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What Is Family Law?

When someone calls our office looking for free Illinois legal guidance, the first thing we typically say is “How can I help you?” We want to hear what you are looking for in your own words and we’ll ask questions as needed.

Sometimes people tell us they have no idea what type of lawyer they need. Other times they know exactly what they want but just want to know who’s best for their case. And other times they think they know what they are looking for, but are actually looking for the wrong thing. That’s most common when people say their case involves family law.

When some people hear the words family law, they think it means cases involving their family. About once a week I get a call from someone who says they want a family law attorney, but upon further talking we realize what they really meant was guardianship or probate or orders of protection or even just regular civil litigation.

The reality is that family law doesn’t mean legal situations that involve your family. Suing your brother for taking something that belongs to you has nothing to do with family law.

What family law is in the legal world is anything related to divorce, custody, child support, QDRO’s etc. These are cases that are handled in a specific courtroom called family law court. So it’s usually a marriage or a situation where the issue involves a child between you and a now or soon to be ex.

So if someone says they are a family law attorney, it’s really just another way to say that they are a divorce attorney. If you go to the over issues relating to someone’s death or property or suing a family member, they might take your case, but it doesn’t mean that they are the best choice to do that. If your case involves the asset of a deceased family member for example, you’d be better served by hiring a lawyer who handles probate and estate related matters on a daily basis.

This isn’t the only area of law that confuses people by its name. Workers’ compensation has to do with job injuries, not employee pay. That’s another one we get a lot of confused calls about.

All of this is one reason we started this website way back in 2001. We wanted to provide a service that could educate the public and answer any questions at no cost and hopefully in a “plain English” way. If you have any questions you can call us any time at 312-346-5320.

Illinois Divorce When Your Spouse Has A Substance Abuse Problem

If you read our website, you know that we highly recommend that when you hire an attorney in Illinois, you choose one who has a very narrow practice focus.  Illinois attorneys can’t legally call themselves specialists, but you want someone who isn’t a jack of all trades lawyer, but instead just handles the type of case you have.  So a “specialist” even if we can’t call them that.

When it comes to choosing a divorce attorney in Illinois, you not only want someone in your corner who is experienced and will fight for you, but you need to make sure that they understand the issues you are facing.  Some law firms are good at divorces when one spouse owns a business. Others have had success with child custody disputes.

Most firms who focus on family law will also deal with substance abuse in marriages because it comes up a lot. The question for you is, are they paying appropriate attention to this potentially devastating problem.

If your husband/wife is an alcoholic or abusing drugs it can cause so many problems. First and foremost is that you don’t want them to be alone with your children and certainly not taking the kids anywhere in a car. As a client you can’t just hope to prevent this, but instead need a lawyer who knows how to properly present a motion that shows this concern and knows how to prove your allegations are true. Often this will mean getting an order of protection on behalf of the kids.  Other times it’s handled in a straight custody hearing where we argue that any visitation should be supervised.  It’s all about knowing how to win and showing that you have won in the past.  You don’t want an attorney to have one of their first experiences handling this problem on your case.

Beyond the kids, there is also the issue of the spouse who blows all of the family funds on their habit and runs up large debts.  These are marital funds and even if they are taken away via reckless spending, they some times can be recovered as well.  For example, if you have a $100,000.00 401k, typically you and your spouse would split it 50/50 if it was all earned during the marriage.  But if your spouse spent $20,000.00 on a cocaine habit, you might get a credit for that wasteful spending when it comes time to divide the 401k.

Other things can be done such as drug testing to prove your allegations are true.  This all starts though with an attorney in your corner who knows what they are doing.  We can’t call them specialists, but that’s what you need.

If you would like our help in finding the right lawyer for your case or just have questions, call us for free at (312) 346-5320 or fill out our contact form and we’ll call you.

