experienced divorce lawyer in Illinois can help you fight to keep what you deserve.

Illinois Divorce Process

When you or your spouse file for divorce, consider it breaking a contract. You must decide which spouse gets to keep which assets, when you see the children, and if either of you needs spousal support. In the end, you can live separate lives, but if you have children, your lives will always be connected – at least until the children become emancipated.

The steps in the divorce process include:

• Filing a petition for divorce with the clerk. The clerk then issues a summons, which a deputy sheriff or private process server serves on your spouse. The summons lets your spouse know that he or she has 30 days to file an appearance and a response to the petition.
• Go through mediation if no parenting plan agreement is reached.
• Go through the discovery process. This may include interrogatories, requests for admissions, and the production of documents, including but not limited to deeds, titles, bank statements, tax returns, debt statements, and more.
• Attend a trial.

You and your spouse can attempt to settle at any time before or during the process. If you agree on all legal issues before you even file for dissolution of marriage, an Illinois divorce attorney can draft a marital settlement agreement for an uncontested divorce.

Even after you or your spouse files for divorce, you can settle. A contested divorce then becomes an uncontested divorce.

A contested divorce can take a few months to over a year for the case to go to trial.

Illinois Residency Requirements

Illinois requires you to live in the state for at least 90 days before you can get a divorce. However, you can file in the county where you live prior to meeting the residency requirements. You won’t receive a final judgment until you meet the 90-day threshold.

You can prove residency by providing the court with a copy of your driver’s license, or you can use bank accounts or bills to show you have been residing in the state for longer than 90 days.

If you are in the armed services and are stationed in the state, you can also petition for a divorce, even if your domicile is in another state.

Grounds for Divorce in Illinois

You must prove “grounds” for divorce in Illinois. A ground is a reason for the divorce. The only ground that the state recognizes is “irreconcilable differences,” which is an irretrievable breakdown of the marriage.

In addition to the residency requirements, Illinois requires you to be separated for six months, whether in the same household or different households. This waiting time gives you and your spouse time to try to reconcile. If you still agree that you cannot get along or do not want to stay married at the end of six months, you can file for divorce.

Illinois Property Division Process

Illinois is an equitable distribution state, which means that property is not necessarily divided in half. Illinois courts divide property fairly, which can mean that the court might award one spouse a higher percentage of the property than another.

The court looks at several factors when determining equitable distribution, including but not limited to:

• The duration of the marriage
• Time-sharing arrangements
• Each spouse’s economic circumstances after the divorce
• Each spouse’s contribution to the marriage, including the acquisition of property and his or her contribution to the marriage as a homemaker or caretaker for minor children
• Potential earning capacity
• Age, health, occupational skills, vocational skills, and employability
• The needs of each spouse
• Spousal maintenance
• Whether one or both spouses wasted marital property
• The value of nonmarital property each spouse owns
• Liabilities
• Previous agreements regarding property
• Obligations from either spouse’s previous marriage(s)
• Tax consequences

Separate property includes property that was acquired prior to the marriage and was not commingled during the marriage. For example, if you purchased a second home before your marriage, it could become marital property if you used marital funds for its upkeep or to pay the mortgage.

Other separate properties include:

• Inheritances
• Gifts
• Property you purchased after you received a judgment of legal separation
• Property you agree to exclude from your marital estate. You must have a valid agreement
• Property you received as a result of a court judgment from your spouse (in most circumstances)
• Income from any of these types of properties, as long as the income or appreciation is not due to your spouse’s efforts

Illinois Child Custody Laws

Illinois courts award parenting decisions and parenting time. The courts decide the parenting time if no agreement is reached between the parties. The courts also award parenting decisions. This can be joint or one person makes those decisions without the other.

Parenting decisions is the ability to make major decisions, such as education, medical care, and religious beliefs on behalf of the children. Parenting time, is where the children physically live. Both parents can equally share parental responsibilities, or they can agree on a percentage.

