In any divorce case that involves children, child custody issues are some of the most contentious. No parent wants to face the possibility of not being able to spend as much time with their children as they would like to. In some cases, parents may even fight for more parenting time just to spite their spouse. Unfortunately, the conflict does not always end after divorce. When that is the case, parallel parenting may be the answer.

Until 2017, Illinois child support obligations were based solely on the paying parent’s income. However, the law has changed substantially in recent years, and now the calculation considers both parents’ income to decide how the support obligation should be distributed between them. In order to understand how this income shares model will apply to your case, it is important to know how Illinois determines the income of each parent for the purposes of child support.

A prenuptial agreement can be a useful tool for protecting both partners’ financial and property interests during their marriage. It can often help simplify the divorce process if the marriage fails. However, prenuptial agreements can be a sore subject for some couples, especially if one spouse has significantly greater assets and is more interested in creating the agreement than the other. If your spouse asks you to sign a prenup, there are several things you can do to ensure that the agreement is fair to you as well as your spouse.

When a child is born to unmarried parents in Illinois, it is important to establish legal paternity. There are a few different ways to do so, including having both parents sign a Voluntary Acknowledgment of Paternity (VAP) or establishing a man’s parentage through an administrative or judicial order, often with the support of a DNA test. However, regardless of how paternity is established, there are other, related legal issues that must often be resolved.

In Illinois, marital property is broadly defined to include nearly all assets acquired by one or both spouses during their marriage. When a marriage ends in divorce, these assets must be considered in the equitable division of property. With this in mind, retirement accounts with contributions made during your marriage will almost certainly be a factor in your divorce, and this can be especially complicated if you are divorcing later in life after a marriage of many years. Understanding how retirement accounts are treated in an Illinois divorce can help you protect your financial security …