Louis CK Should Be Your Divorce Mentor

With the holidays upon us, more people in Illinois are thinking about divorce than any other time of the year.  The holidays have a way of making people realize that they aren’t happy in their marriage and with 2016 right around the corner, many want to get a fresh start.

The very funny comedian, Louis CK, has been through a divorce and I love his joke in the picture. He’s right when he says that “no happy marriage ends in divorce.”  You might be happy in your relationship and get blindsided by a cheating spouse, but the truth is that if they are cheating on you, it’s not a happy marriage.

From my standpoint, the best part of the joke is that it has a real lesson which is that if you can accept that you aren’t in a happy marriage then you can accept that it’s best for you to get divorced.  Of course that’s a lot easier said than done, but the ones who have that ability can start making rational decisions instead of emotional ones.  You won’t be trying to get back at your spouse, you’ll be trying to get a result that you will be satisfied with and move on with your life.

Whenever someone calls us for advice on a divorce or looking for an attorney referral, the first thing we tell them is that they need to get a game plan together.  By meeting with an experienced family law attorney you can make sure you are thinking about EVERY issue that needs to be handled to get you to the end point in your case.  You also need to not just worry about what you want to happen right now (e.g. custody of the kids), but also a year from now (religion of the kids, where you want to live), five years from now (what are you going to be doing for work and does that impact your case, what will happen if you re-marry) and ten years from now (possibly planning for college expenses or selling the marital home).

It’s not easy to game plan when you are only thinking about revenge or the hurt you are feeling or simply trying to hold it all together.  We get that.  That’s why having a good attorney in your corner is important as it can take a lot of the pressure off of you.  But it’s still on you to focus on your goals and the Louis CK joke, while funny, should help you realize that.

That’s not to say you are going to finish with a divorce and be happy or even enjoy the divorce process.  But you can make it go smoothly and start getting on the path back to happiness.  If you’d like our help in making that happen, please call us at (312) 346-5320.

Illinois Divorce- When Your Soon To Be Ex Files A Crazy Motion

Probably the most common area of law that we help with is Illinois divorce law.  Plain and simple there are just more of those cases than any other area of law.  We help people find the right attorney no matter what their situation is, but divorce is clearly the most common.

While some divorces are clean breaks, many involve hurt feelings and people acting on emotion instead of logic. Because of this, crazy things can happen that can, well, drive you crazy.

The #1 problem is from soon to be ex’s acting like a jerk and doing whatever they can to get under your skin.  A good lawyer can’t always do something about that, but we can try.

The #2 problem though is created by lawyers.  A recent caller to my office is typical of the problems a bad attorney can create in this situation.  My caller is a stay at home mom with three kids.  She and her husband both want the divorce, although he moved a little faster than she did and got a lawyer.

The lawyer had her served with a petition for dissolution of marriage, e.g. a divorce petition.  She didn’t know it was coming, but it didn’t rattle her.  What did cause a problem were the contents of the petition.  In it, the lawyer asked that she move out of the maritial home, give him full custody of the kids with no visitation for her, pay him child support, pay him his lawyer fees, give up any rights to the joint bank account or other marital property and have her pay him maintenance.  Mind you that one of the kids has special needs, she’s been a stay at home mom for 15 years and while she did a couple years of college, he’s a medical doctor pulling in a mid six figure salary.

Needless to say, she was stunned and then pissed off and then a little bit frightened.  Her husband gave her no indication that this was coming and beyond that, he hardly spends any time with the kids.  She called me and was ready to go to war.

We’ve been helping people find the best lawyer for their case for almost 15 years via our state wide network of experienced, successful law firms.  The lawyers we recommend fight for their clients and they are people who we as attorneys would hire ourselves.

We don’t just recommend lawyers though, we also provide free legal guidance.  Part of being a good attorney is helping take the emotion out of the situation and getting a client to be goal focused.

