Firm News

Like a car engine, child support determination in Illinois is often a mechanical process, but not everyone understands how a car engine runs.  Although I am the son of a mechanic, I know very little about cars.  In the same way, not everyone understands how child...

Tax time is a wonderful time of year.  You gather up all of your W-2’s and 1099s.  Your box of receipts gets dumped out, and you start to sort through what can be deducted and what cannot be deducted.  As you start to complete your tax return, you are thankful for the...

Choosing a lawyer for divorce is a significant undertaking. The practice of medicine and the practice of law are two of the three original professions dating back to medieval times (along with divinity). The professional ideals include a high degree of public trust,...

“For most people who go through divorce, it's not easy to get along for the sake of the children, because if it were easy, they might not have gotten a divorce in the first place. Yet, I'm convinced that the couples who divorce who make a conscious decision to be...

One of the primary sources of conflict in marriage is money. Two people who are used to controlling and managing their own spending decisions do not always see eye to eye.  It takes some real effort to learn to trust each other and to find the balance and compromise....

A good parent's worst nightmare might be dying and leaving the children to an absent, neglectful or even abusive parent. The saying goes, “You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink”.  The same can be said of some parents.  The biology of becoming a...

Violence is a problem in our society in spite of many years of concerted efforts to stop it. Most of the violence committed in our communities goes unseen. It happens in the home between members of the same family. Child abuse and spousal abuse in the home occur more...

Most people have known someone who has been through a “nasty divorce”. It may seem like there is no other kind of divorce, but there is. An agreed, uncontested divorce can be accomplished in the right circumstances, with the right parties and the right attorney or...

When people are in love, they are not usually preoccupied with death; they are focused on living. Second marriage situations, however, present issues that should be discussed and addressed, especially when there are children from a first marriage. Whether the second...

On August 15, 2014, Governor Quinn signed into law new spousal maintenance (alimony) rules that drastically change how maintenance (formerly known as alimony) is determined in Illinois.  While the new law first becomes effective January 1, 2015, the changes will need...