Downers Grove Collaborative Divorce Attorneys

In this video, our Downers Grove collaborative divorce attorneys discuss how mediation is an often undervalued method that can potentially solve many family law related issues outside of court that allows parties to come to some form of agreement to Downers Grove family related issues that also prevents having to litigate these issues in court, saving time and money. In this article, our Downers Grove family mediation attorneys discuss typical family mediation practices and explain the Downers Grove mediation process.

Our Downers Grove collaborative divorce attorneys explain how there are three factors that Chicago courts use to help determine whether to award spousal maintenance to a party in a Chicago divorce. Illinois courts weigh several factors, discussed below, to determine whether maintenance is appropriate.  If maintenance is appropriate, the court is instructed to use specific formulas to determine both the amount and the duration of the award in most cases.  In certain cases, courts are permitted to deviate from the statutory formulas, in which case the divorce court will use the statutory factors to determine the amount and duration of the maintenance award. In determining whether spousal maintenance is to be awarded, the divorce courts will assess the following factors:

1. The income and property of each party;
2. The needs of each party;
3. The present and future earning capacity of each party;
4. The "Homemaker Contribution";
5. Any impairment of the present or future earning capacity of the party against whom maintenance is sought;
6. The time necessary for the party seeking maintenance to obtain the appropriate education, training, and employment;
7. The standard of living during the marriage;
8. The duration of the marriage;
9. The age and physical and emotional condition of both spouses;
10. All sources of public and private income, including disability and retirement income;
11. Tax consequences of the property division;
12. Contributions of one spouse to the other's education or career;
13. Agreements between the parties;
14. Any other factor that the court finds to be just and equitable.

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Our Downers Grove Collaborative & Cooperative Divorce attorneys want to help you know the differences between the two and have written the following guide on the benefits and downsides of each type of divorce.

Collaborative Divorce and Cooperative Divorce have the potential to prevent in-court litigation of the issues that must be resolved in a divorce case, such as asset division, maintenance awards, allocation of parenting time and responsibility, and child support payments.  If successful, this will make your divorce significantly more cost-effective.  It will prevent the stress to everyone in the family that can arise from contentious litigation.  

‍Agreements reached out of court through the Collaborative Divorce or Cooperative Divorce process tend to be more comprehensive than those reached as a result of trial.  These agreements are also less likely to lead to post-divorce litigation between the parties.

Collaborative Divorces place greater incentives on the parties than Cooperative Divorces to settle their case out of court rather than allowing the process to fail and result in litigation. On the other hand, in a Cooperative Divorce, the original attorneys can continue to represent their clients.

‍Both Collaborative Divorce and Cooperative Divorce are highly dependent on the actual good faith of the parties.  Parties that feel that they cannot trust one another to negotiate and reveal information honestly are not good candidates for Collaborative Divorce or Cooperative Divorce.  Couples in which one spouse tends to emotionally dominate the other are also poor candidates for this process, as the adversarial process and the court in a traditional divorce tend to shield the best interests of one spouse from the other's emotional dominance. 

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