Parents can sometimes be dismayed to discover that securing a child support obligation in court does not end the battle. In some cases, collecting the support that the other parent owes can present a difficult problem. Fortunately, Illinois law provides a wide degree of options to help enforce support obligations. These options vary in severity from a simple civil lawsuit or contempt petition, to criminal penalties for more egregious cases of delinquency.

 Civil Remedies The law gives a parent receiving child support the option to bring a suit against the supporting parent for failing to pay child support obligations. If the suit succeeds then the judgment will accrue interest against the the supporting parent. The judgment may also provide other collection options like wage garnishments in order to ensure payment. Parents may also file a contempt petition. This petition asks the judge to hold the delinquent spouse in contempt of court, which comes with increased civil penalties. Parents held in contempt of court could find themselves subject to a fine and possibly even imprisonment for up to six months or until they pay off their support obligations. Custodial parents should also keep in mind that the law does not allow them to use visitation rights as a method of enforcing child support obligations. That means that regardless of whether the supporting parent fails to pay child support, they still have the right to visit the child, and courts will enforce that right. Criminal Penalties In some circumstances, civil suits and contempt of court will not be enough to extract payment. In those cases, if the non-payment is serious enough, the law provides criminal penalties for the non-payment of support obligations. A parent collecting support may choose to initiate one of these cases by petitioning an Illinois State's Attorney, who will then handle the case's prosecution. A supporting parent's actions become eligible for criminal penalties once they fall more than six months behind on their child support, or if their support debt exceeds $5,000. A first offense would qualify as a Class A misdemeanor and repeated offenses become felonies. The law also provides for certain aggravating factors that can move a first offense to a felony level, such as leaving the state in order to avoid a debt of $10,000 or more, or having more that $20,000 of child support debt outstanding. If you are having trouble collecting child support, or face other post-divorce issues, contact a Wheaton divorce attorney today. They can guide you through the complexities of the court process, and help ensure that your rights are protected.

Illinois law allows a person to file for divorce for a variety of reasons. One of the most common reasons is for “irreconcilable differences.” The law refers to divorce for irreconcilable differences as a no-fault divorce, meaning that neither party caused the marriage to fail. Illinois law also recognizes a variety of grounds for fault divorce. Fault divorces assign blame for the marriage's failure to one party, and although that will not greatly affect the outcome of the divorce, it may impact child custody decisions.

 No-Fault Divorce Divorce on the grounds of irreconcilable differences allows a couple to separate without needing to engage in a public fight over who was at fault for the marriage ending. Instead, the spouses simply acknowledge that their relationship has broken down. In order to file for a no-fault divorce like this, the couple must meet four requirements. First, the couple must live “separate and apart” for two straight years. Second, the couple must have irreconcilable differences, meaning that their relationship is not working. Third, the spouses' attempts to heal the marriage must have failed. And fourth, any further attempts to fix the marriage would likely not succeed, and would not be good for the family. The first requirement, living separate and apart for two years, is more complicated than it seems. Living apart does not necessarily mean living in separate places. Instead, the couple can show that they lived together, but merely as roommates for that period. Additionally, the spouses may not actually need to wait the full two years. If the couple lived apart for six months, and both of them agree in writing, then the judge can waive the remainder of the waiting period and grant the divorce.  Fault Divorce Fault divorces are less common in Illinois, but the law still allows for them. In these cases, certain, specified types of marital misconduct can be grounds for a fault divorce. These grounds include:

• A spouse's having multiple marriages at the same time;
• A spouse's committing adultery;
• A spouse's abandonment of the family for at least one year;
• A spouse's abuse of alcohol or other addictive drugs for at least two years; and
• A spouse's attempting murder or other physical or mental cruelty towards the other spouse.

Those considering filing for divorce should remember that even if they succeed in proving fault, that will not affect the majority of the state. Courts do not look at fault for purposes of property division or alimony. However, the fault may play into the child custody hearing if it would affect the best interests of the child. If you are thinking about filing for divorce, contact a Wheaton divorce attorney today. They can explain your options and help determine the best course of action for you.

Illinois law may require one spouse to pay support to another following a divorce. Of course, the amount that the court requires depends on the parties’ financial circumstances at the time of the divorce. In this uncertain economy, those circumstances are prone to change, meaning that the support obligation may have to change as well. Fortunately, courts allow parties to petition to change their support obligations if they can show some sort of pertinent change in their finances.

How Judges Calculate Support

To understand what changes would qualify as meaningful, it can help to look at how the law determines a person’s support obligations. The Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act governs the court’s awarding of spousal support. It instructs judges to examine a variety of factors when making the support determination, including:

...

Psychology researchers at UCLA conducted a four year study to determine whether cold feet before a wedding could predict divorce. Their answer: yes and no. It turns out that women’s doubts before a wedding may signal trouble ahead for the marriage, while men’s doubts do not correlate with significantly higher divorce rates.

The study divided marriages into four groups: marriages in which neither spouse had doubts, marriages in which the men had doubts, marriages in which the women had doubts, and marriages in which both the men and the women had doubts. The first group contained 36 percent of marriages, with neither side having doubts. In this group, the divorce rate was only six percent. Among the group of marriages with only male doubts, that number rose to 10 percent, an increase that the study’s authors say is too small to have significance. Conversely, marriages involving women with cold feet ended in divorce three times as often as those where neither side had any doubts; 18 percent reported divorce by the four-year mark. And, in cases where both sides had doubt, the number increases slightly to a 20 percent divorce rate, only a small difference from the women-only pool of marriages. The researchers attribute these differences to the fact that women are often more attuned to the dynamics of the relationship. Consequently, they do not get cold feet as much as men do, but when they do, they tend to be better at noticing real causes for concern.

In addition to looking at divorce rates, the researchers also examined the satisfaction of people with their marriages, and how that satisfaction related to doubts they had beforehand. Their research found that both men’s and women’s doubts impacted this area, leading to a lower level of marital satisfaction for those who experienced doubt.

...

People often think that only the extremely wealthy need prenuptial agreements; however, with divorce now a common event in people’s lives, more and more couples can benefit from using them. While many people, understandably, find such topics uncomfortable to discuss before a wedding, the protection prenuptial agreements provide can save much heartache later.

How Prenuptial Agreements Work

In Illinois, prenuptial agreements are governed by the Illinois Uniform Premarital Agreement Act. This act sets out the general rules about topics that premarital agreements can regulate, which include:

...