Divorce is a major life event, and it can often be particularly difficult for children to go through. However, much of that difficulty can be reduced by parents who understand what their child is going through and have been taught how to properly handle these emotional issues. To that end, the Illinois Supreme Court introduced Rule 924. Rule 924 is a requirement that people party to child custody hearings must participate in parenting education classes that has been approved by the courts in the county in which the legal proceeding is taking place. From a practical standpoint, the available classes vary widely in their cost as well as in their format.

The Purpose of Parenting Education

The goal of parenting education classes is to equip parents with the tools they need to make custody issues and the divorce process emotionally easier for the children involved. Each county's approved programs are different, so the curriculum may vary from place to place. For instance, one of DuPage County's approved programs is the Caring, Coping, and Children Program. The core goal of this program is to help parents develop their relationship in a way that is healthiest for the children involved. This includes focusing on developing a “business-like” relationship between the parents, and working with them to put personal conflicts to the side so that they can better interact with the children. The program also contains a motivational component that works with parents to help them put the best interests of their children first. 

Over the past few decades, the pet's role in the family has dramatically evolved. Dogs lives have gone from a chain in the backyard to organic diets and high-end doggy daycare. Likewise, the pet cat's role has elevated from family pest killer to the star of the internet. With these changes came our changing perspective of pets as individuals, rather than property.

But legally, pets are still considered to be personal property and are divided as such during a divorce. Illinois courts do not recognize pet custody agreements in the way that they recognize child custody agreements and instead consider pets to be the same as other property outlined in Part V of the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act.

However, you and your partner might want to consider creating your own pet custody schedule outside of court. Talk to your attorney about ways to model your pet custody agreement if this is an option for you. Otherwise, you will need to prove that your home is better suited for the pet than your former spouse's home.

The presence of children can often make a divorce more complicated, and parents want to make sure that their divorce affects their children as little as possible. Parents tend to focus their concerns on the possible emotional impacts of divorce, but they should also remember that divorce can have an effect on their children's physical health as well, if steps are not taken to keep them healthy. In fact, a recent study from San Francisco State University found that children of divorce are more likely to consume sugary beverages such as soda, which can have a negative impact on their health.

The Study's Findings

The study examined the eating habits of 37 children in families that were recently separated or divorced. The goal of the study was to determine if a parental divorce increased children's risk for obesity-inducing behaviors such as the consumption of sugary soda. The researchers found that of the behaviors they studied, including soda consumption, skipping breakfast, eating fewer fruits and vegetables, and eating out more often, the only one affected by the divorce in a significant way was the increase in soda consumption.

Last June, Illinois law officially changed to allow same-sex couples to enter into full marriages. While this was a momentous occasion for many, it also opened up same-sex couples to the possibility of having to deal with a formal legal divorce down the road. Although the divorce laws apply to same-sex marriages the same way that they do to heterosexual marriages, there are a variety of practical differences that certain same-sex couples should consider. One of these issues comes up in the context of property division. Many same-sex couples cohabited in long-term, committed relationships that were not legally recognized marriages prior to the enactment of the new law. Those preexisting relationships can make distinguishing marital property from non-marital property more difficult.

Property Division Rules in General

In broad strokes, Illinois' property division rule is that the courts divide marital property equitably, and leave non-marital property untouched. However, that requires courts to determine what pieces of property qualify as marital versus non-marital. Marital property is almost anything that a spouse acquires during the marriage. The exceptions to this are things like gifts to one spouse or inheritances that a spouse receives.

Divorces can be emotionally-charged affairs, and those emotions can provoke people to overstep certain legal bounds. Often, this can manifest as people trying to do their own investigations into their spouse's lives, trying to catch them cheating or collecting evidence of other bad behavior to cast them in a worse light in court. This trend has only become more pronounced with the advent of cheaper surveillance equipment and other technology that allows ordinary citizens to spy on their spouses. While the desire to engage in this sort of behavior is understandable, it is often better to leave the divorce investigation to the professionals. People who overstep the bounds of the law can find out that the evidence they gathered cannot be used in court, and they may even end up facing criminal charges because of their actions.

What Can Be Used in Court

Generally speaking, in order for the results of an investigation to be admitted as evidence in court it must have been collected legally. This is particularly important with regard to two common areas of spousal snooping, recording conversations and checking up on a spouse's online life.