One of the biggest questions that often comes with a divorce is “Who gets to keep the house?” Houses are often one of the most substantial assets a couple has, so it is understandable that the dispute over it gets a lot of focus. However, there is an aspect of dividing up the house that often gets overlooked, the mortgage. Marital property division also includes dividing up the marital debt, so couples going through divorce should be aware that the mortgage will need to be divided up as well. There are some general concerns people going through a divorce should be aware of, as well as special issues in the case of an underwater home, a problem plagues millions of U.S. households.

General Concerns

One of the most important things to understand with a mortgage division is that divorce does not actually affect a person's contractual obligation to pay a debt. This means that when the court makes the mortgage one spouse's obligation, the creditor can still pursue the other in the event that the first spouse fails to pay. Although, it is important to note that the spouse the court did not make responsible would have a recourse against the responsible spouse in court. Of course, if the responsible spouse is not paying their debts in the first place, that right may not be of much practical use.

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Engagement rings are a symbol of a couple's commitment to each other, but beyond that they are also valuable assets in their own right. In fact, The New York Times reports that the average value of an engagement ring is $4,000. A broken engagement or a divorce often raises questions about who gets to claim that value. The question is especially important for younger couples who may not have much in the way of tangible assets. As it turns out, the way the relationship ended is important for determining who gets the ring. The rules are different between a broken engagement and a divorce. For a broken engagement, it depends on who breaks the engagement, and for a divorce it tends to remain the property of the wife regardless.

A Broken Engagement

A broken engagement is governed by an Illinois statute known as the Breach of Promises Act. The Breach of Promises act was the state legislature's attempt to curtail the number of lawsuits that were occurring because of people breaking off engagements. In the past, people were able to sue for monetary damages related to broken engagements, and recover for things like emotional harm. However, people abused that system, so the legislature limited the damages recoverable to actual monetary harm people suffered as a result of the broken engagement.

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The purpose of divorce is to provide an orderly way for people who have legally intertwined their lives to begin unwinding them. The two major ways that law does this are through property division and child custody decisions. Yet, there are other parts of people's lives that are tied together during a marriage that also need to be dealt with. One of the biggest areas of law where that is true is in the estate planning context. A divorce can have major implications for things like wills, trusts, and insurance policies. Some of these instruments change automatically when a divorce occurs, while others require manual updating by the spouses. Re-examining estate planning after divorce is critical, yet one area that many people overlook.

Automatic Revocations

There are a variety of documents that update automatically in the event that a couple divorces. One of the biggest is a person's will. Section 4-7(b) of the Illinois Probate Act deals with what happens to wills in the event of a divorce. It automatically invalidates any bequest to the ex-spouse in the will. However, it is important to realize that the law does not update the will with new presumptions that the property will go to someone else. Instead, the property that would have gone to the spouse passes to the people it would have if it were not included in the will at all. This makes it important to manually update a will following a divorce to ensure that the property that would have gone to the spouse is properly redirected. This is especially true in cases where the will provided some decision-making authority to the ex-spouse, which will now be left out entirely.

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Divorce can result from many different issues, but one of the most serious thing s that may cause a divorce is domestic violence. Domestic violence can take many different forms, and many people do not understand what is currently considered domestic abuse. The issue of domestic violence affects people of all genders, and people who suspect that they may be be victims of it should understand the definition. They should also understand their options in the event that they choose to seek a divorce from their partner.

What Is Domestic Abuse

Domestic abuse is a term that has different meanings for different people. The National Domestic Violence Hotline has a variety of different behaviors for different situations. In a sense, all of the behaviors relate to a person's controlling, possessive aspects. However, there are certain things that a partner may do that can trigger concerns about domestic abuse. These include:

• Physical violence such as choking, hitting, slapping or beating;
• Threats of intimidation of physical violence;
• Shaming or embarrassment, which can include demeaning remarks to your friends, their friends, or even your children;
• Undue control of the finances, such as issuing an overly strict budget or tracking every flow of money that leaves the household; or
• the destruction of property or threats to harm personal property or pets.

In general, domineering threats or overly controlling behaviors can constitute domestic violence in some circumstances. This lay definition tracks fairly well with the definition of abuse set out in the Illinois Domestic Violence Act of 1986, which defines abuse as “physical abuse, harassment, intimidation of a dependent, interference with personal liberty or willful deprivation.”

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Divorce and bankruptcy are often intertwined events in people's lives. The added stress of mounting debt or a lost job can hasten the end of a difficult marriage. The two processes are also both somewhat similar from a legal standpoint, at least as far as they are both legal proceedings designed to divide a set amount of property, albeit quite differently. However, the fact that these two processes involve property division becomes important for how they interact. Yet, how they interact also depends on whether the bankruptcy comes before or after the divorce.

Bankruptcy before Divorce

Filing bankruptcy before the divorce may have some advantages, but it can also necessitate making decisions about the bankruptcy during the divorce.

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