What I explained to this caller is that her husband clearly has a terrible attorney.  Basically the lawyer presented what would be an extreme best case scenario.  Lawyers without skills will use this tactic so they can have a lot of room to negotiate on a case and act as if they are really compromising when they give up on some of their demands.  It’s a pretty amateur move.  It would be similar to the agent for a baseball player who hit .250 the year before asking the team to pay him $30 million a year so he won’t look as unreasonable when he asks for $10 million a year.  I can tell you that it doesn’t work in sports and doesn’t work on good attorneys.

I was able to talk this very nice woman off the ledge and let her know that based on what she told me, she’ll actually end up getting just about everything her husband’s lawyer was asking for if this goes to court.  It’s clear that either his attorney is inexperienced or is just trying to create a battle to run up some huge bill.  It’s really his client who will be hurt by this.

These types of motions aren’t much different than when your ex says something like, “You’ll never see the kids again!” It’s really easy to let them get you riled up, but you have to take emotion out of the equation and remember that they aren’t the Judge and you certainly shouldn’t take legal advice from them.

If your ex or any opponent in a legal case is making you insane, the best advice I can give you is to relax, take a step back and put your case in the hands of someone who will fight for you, but isn’t going to make emotional decisions.  Of course helping you find that person is what we do better than anyone else.  Fill out our contact form to the right if you’d like our help.  It’s free and confidential.

Overview: Mediation in your Illinois divorce or custody case

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Mediation can be an efficient way to settle your divorce case, if it’s right for you. A mediator is an unbiased third party who meets with you and your spouse to reach an agreement on the various aspects of divorce. The job of the mediator is to suggest solutions and help bring the two sides closer to agreement.

If you and your soon-to-be ex can barely even speak without arguing, you might think mediation isn’t an option for you. It could be worth a try anyway. Mediation is confidential and non-binding. It cannot be brought up in court if the mediation fails and you end up bringing your case before a judge instead. If you try and it doesn’t work, then you can still go to court and have the judge hear your case. If mediation does work, and you reach an agreement, that agreement is then submitted to the judge before it becomes final.

In Illinois, mediation is not required for every divorce, although the judge can always make it a requirement in your case. Mediation is required, however, in cases (including divorce cases) that involve child custody or visitation issues that cannot be resolved. In fact, mediation is required whenever child custody is an issue, even if the parents were never married. After a case involving custody or visitation is filed, the court will then order mediation, unless there is good reason mediation is not appropriate. In cases of domestic violence, for example, mediation will likely not be ordered. The same is true in cases where there is substance abuse or mental illness.

You can hire a private mediator, or go through the courts. Some mediators are lawyers with experience in family law cases; others do not have a law license but should have completed a training course. In child custody and visitation cases, the mediator will keep the best interests of the child or children in mind. The same is true for cases involving a request to move a child to another state. In divorce cases, the mediator’s job is to help both sides reach a compromise that they can both agree to. Even if the mediation itself is mandatory, you are not required to come to an agreement. And any agreement you do come to is not binding. When you submit an agreement to the judge and the judge signs it as an official order, then your agreement is binding.

The benefits of mediation in divorce include saving money, time and even stress. Going though litigation and approaching conflict from the extremes typically involves higher legal fees. And the process can take much longer, with delays caused every time there is a disagreement. Not every case can be resolved in mediation, and in those cases, going to court with an attorney and taking an aggressive approach might be necessary to protect your interests. But because mediation is not binding, and arguably gives you more control over the outcome, there’s a good argument for at least trying.

Even if you predict that you will end up in mediation, consult with an experienced Illinois divorce and custody lawyer, too. You’ll still need someone to make sure your interests are protected. Your mediator should not be giving you legal advice. Your attorney will review any agreement you come to in mediation and can suggest changes and help you understand every aspect of the agreement. Don’t wait until after an agreement is reached to talk to a lawyer.

If you have questions about how mediation might work in your case, let us know. There are pros and cons to pretty much everything in life, including mediation. If you think you might find yourself in family court in the near future, learn about your options.

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