Many spouses are shocked to discover their partner has committed a serious enough crime to land them in jail. Seeing one’s partner in prison garb and facing the consequences of his or her decision may be more of a burden than the marriage can bear. If a couple shares children, the prospect of explaining the situation to children and continuing a relationship with an imprisoned parent further complicates the question of whether to continue the marriage. Deciding whether to get divorced when your spouse is in jail or prison is a very difficult choice; an experienced Illinois divorce attorney can help you consider your options and move forward when you are ready. 

What Is a Good Reason For Getting Divorced With a Spouse in Jail? 

Even if the crime a spouse commits is serious enough to garner extensive jail time, many partners feel guilt about abandoning their spouse during such a challenging time. However, the only person who ultimately gets to decide whether to begin the divorce process is you; nobody else’s reasons need to be good enough. 

That being said, many spouses find that the struggle of being married to an inmate is too much for the following reasons: 

The prospect of managing a divorce, maintaining relationships with your children, and staying focused on your work while you are deployed can feel overwhelming. If you are in this position, you may not know what to expect or who to turn to for answers to your questions. However, many before you have been in your exact position and have gotten valuable assistance and representation from an Illinois divorce lawyer who can make the entire process straightforward and understandable. If you are getting divorced and are currently deployed or will be deployed soon, read these answers to some common questions about child support during deployment and then contact an experienced family law attorney who can help. 

Do Deployed Parents Still Have to Make Child Support Payments? 

In short, yes. Regardless of where you are in the world, what your bank account balance looks like, and even whether you are employed, you need to make your child support payments on time unless you have successfully petitioned an Illinois court to modify your child support payments. 

That being said, deployment can affect a servicemember’s allowances for housing and food; because these allowances are tax-free and may not be given during deployment, a servicemember’s income may go down significantly. However, deployment can also provide special or incentive payments, like the Family Separation Allowance or Hardship Duty Pay. If your income will change substantially while you are deployed, it may be a good idea to petition a court for a child support modification. 

Divorce in DuPage County, IL can become a heated and competitive endeavor that sometimes results in spouses trying to hide assets from each other. From hiding cash in a secret place to hiding cryptocurrency in an offshore bank account, it can be difficult to find and prove that hidden marital assets really exist and deserve to be divided as part of the marital estate. 

Hiding property is an unfair and unethical behavior that does not just affect the division of marital property - it can also affect child support payments and spousal maintenance payments by making a business owner’s revenue or a business’s value appear far less than it really is. Unfortunately for the other spouse, a small business offers the business owner plenty of surreptitious opportunities to hide away money before and during a divorce because there are so many ways assets can be concealed. If you are getting divorced and are worried your spouse might try to hide marital assets, contact an Illinois divorce attorney with experience in this matter right away. 

Common Ways Business Owners Hide Assets

Even small businesses can bring in substantial profits. While a business owner may be willing to share these profits during a marriage, he or she may feel perfectly justified in concealing them during divorce. Some common ways assets may be concealed include: 

When parents of underage children get divorced in Illinois, they must create a parenting plan as part of their divorce decree. Parents are encouraged to work together to create this parenting plan without the help of a judge and may be ordered to attend mediation if necessary in order to do so. Although working together with your ex may not be easy, both parents are far more likely to be satisfied with the terms of their parenting agreement when they create it themselves. 

Parenting agreements contain many different parts, including when children will be with each parent, where holidays will be spent, and how parents will transfer children between households. But there are less well-known parts of a parenting agreement that can be very beneficial to children and parents alike. One of these is known as “the right of first refusal.” 

How Does the Right of First Refusal Benefit Parents? 

The right of first refusal is a term describing the idea that when a parent needs to leave their children with a substitute childcare provider for a “significant period of time,” that parent is required to first approach the other parent to see if he or she is available to care for the children. If the other parent is not available, he or she can refuse - hence the term “right of first refusal” - and the parent who needs childcare may then go on to seek it elsewhere. 

When they are written well, prenuptial agreements are legally binding contracts that specify how a couple’s finances, at least in part, will be handled in a divorce. While most people have signed arbitration clauses in contracts like user agreements (often included in the fine print that nobody reads), those same people may be surprised to learn that arbitration agreements can also be included in an Illinois prenuptial or postnuptial agreement. 

Arbitration can be beneficial for many reasons, most of which are similar to the purpose of the pre- or postnuptial agreement itself: Avoiding protracted courtroom hostilities and ensuring parties can reach a resolution on important financial issues in the event of a divorce. If you are considering a prenup, continue reading to learn more about how an arbitration clause may benefit you. 

What is Arbitration and How is it Different from Mediation? 

While arbitration and mediation have some things in common, they are not the same. Arbitration is a process through which facts that are under dispute are investigated and judgment is rendered by a neutral third-party arbitrator. The arbitrator has the power to decide the outcome and his or her judgment is legally binding. Divorcing spouses involved in arbitration present evidence and testimony under oath, with very little room for emotional venting or creative problem-solving.