During the divorce case process, an Illinois family law attorney can assist you in developing a parenting plan that both you and your spouse can hopefully agree upon. A parenting plan identifies when the children stay with each parent, where they will spend each holiday, and other factors involved in physical custody.

Illinois Child Support

Parents must provide financial support for their children. Child support is based on the parents’ incomes and must be paid until:

• The child turns 19 or graduates from high school, whichever comes first.
• The child becomes emancipated.
• The child enters college, though the obligor might have to pay support for room, board, tuition, living expenses, and transportation).

If a child has a mental or physical disability, child support could continue past 19 years of age. Child support covers the child’s needs, including clothing, food, and shelter. Both parents are obligated to pay 50 percent of the child’s healthcare expenses, including insurance premiums, over and above regular child support. Childcare and education-related costs are also added to the base child support amount.

Illinois’s child support is based on the combined net incomes of both parents. The state no longer uses flat percentages based on the number of children. Instead, Illinois follows many other states in determining a percentage of the parents’ incomes and the amount of time the children spend with each parent to determine support.

Illinois Spousal Maintenance

Spousal maintenance provides financial assistance to a spouse during the divorce process and for some time after the divorce is finalized. The court has wide discretion in ordering spousal maintenance – and it can be for either spouse.

If you can agree that one spouse should receive maintenance and put it into a marital settlement agreement, the court almost always incorporates those terms into the final judgment. However, if you cannot agree, you must ask for maintenance in the petition for dissolution of marriage.

Illinois laws allow for two types of maintenance:

• Temporary maintenance during the pendency of the divorce and
• Long-term spousal maintenance after the divorce becomes final.

Long-term maintenance can be fixed-term with an end date or indefinite. If the court awards indefinite maintenance, it continues until one of the parties requests a modification, and the court grants it due to a substantial change in circumstances.

The court may also award “reviewable maintenance,” which ends on a specific date; however, the court reviews the circumstances to determine if the maintenance should continue past the original term.

In addition to the parties’ needs and ability to pay, the court reviews several factors in its determination of the type and amount of maintenance ordered, including:

• Both parties’ incomes
• The needs of each party
• The future earning capacity of both parties
• Impairment of present and future earning capacity due to domestic duties, delaying or giving up education, employment, training, and career opportunities because of the marriage
• The ability of each party to acquire training, education, or employment to support themselves sufficiently
• Parental responsibilities
• The standard of living during the marriage
• The duration of the marriage
• Age
• Health
• Amount and sources of income
• Other sources of income, such as retirement income and disability
• Tax consequences of maintenance
• The contributions of one spouse to the other for education, training, career advancement, or licensing (for business)
• Valid agreements made between the parties

The court uses guidelines to determine the amount of maintenance. If the parties’ combined gross annual income is less than $500,000, and the payor does not have to pay child support or maintenance for another relationship, the court orders the support to be 33.3 percent of the payor’s net annual income minus 25 percent of the receiving spouse’s net annual income. However, the final amount cannot be higher than 40 percent of the combined net income of both parties.

Once the court determines the amount, it uses a formula based on the duration of the marriage to determine how long the payor pays. For example, if a marriage lasted 20 or more years, the court can order maintenance for up to 20 years or indefinitely.

Spousal maintenance automatically ends when one of the parties dies, when the receiving spouse remarries, or when the receiving spouse cohabitates with another person.

Why Work with Cordell & Cordell’s Illinois Divorce Lawyers

When you file for divorce or if your spouse served you with divorce, an experienced Illinois family lawyer can guide you through the process and help protect your rights.

Client Experience

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Unwavering Support for All Your Illinois Family Law Needs

Cordell & Cordell guides men through various family law issues. Contact our team today at 866-DADS-LAW or fill out our online contact form to schedule an initial consultation about your family law issues, including divorce, child support, child custody issues, and division of marital assets.

Disclaimer: This page serves as a resource and is not to be taken as legal advice.