Lisle Family Law Attorneys

Our Lisle divorce attorneys start your divorce by filing a divorce petition and asking the court to dissolve your marriage and resolve issues regarding the division of marital property and marital debt, maintenance payments, child support, child custody, and visitation.  

Our Lisle divorce lawyers will include the following information in your petition to ensure that the case proceeds as efficiently and smoothly as possible. 

• Background information regarding the history of the marriage, each of the spouses, the children of the marriage, any current pregnancies, and the marital assets and debts. 
• Our Lisle divorce attorneys will file in the proper venue and jurisdiction to hear the case.  To accomplish this we must show that one of the parties resides in the county in which the case has been filed and that both spouses have resided in Illinois for at least the past 90 days.  ​

Our Lisle divorce attorneys have the skill and experience necessary to ensure that, from the filing of your divorce petition to the conclusion of your divorce, you will be educated about your options and the process, and that your divorce goes as smoothly, efficiently, and affordable.

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Read more about Recent Changes to Illinois Family Law 2024

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Divorce courts have wide discretion in determining whether maintenance awards will be awarded in divorce cases, the amount of the award, and how the award will be paid.  The Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (IMDMA) lists several factors that courts are instructed to consider in making maintenance determination.  The factors are explained below.

Divorce courts review the "net income" of each spouse.  In order to arrive at the "net income" figure the court will first calculate "gross income."  Gross income includes most types of income, such as wages, disability benefits, workers compensation benefits, insurance proceeds, vacation pay, severance pay, interest, gifts, Social Security benefits, and portions of interest or appreciation from retirement account distributions.

The divorce court will assess the needs of both spouses, including the spouse from whom maintenance is sought.  The judge will determine whether, on the one hand, the spouse seeking maintenance has a need for maintenance payments; and, on the other hand, whether the spouse from whom maintenance is sought is actually able to pay maintenance. The goal is to create relatively equal standards of living for each spouse, as close as possible to the standard of living enjoyed during the marriage. 

The family law judge will seek to use maintenance as a tool to ensure that each spouse "financially independent."  Financial independence does not mean mere subsistence, but is based instead on the standard of living during the marriage.  Courts are more likely to award permanent maintenance if one spouse is unemployeable or if the party's prospective employment will not allow him or her to continue the standard of living he or she enjoyed during the marriage. If the spouse seeking maintenance is employable, he or she is required to attempt to find employment, rather than simply live off of the maintenance award.  

‍If one spouse sacrificed career or education advancement in order to perform domestic duties during the marriage, a long-term maintenance award is likely.  If the spouse seeking maintenance is the custodial parent, the divorce court will also consider future sacrifices that he or she will be expected to make in order to raise the children of the marriage.  

The judge will asseses the length oftake the spouse to obtain education in order to put himself or herself in the position he or she would have been in had she not made such sacrifices.  If the spouse can become self-sufficient after training, then the court may award rehabilitative maintenance for a specific time period.   

‍The goal of the divorce court is to provide both spouses with an equal standard of living as close as possible to that enjoyed during the marriage.  The court will review both (1) the standard of living during the marriage; and (2) the other spouse's ability to afford payments.  The court will not necessarily provide for the spouse seeking maintenance to maintain his or her standard of living permanently.  Temporary maintenance may be awarded if appropriate based on the other factors.  Child support payments do not factor into this analysis, because they are intended for the child, not the spouse. 

‍The rule of thumb is that the longer the marriage lasted, the greater the maintenance award will be.  However, courts may award permanent maintenance even for relatively short marriages if one of the spouses is disabled or made significant career sacrifices during a short marriage.

The physical and mental condition of each spouse, as well as their ages, can affect earning capacity.  If the spouse seeking maintenance has a disability, he or she is more likely to receive a larger award.  If the spouse from whom maintenance is sought is disabled or approaching retirement a large award is less likely.  If a short-term disability is involved the court may reserve ruling to determine the full extent of the disability.  Courts are not bound by administrative agencies' determinations of disability.

Tax deductions and credits are factored in when the court determines the income of each spouse.  Courts will also consider tax penalties for early withdrawal from retirement accounts.  Courts will seek the most tax advantageous solution for both spouses.   Read more about tax consequences as a factor in determining maintenance awards in divorce.

 If the spouse seeking maintenance worked to pay for the education or subsidize the career of the other spouse, or worked in the other spouse's business, courts will award a larger maintenance award. 

Divorce courts will honor any valid prenuptial or postnuptial agreements between the spouses as long as (1) the agreement explicitly deals with maintenance; (2) the agreement is not unconscionable; and (3) there is no undue hardship that was unforeseeable at the time of the agreement.  

Courts are not limited to considering the above factors in determining maintenance.  Judges have broad discretion to weigh any factor that they find to be "just and equitable." 

Read more about income and property as a factor in determining maintenance awards in divorce.

2016 saw several schanges occur to Illinois Marriage laws, the purpose of these updates were meant to reduce potential disputes and bringing the law up to speed with modern co-parenting trends:

• Previously, the grounds for divorce were either irreconcilable differences or one of several specific statutory grounds, such as impotence or drug abuse.  Irreconcilable differences required a longer waiting period that the couple was required to live separate and apart than the specific grounds.  As of 2016, the only ground for divorce in Illinois is irreconcilable differences.   The couple must now live separate and apart for 6 months prior to divorce.  However, this requirement can be waived if both parties agree. 
• The terms "custodial parent," and "visitation" have been replaced by "allocation of parenting time and responsibility" in order to reduce disputes over custody. 
• Parental responsibility is divided into four categories: medical decisions, educational decisions, extracurricular decisions, and religious decisions.  The decision making responsibility for each of these categories of decisions is divided among the parents by either agreement or court order. 
• Prior to 2016, parents could relocate anywhere in-state without a court order, but a court order was required for any out of state move.  Now, parents can move within 25 miles without court approval, even if the move crosses state lines.  Parents living outside of the Chicago metropolitan area may relocate up to 50 miles away in-state without a court order.  

Our Lisle divorce and family law attorneys discuss these changes and how they affect the divorce process in Illinois.

Read more about the changes to Illinois marital law.