If your marriage is ending, there is plenty for you to deal with, and it’s not uncommon to feel completely overwhelmed by the difficulties you face. Fortunately, there are experienced local divorce lawyers in Chicago who can help.
While your divorce won’t involve the same details as anyone else’s, it will address all of the divorce basics that apply to your situation (just like everyone else’s divorce does). These basics under Illinois law include:
Those terms that you and your spouse are able to agree upon will be decided between yourselves with the professional legal counsel of your respective divorce attorneys. If, however, any terms remain after exhausting all of your negotiation options, the court will need to intervene on your behalf.
When it comes to your parental rights, you need to address your parental responsibilities, which refers to making the big-picture decisions on behalf of your children, including:
Often both parents share parental responsibilities, but they can also be assigned to one parent alone.
Parenting time relates to the schedule that guides visitation time with your children. Sometimes, the children live primarily with one parent and have a visitation schedule with the other, but both parents can also share their parenting time evenly (or nearly evenly).
Child support is the state’s system for helping to ensure that the financial responsibility for supporting shared children is balanced between both parents. Child support is calculated according to exacting guidelines. As such, the higher earner generally pays child support to the other parent, but it is entirely dependent on the new income shares model which takes into consideration the income of each party and the parenting time allocated to each parent.
The division of your marital assets is likely to play a primary role in your financial future, which makes getting it right paramount. In the State of Illinois, marital assets – those assets that you and your spouse accumulate while married – are intended to be divided equitably (or fairly given the circumstances) in the event of a divorce. This division is often one of the most complicated and emotionally fraught divorce factors.
Maintenance, formerly known as alimony, when deemed appropriate, can also play a major role in your financial future. Maintenance is generally ordered only when one spouse takes a disproportionate financial hit in the divorce, and the other spouse has the means to help.
The consequences of your divorce will reverberate throughout your future in profound ways, which makes working with an accomplished divorce lawyer key. The dedicated local divorce lawyers at WARD FAMILY LAW in Chicago have an impressive range of experience successfully guiding divorce cases like yours toward beneficial resolutions. We’re on your side, so please don’t hesitate to contact us for more information about how we can help you today.
I'm so thankful that I found Jennifer and her awesome team to help me with my divorce! It was incredibly stressful and scary to go through this process, especially with two little ones, but she has given me the support and confidence that I need. She is extremely intelligent, level-headed, supportive, and reasonable! I was anxious in the beginning thinking that I would have to go to court, but she gave me the peace of mind that I needed to get thru it and not be anxious. I would highly recommend her to anyone going through this difficult process. I…
She is a nice lawyer. She helped me to fix my passport issue among other things, including family problems.
Initially, I'd thought to navigate through troubled waters on my own in the divorce process due to the cost. I hadn't before needed representation in any court case, and, not being familiar with the costs involved in having a lawyer, I was worried about moving forward with one. My fear was the expense. I felt comfortable with Jennifer Ward from the moment I first spoke with her - contacting her to set up a consultation costs you nothing. In the end, the retainer and fees spent to end my case on a high note were worth every penny. They sent…
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