Posted by Erin Birt | May 21, 2019 | 0 Comments
If you are contemplating divorcing or asking for child support, you are likely thinking about the cost to hire a child support attorney, whether custody mediation is worth it, and how much are the estimated costs for a child custody case in DuPage County? There are many similar questions, and in ...
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Posted by Erin Birt | Apr 15, 2019 | 0 Comments
Recently the DuPage County Bar Association's Family Law Committee focused on Parental Alienation from a Child's Perspective in Illinois which we will highlight in this post. In a previous post, I focused on the Illinois case law that further explains Parental Alienation and in this post I will hi...
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Posted by Erin Birt | Mar 12, 2019 | 0 Comments
We have previously discussed how courts look at assets and how different methods of divorce disclose and find assets. Do you know, however, that most couples don't even know what assets make up their total marital estate? So if you don't know what assets make up your marital estate, how do you k...
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Posted by Erin Birt | Mar 03, 2019 | 0 Comments
A contested DuPage County Divorce can last anywhere from 6 months to 2 years or more in the court system. In an earlier post, I highlighted Tips for Your Final Divorce Hearing, but what if you need help getting to your final divorce hearing? By hiring DuPage County Divorce Attorney Erin Birt yo...
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Posted by Erin Birt | Feb 20, 2019 | 0 Comments
Child custody exchanges between parents can be happy, peaceful, awkward, or downright horrible, depending on the relationship or issues between you and your ex-spouse. Family mediation might be needed in very difficult situations, but below are some general tips to make safe and stress free child...
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Posted by Erin Birt | Feb 12, 2019 | 0 Comments
Your divorce planning is done and your final divorce hearing, or Prove Up Hearing, has arrived. This is when the divorcing parties formally request that the judge approve the terms of their settlement, enter a Judgment for Dissolution of Marriage, and finalize the case. Below are some tips for y...
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Posted by Erin Birt | Feb 06, 2019 | 0 Comments
There's been little or no fighting. You're on relatively good terms with each other. You actually even like each other. It's just that you don't love each other any longer and divorce is the inevitable outcome. In situations like this–and even ones with more emotion–collaborative divorce planning...
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Posted by Erin Birt | Feb 05, 2019 | 0 Comments
In Illinois, parental alienation is the programming of a child by the alienating parent to believe that one parent is good and the other parent is bad with the goal that the child completely rejects the other parent. In 2012, I discussed the Illinois custody case, In re the Marriage of D.T.W., w...
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Posted by Erin Birt | Sep 12, 2018 | 0 Comments
If you're playing sad love songs on repeat, eating pints of ice cream in one sitting, and sobbing on your bedroom floor, it sounds like you may have recently gone through a break-up. As Peter Gamlen stated in this article, you do not have to remain down, you can turn your most recent split into ...
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Posted by Erin Birt | Aug 28, 2018 | 0 Comments
Putting children in the middle of a messy divorce or custody battle is never the answer. What did they do to deserve this? What could they have done to help? Nothing. A child should never feel as though they are the problem in an adult's relationship. Jerry Davich bravely wrote about the custody...
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Posted by Erin Birt | Jul 25, 2017 | 0 Comments
How does a parent contemplating divorce or separation keep a child feeling loved, supported, and safe? This is a question often posed by clients and it was covered recently in an article published by The Washington Post, “Separating parents want what's best for their 2-year-old. What is that?” He...
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Posted by Erin Birt | May 11, 2016 | 0 Comments
Hiring the right lawyer can be a critical decision in any legal matter, but it can be invaluable in your divorce planning–especially if the process will include some type of family mediation or collaboration. In a recent article on Mediate.com, mediator Justin Kelsey outlines some effective ques...
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Posted by Erin Birt | Apr 27, 2016 | 0 Comments
If the cost of an attorney is keeping you from finalizing your Illinois divorce, Limited Scope representation could help you complete the process effectively without spending more than you would like or can afford. In short, you're hiring a lawyer to help you represent yourself. HOW DOES IT WOR...
