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Couples-Fighting-for-Pet-Custody-During-Divorce Once almost completely unheard of, custody battles involving pet ownership are becoming a reality of the 21st Century. As increasingly more civil unions, domestic partnerships and same-sex marriages break apart, it is not surprising that the number of custody fights over who gets a couple’s dog, cat or bird is also on the rise. A recent survey of 1,600 matrimonial lawyers revealed that at least a quarter of respondents saw a definitive increas...   Read more ...  

Tip-to-a-Long-Marriage With nearly one out of two marriages ending in divorce, researchers have been concentrating on what are the “secrets” to a long-lasting marriage. Surprisingly, the results of these studies seem to debunk what psychologists and researchers had previously found. In general, there seems to be much agreement that couples that have the highest expectations for the institution of marriage itself, will end up with the best marriages. That’s because these couple...   Read more ...  

Child Support Illinois is currently considering a major overhaul to the way child support is calculated in the state. The concept of child support is relatively straightforward to divorce attorneys and their clients : if parents are not jointly caring for the child, one parent is the custodial parent, and the other (noncustodial) must help financially support the child’s upbringing. It’s much less straightforward to figure out how much is fair to make the noncustodial parent pay. &...   Read more ...  

Same-sex couples and filing taxes As more and more states are joining the civil union bandwagon, including Delaware and Hawaii, we’re beginning to see some of the perks of the new domestic partnership status here in Illinois. The Illinois Department of Revenue has recently confirmed that couples in civil unions will be able to jointly file their taxes in 2012. Although the state’s Civil Union bill took effect last June, it has remained unclear whether couples in civil unions would be able ...   Read more ...  

In a recently issued opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that “deadbeat” parents facing jail time for failure to pay child support aren’t automatically entitled to an attorney.  In the case, Turner v. Rogers, the father claimed he couldn’t afford either his child support payments or an attorney to defend himself in the case against him. Despite his claims, Mr. Turner was sentenced to a year in jail for “civil contempt”. This was an interesting, but common, situation.  Th...   Read more ...  

Same-sex divorce The historic day that Illinois’ civil union bill took effect this past June; a slightly less well-known bit of history took place. A same sex Illinois couple, previously married in Quebec, filed for Illinois’ same sex divorce. With the passage of the law, same sex couples were afforded not only the right to enter into civil unions, but also the right to legally dissolve their relationships. Perhaps it’s not as glamorous a right as some that same sex couples no...   Read more ...