Final Reason 10: Your oral agreement with your spouse is not worth the paper it is printed on.Frequently you may trust your spouse, but not when there is money on the table or a divorce is in the air. Agreements made by a spouse verbally may not be adhered to when divorce takes place.Statements made by your spouse to pay your support, expenses or "take care of you" after the divorce out of reassurance, guilt or anger which you would like to bring up in court most likely will not be a binding contract that a divorce judge will enforce. On the other hand,  you and your spouse can make …

Reason 9:  The truth is elusive in an Illinois divorce.Parties in a divorce case frequently do not tell the truth. It seems obvious, but sometimes forgotten, that many husbands or wives simply do not tell the truth during their divorces. Hidden assets, undisclosed income, and phony debts to business associates, parents, or relatives are commonplace in divorce.In many ways, spouses in a divorce frequently think they are clever in coming up with lies, false accusations, as well as transfers of assets which they believe will never be discovered during a divorce case. In fact, your husband or …

Prenuptial agreements are becoming more commonplace for couples today. Prenuptial agreements serve the purpose of establishing specific rules in the event the marriage does not work out. Traditionally, these agreements were exclusively utilized by more wealthy couples, but that is no longer the case, as prenuptial agreements are now often used by couples when either spouse had children prior to marriage and/or in a previous marriage, and when either spouse already owned real estate, stocks, retirement accounts, or other assets prior to the marriage.

Any couple that owns a business together, and that is going through a divorce, will likely have to establish the value of the business in order to appropriately determine how the marital property will be divided. When business interests commingle with a divorce, matters can become quite complex and it may be best to seek out an attorney with expertise in handling business valuations. A skilled family law attorney in Illinois can help a divorcing couple obtain a business valuation in order to facilitate and expedite the process of property distribution.

Enforcing a child support order is not always a simple process. Generally, if a non-custodial parent is not paying any required child support, the custodial spouse may go to court in an effort to enforce such payments.

When couples with children are separated or getting a divorce, a major concern is how they will financially support their children in years to come. Generally, parents may make an effort to devise a plan detailing their child support arrangements. However, if the parents cannot come to an agreement as to the amount of child support that will be paid by either party, then the next step is to seek out the assistance of the judicial system. In this case, an attorney can be an invaluable tool to help navigate the process.

When a child is born out of wedlock, the father of that child may face difficulties in establishing his parental rights. A common matter that fathers are not aware of is the fact that under Illinois law, no custodial or visitation rights are granted to a father whose child is born out of wedlock until the court orders that a biological relationship does in fact exist between the two. After such an order by the court, either parent of the child can seek additional orders from the court pertaining to custodial and visitation rights and child support. If you are an unwed parent and have to deal …

Under Illinois law, a non-custodial parent is generally entitled to reasonable visitation rights, unless the court finds that any such visitation would seriously endanger the child. While it may be becoming more common for courts to order that parents share custody of their children, parents may determine that the best interest of the child requires them to live with one parent (thus, one parent would have sole physical custody of the child), with the other parent having regularly scheduled visitation rights. If you are going through a divorce and need help negotiating visitation rights, or …