Best Divorce Attorneys Near Me

Best Divorce Attorneys Near Me

Divorce represents a significant shift in the life of everyone who goes through it, and while it’s an emotional journey, it also determines your parental and financial rights, which makes your divorce a critical matter that should receive your utmost attention. One of the most important steps you can take as you navigate the divorce process is reaching out for the skilled legal guidance of one of the best divorce attorneys near you early on. 

Protecting Your Parental Rights

If your divorce involves shared children, the matter of child custody is a primary concern. In Illinois, child custody is now addressed in terms of parental responsibility which encompasses decision-making and parenting time. 

Parental responsibility determines who will be making important parenting decisions, such as those related to the following:

• Your kids’ healthcare
• Your kids’ schooling
• Your kids’ extracurriculars
• Your kids’ religious upbringing

You and your spouse can make these decisions by consensus, or one of you may be awarded the authority to break a tie in those instances when your good-faith efforts to reach a consensus fail. Alternatively, one parent may be awarded sole parental responsibility. 

Parenting time sets the schedule for dividing overnights with the children between you and your ex. Illinois courts are always guided by the children’s best interests, which means they make it their practice to maximize the amount of parenting time each parent receives – unless there is a significant reason for ruling otherwise. The basic options when it comes to parenting time schedules include the following:

• One parent takes on the role of the primary parent, with a majority of the time.
• Both parents split their time with the kids close to equally.

The Child Support Calculation

Many factors go into calculating child support, but those that take precedence include each parent’s earnings and the number of overnights each parent has with the kids. Ultimately, the parent who earns more generally has the child support obligation.

Alimony/Maintenance

In Illinois, alimony is called spousal maintenance, and it’s reserved for those occasions when divorce leaves one spouse with too few assets to continue supporting themself at or near the same level while the other spouse has the means to help. The goal of spousal maintenance is to provide the recipient with the time they need to become more financially independent through education, experience, or job training. While alimony doesn’t play a role in every divorce, it can be an important financial tool in specific divorce situations.  The duration of your marriage, your incomes and assets will also be considered in the statutory maintenance calculation in Illinois courts.

Reach Out to One of the Best Divorce Attorneys near You

The terms of your divorce are important to your future, and the focused Illinois divorce attorneys at WARD FAMILY LAW, LLC, are standing by to help. Our legal team is well-positioned to harness the full strength of our impressive legal skill and experience in pursuit of favorable terms that bolster your rights and work for you. We are on your side, so please don’t wait to reach out and contact us for more information about what we can do to help you today.