Divorce Lawyers in Barrington

If you’re considering or already facing a divorce, the stakes are high, and your emotional reaction is likely to be just as significant. The terms of your divorce will directly affect your post-divorce finances – in addition to your parental rights – which makes proceeding with caution well advised. An experienced divorce lawyer in Barrington will help you make the right decisions for you throughout the divorce process while helping to ensure that your rights are well-protected. 

Your Parental Responsibilities

In Illinois, what you likely think of as child custody is called parental responsibilities, but the matters involved have not changed, including both physical and legal custody. Physical custody determines how you and your children’s other parent will split your parenting time with them. While the State of Illinois has several basic parenting time schedules that it issues, you have the opportunity to devise whatever schedule works for you – if you and your divorcing spouse are able to find common ground and negotiate terms that you are both willing to sign off on (under the guidance of your respective divorce attorneys). 

Legal custody, on the other hand, specifies if you and your children’s other parent will be making major parenting decisions together or if one of you will take on the sole responsibility. The kinds of decisions involved include:

• The health care your children receive
• The education your children receive
• The extracurriculars your children participate in and the traveling they do
• The religious education your children receive

Child Support

Every parent bears financial responsibility for his or her children, and child support is the state’s means of ensuring that this responsibility is balanced between both divorced parents in relation to their ability to pay and the amount of time each spends with the children. 

The Division of Marital Property

Those assets that you enjoy as a married couple are considered marital property, and in the event of a divorce, they must be distributed between you both in a manner that is deemed equitable (or fair) by the court. This division has the potential to become one of the most contentious divorce terms, and complications that can make it more so include:

• High assets 
• Business ownership
• Either spouse’s attempt to hide assets 

Alimony Requests

Alimony is only ordered in those divorce situations in which one spouse takes a financial hit upon divorce and lacks the financial independence to overcome it. If the other spouse has the means to help, alimony becomes more likely. Alimony is generally temporary and is intended to provide the recipient with the time he or she needs to gain financial security through further education or job training.  

Don’t Wait to Reach Out to an Experienced Divorce Lawyer in Barrington

The seasoned divorce lawyers at the SAM LAW OFFICE, LLC, in Barrington take great pride in their impressive track record of successfully protecting the financial and parental rights of clients like you. We’re on your side and here to help, so please do not put off contacting us for more information today.