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Posted by Erin Birt | Mar 18, 2016 | 0 Comments
Summarized below are two recent court rulings involving spousal maintenance and child custody issues in two Illinois divorce cases. SPOUSAL MAINTENANCE – In re Marriage of Roberts After 37 years of marriage, a public school teacher filed for dissolution of marriage from her husband, a disabled ...
Continue ReadingPosted by Erin Birt | Jan 15, 2016 | 0 Comments
Does the joint parenting agreement from your Illinois divorce need updating? It might, based on several new family and divorce laws taking effect in 2016. Parents who are already divorced or still in the process of divorce planning should be aware of how these changes will affect them and of the...
Continue ReadingPosted by Erin Birt | Jan 06, 2016 | 0 Comments
Post-divorce custodial parents and children looking to relocate inside or outside of Illinois should be aware of new laws and procedures for this situation effective in 2016. There are new Illinois laws for post divorce child relocation. See the brief outline below, and consider reviewing your s...
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Posted by Erin Birt | Dec 24, 2015 | 0 Comments
Illinois parents who are considering or actively involved in divorce proceedings in 2016 should be aware of Parenting Plan Changes for Illinois Divorces. This changes both how Illinois Divorce Attorneys are creating and maintaining a post-divorce parenting plans. Here are the details. NEW FILIN...
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Posted by Erin Birt | Dec 17, 2015 | 0 Comments
Next on the list of 2016 changes to Illinois divorce planning are updates to the Temporary Support laws, affecting both temporary spousal maintenance and temporary child support. This means that temporary financial support hearings will no longer be summary in nature. Rather, the Court will hold ...
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Posted by Erin Birt | Dec 03, 2015 | 0 Comments
Among the specific changes being made to Illinois divorce laws in 2016 are new statues around parentage rights. Key changes in the New Illinois Parentage Laws in 2016 are as follows: New Illinois Parentage Laws NEW PARENTAGE ACT – The Parentage Act of 2015 goes into effect on January 1, 2016, a...
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Posted by Erin Birt | Nov 10, 2015 | 0 Comments
As of January 1, 2016, Illinois will be streamlining the specific grounds one can use to plead for divorce. This won't negate the valid reasons that bring couples to divorce planning, only the way in which a divorce attorney can present them in court. OLD ILLINOIS DIVORCE GROUNDS At this point...
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Posted by Erin Birt | Oct 09, 2015 | 0 Comments
The HuffPost Divorce page recently presented advice from readers/bloggers on how they made their divorce process and co-parenting situations a bit easier to handle. These are all fairly simple suggestions, yet they can create amazingly beneficial results. This post will reveal the best advice on ...
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Posted by Erin Birt | Jul 20, 2015 | 0 Comments
The Illinois General Assembly has passed a major update to the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (IMDMA). If signed by the Governor, the new IMDMA will offer many positive changes for divorcing couples in Illinois. Here is an outline of proposed changes to the Illinois Marriage a...
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Posted by Erin Birt | Jun 23, 2015 | 0 Comments
The recent Illinois Appeals Court case In re Marriage of Perez shows that the courts now favor a decision of joint custody (often without naming a custodial parent) for minor children in divorce cases. Yet this is not always the best outcome for the children, writes Champaign County Circuit Judg...
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Posted by Erin Birt | Jun 18, 2015 | 0 Comments
For divorcing families, the mediation process can be extremely helpful but also quite stressful. If anyone in the family struggles with alcohol abuse, they may manage their anxiety by coming to sessions under the influence–making the process more challenging for the mediator as well as the partic...
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Posted by Erin Birt | Jun 10, 2015 | 0 Comments
Father's Day for divorced dads can be anything from bittersweet to devastatingly sad, depending on child custody and visitation decisions. According to a recent article on the website Divorce360, “Depression for men is more closely tied to the loss of children than it is to the loss of the marria...
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