Schaumburg Child Custody Attorney Serving Clients in IL

At SAM LAW OFFICE, LLC, we have years of experience assisting clients in Schaumburg with child custody cases. Whether you are in the early stages of divorce and have questions about child custody issues in our state, or if you are seeking to modify an existing order concerning child custody, we can assist you.

We know how contentious child custody cases can be, and we know that it is important to keep the best interests of the child in mind throughout this difficult process. Our firm is dedicated to assisting Schaumburg residents in a wide variety of family law matters, and we provide personalized representation to each and every client we serve.

Learning More About Updates to Illinois’s Child Custody Laws

One of the most important things to understand about child custody in Schaumburg is that the term “child custody” is no longer in use by the state. This does not mean that the court will not allocate decision-making responsibilities to parents. Rather, the revisions to the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (IMDMA) are intended to better serve the parent-child relationship by shifting the language of child custody to the “allocation of parental responsibilities.”

To be clear, the IMDMA now says that the court shall allocate parental responsibilities rather than awarding joint or sole custody. What does this mean in practice? What we used to think of as child custody—the right to make significant decisions about a child’s upbringing and welfare—is now discussed in the terms of “significant parental responsibilities.” Parental responsibilities under the revised statute include, for instance:

• Child’s education, such as the choice of school the child will attend or tutors the child will have;
• Healthcare, including decisions about physicians or other healthcare professionals the child will see for medical, dental, and psychological needs; and
• Religion, including the child’s religious upbringing.
• Extracurricular activities, decisions related to which  extracurricular activities the children will participate.

When it comes to allocating responsibility for decision-making with regard to religion, the statute emphasizes that “the court shall not allocate any aspect of the child’s religious upbringing if it determines that the parents do not or did not have an express or implied agreement for such religious upbringing or that there is insufficient evidence to demonstrate a course of conduct regarding the child’s religious upbringing.” In other words, if there was not already some kind of agreement between the parents about the child’s religious upbringing—either spoken or unspoken—the court will not allocate this specific responsibility to one parent alone.

Parental responsibilities can be allocated on a joint basis, or they can be allocated solely to one parent.

Contact a Schaumburg Child Custody Attorney

The allocation of parental responsibilities requires the court to weigh a number of different factors, including the wishes of the child and the wishes of the parents. It is important to have an experienced advocate on your side throughout this process. An experienced child custody attorney in Schaumburg can speak with you today about your case. Contact SAM LAW OFFICE, LLC to learn more about the services we provide to clients in Schaumburg and throughout the Northwest Suburbs.