What Do I Need to do to File For Divorce in Illinois?

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In order to file for divorce in Illinois, certain residency requirements must be met for the court to accept the case. You must be a legal resident of Illinois in order to file for divorce in Illinois. In order to be a legal resident of Illinois for divorce purposes, either you or your spouse must have lived in Illinois for 90 days before filing for divorce. For your divorce case to determine custody of your children, the children must have lived in Illinois for at least 6 months before you file for divorce.

You can get a divorce in Illinois even if you were married in a different state. For example, even if you were married in Texas you can still file for divorce in Illinois so long as you or your spouse is a legal resident of Illinois. On the other hand, if you were married in Illinois but now live in Texas, you won’t be able to file for divorce in Illinois.

The last residency requirement is that you file for divorce within the Illinois county you or your spouse resides in. For example, if you live in Chicago and your spouse lives in Highland Park, you may file for divorce in either Cook County or Lake County.

In addition to residency requirements, you must also have proper grounds for a divorce in Illinois although in reality this is usually meaningless. Grounds are the reason you are getting a divorce. There are many grounds listed in Illinois law, and you can get a divorce under any of those grounds so long as you can prove them.

The most common grounds for divorce in Illinois, and easiest to prove, are: mental cruelty, physical cruelty, and irreconcilable differences. In Illinois, there are two categories of grounds for divorce: fault and no-fault.

A no-fault divorce is commonly known as a divorce due to irreconcilable differences. To prove a no-fault divorce, you must be separated from your spouse for at least 6 months or 2 years (depending on whether or not children are involved), and state that you both have made all efforts to try to work out your problems, but your marriage cannot be saved. These separation periods can be waived.

Fault must be proven in court to establish some grounds for divorce. There are 10 fault grounds for divorce in Illinois. They are: impotence, bigamy, adultery, willful desertion (for 1 year), habitual drunkenness (for 2 years), excessive use of addictive drugs (for 2 years), your spouse has attempted to take your life, extreme and repeated acts of physical or mental cruelty, your spouse has been convicted of a felony or other infamous crime, or your spouse has infected you with a sexually transmitted disease.

You can plead any ground that you want, but the reality is that in 99% of cases it’s not really an issue. Either you want a divorce or you don’t. A Judge isn’t going to make you stay married because you claim adultery and your ex denies it.

If you have any questions about Illinois divorce laws or would like a referral to a qualified and experienced Illinois divorce attorney, please contact us.