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Showing posts from January, 2015

Illinois Order of Protections

Illinois Domestic Violence Act: Information for Victims Domestic violence is a crime.  Any person who hits, chokes, kicks, threatens, harasses, or interferes with the personal liberty of another  family or household member  has broken Illinois Domestic Violence law. Under Illinois law family or household members are defined as: family members related by blood; people who are married or used to be married; people who share or used to share a home, apartment, or other common dwelling; people who have or allegedly have child in common or a blood relationship through a child in common; people who are dating or engaged or used to date, including same sex couples; and people with disabilities and their personal assistants. Orders of protection  An order of protection is a court order which restricts an abuser and only is available to family or household members. An order of protection may: prohibit abuser from continuing threats and abuse (abuse includes physica

New Illinois Alimony Law

A new law in Illinois as of January 1, 2015 changes how spousal support is determined for divorcing couples whose combined gross income is less than $250,000. This new law raises some interesting issues with respect to the global finances of divorce, so let's examine briefly the new law of spousal support in Illinois. The law, which was developed by the Illinois State Bar's Family Law Section Council, creates a protocol for calculating maintenance based on the income of the parties and the length of the marriage. The law that has been in use for years essentially placed a high degree of discretion with the trial judge; parties to divorce sometimes had very little guidance as to what a given judge would award for maintenance, or if any award was to be granted. Under the new law, a maintenance award should equal 30 percent of the payor’s ( the one who pays maintenance) gross income minus 20 percent of the payee’s (recipient) gross income, not to exceed 40 percent of the part