Under Illinois law, a judge can order that a child custody evaluation or custody study be done to help the court decide difficult issues of parenting time and residence of the children of the marriage. The judge typically appoints an evaluator after consulting with the lawyers for both sides. Once an evaluator is chosen, both sides are ordered to cooperate. Cooperation includes paying the evaluator’s fee.

Who Pays for the Custody Study?

The circumstances of every case are different. Judges have a lot of latitude in deciding who should pay for a custody study. While usually both sides have to contribute something, it is not required that both sides contribute equally. Often judges will order one side with more access to cash to pay most of the fee. However, the payment of the fee can also be considered when the marital property is divided.

Many states in the nation have enacted “no-fault” divorce laws that allow two parties to divorce one another upon a finding of “irreconcilable differences.” In most cases, a finding can be made based on the testimony of one of the spouses that the marriage is irretrievably broken and cannot be salvaged. Often, a finding of “irreconcilable differences” can be made even if one of the spouses objects to the divorce. But in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision legalizing same-sex marriage, one Tennessee judge made national headlines when he denied a straight couple’s divorce petition after finding that he needed the U.S. Supreme Court to step in and decide “when a marriage is no longer a marriage.”

Denials of Divorce Occur Infrequently

It should be some relief to know that, despite this judge’s ruling, his line of reasoning does not appear to be gaining much traction across the nation. In fact, it is quite unusual for a court to deny a divorce petition, even where one of the spouses is objecting to the divorce decree. This is not to say that an Illinois divorce is automatically granted, however. There are three  situations in which your divorce petition may be denied and dismissed by the court:

Unfortunately, few things in life last forever, marriages included. Because a sizeable number of Illinois marriages end in divorce each year, savvy spouses have attempted to protect themselves and others through the use of prenuptial and postnuptial agreements. Spouses with significant assets going into a marriage may opt for a prenuptial agreement, which is an agreement regarding property division and alimony entered into before the marriage. By contrast, where one spouse obtains a significant amount of assets after the marriage has been solemnized, or where spouses wish to reduce areas of disagreement and contention in the event they do divorce, a postnuptial agreement may be in order.

But simply agreeing with your spouse as to what the two of you would like to happen if a divorce occurs does not mean a valid postnuptial agreement has been entered into. What are the steps then that Illinois couples must take in order to enter into a valid postnuptial agreement?

Requirement One: Full Disclosure - Generally the spouses must provide a full and fair disclosure to one another of their current assets and liabilities. This is to prevent one spouse from taking advantage of the other spouse by making the other spouse believe the deceitful spouse has few assets or little net worth. A postnuptial agreement that does not include full and fair disclosure may be set aside as unconscionable.

So you’ve met a “special someone.” What’s the problem? Your divorce is not yet finalized. You know that once your divorce is finalized you are free to remarry this person (Illinois does not have a waiting period before a newly-divorced person is able to remarry), but it has been months – perhaps a year or more – and your divorce is not yet complete. There is no prohibition against dating this new person and developing a relationship with him or her; however, doing so while your divorce is still pending can cause certain problems.

Potential Problems of Dating While Divorcing

Dating while your divorce is still pending is not prohibited, but doing so can present some unique issues for your divorce. The effect your new relationship will have on your divorce will depend on your ex-spouse as well as the nature of your new relationship.

A Nebraska father has lost his fight to obtain primary residential custody of his children after a Nebraska appellate court ruled the trial court properly considered his motion and entered a ruling supported by the facts and circumstances of the case. The father argued that allowing the children to remain in the custody of their mother, who had remarried a registered sex offender, was contrary to the children’s best interests. The children’s stepfather admitted to having been convicted of attempted sexual assault over 10 years ago and had served four years in prison for the offense. In finding that the current custody arrangement did not pose a significant risk to the father’s teenaged daughters, the court relied on the testimony of the girls’ therapist who stated she believed the stepfather posed a low risk of reoffending and testimony that established certain precautions were in place at the mother’s house to ensure the girls were not left alone with their stepfather.

Changing Custody in Illinois When the Residential Parent Remarries a Sex Offender

Child custody decisions in Illinois (as elsewhere) are based on what the court determines to be the “best interest of the child.” There are a number of factors listed in Illinois statutes that courts can consider in determining what is the best interest of the child, but this list is non-exclusive (meaning that the court is free to consider other factors that it deems relevant to making its decision). If one of the parties to the custody action is a registered sex offender, this is a factor the Illinois statutes direct the court to consider. The fact that a stepparent who lives with the children is a registered sex offender may be considered by the court, despite not being specifically listed as a factor to consider.