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Published in the December 18, 2017 edition of the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin   When dividing martial assets during a divorce, certain assets require special attention such as 401(k)s and other retirement accounts, employer-provided deferred compensation, life insurance policies and college savings accounts.   In this edition of “Discourse on Divorce,” I take a closer look at what laws govern different benefit plans and other unique assets and how they should be handled in a divorc...   Read more ...  

For any parents living in the Chicago area who recently got divorced and have a parenting plan or an allocation judgment in place, it can be stressful to think about moving out of state—especially during holidays. In Illinois, parenting schedules typically are developed in one of two ways: either through an agreement by both parents, or by a judge who decides how to allocate parenting time. Most parenting time schedules include different schedules for parenting time during normal weeks and mon...   Read more ...  

In the last couple of years, there have been significant changes to the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (750 ILCS 5/501 et. seq.). Some of these changes have impacted the ways in which Chicago and other Illinois residents can file for divorce, while others deal with family law matters pertaining to child custody, visitation, and child support. If you are thinking about filing for divorce in Illinois, or if you need to know more about how the state now views child custody and vi...   Read more ...  

When you are filing for divorce in Chicago or anywhere in Illinois, what do you need to know about how the law deals with companion animals? In other words, if you and your spouse shared a companion animal during the marriage, are there specific laws in place to determine how the court will allocate ownership and/or responsibility for the animal in the event of divorce? In brief, the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (750 ILCS 5/) was recently amended through SB 1261, or Public A...   Read more ...  

If you are in the process of getting divorced in Highland Park,  Deerfield, or elsewhere in Illinois and are also facing the prospect of foreclosure, what do you need to know? It is extremely difficult to go through a divorce, especially given that the dissolution of a marriage can put serious financial strain on both parties. In most situations, the parties go from living on two incomes in a single household to two incomes for two separate households. To be sure, the economic impact of a divor...   Read more ...  

  Published in the October 11, 2017 edition of the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin   Some law practices lend themselves to repeat clients. For those practices, generating new business can be as simple as going to existing clients and asking them what else they can handle for them. But for specialty practices, such as divorce law, even your happiest clients may only need your services once.   For practices that feature many one-time clients, it may seem impossible to generate new busin...   Read more ...