Mount Prospect Divorce Lawyer

Divorce is a major transition that can leave you reeling. Because your divorce will directly affect your rights as a parent and your finances, addressing the matter head on is imperative. A dedicated Mount Prospect divorce lawyer will skillfully advocate for divorce terms that protect your rights and that work for you and your children. 

Your Divorce Terms

Your divorce will be completely unique to your marriage and to the specific circumstances involved, but the basic terms that must be resolved between you and your divorcing spouse remain the same for all divorcing couples and include:

• The division of your marital property
• Your child custody arrangements
• Child support
• Alimony

The Division of Your Marital Property

In the State of Illinois, all of the property that you own as a married couple is presumed to be marital property, which means that it belongs to both of you. Only that property that you can prove you owned prior to your marriage and that you kept separate throughout will be kept out of the division of your marital property. This division is intended to be done equitably – or fairly under the circumstances involved – rather than equally. 

Your Parenting Arrangements 

In Illinois, child custody is divided into parental responsibilities (similar to legal custody in other states), and parenting time (physical custody). Parental responsibility refers to who will be making the following kinds of important decisions on behalf of your children:

• Decisions about their education
• Decisions about their religious upbringing
• Decisions about their extracurriculars
• Decisions about their health care

This responsibility can be sole or joint or can be divided in a manner that makes sense to you and your soon-to-be-ex. 

Parenting time refers to how you and your children’s other parent will split your time with the children. One of you may become the primary custodial parent with whom the children live primarily while the other has what amounts to a visitation schedule, or you can split your time with the kids nearly equally. 

Child Support

Both parents are responsible for continuing to support their children financially, and child support payments are employed to help balance this responsibility. Generally, the primary custodial parent receives child support payments from the other parent. Even if you and your ex split your time with the kids exactly evenly, however, the higher earner among you will likely pay child support to the other – because these payments are calculated in accordance with each parent’s ability to pay. 

Alimony

In Illinois, alimony is called spousal maintenance, and it is a payment system that is used to help balance any financial discrepancies in situations in which one spouse experiences a financial downturn upon divorce and the other has the financial means to offset it. 

Reach out to Experienced Mount Prospect Divorce Lawyer Today

If you are heading toward divorce, the accomplished Mount Prospect divorce lawyers at the SAM LAW OFFICE, LLC, have impressive reserves of experience helping clients like you obtain fair divorce terms. To learn more about how we can also help you, please do not hesitate to contact us today.