Posted on April 08,2019 in Firm News

"I always thought of the law as being this noble profession that was important," Weiler says. "I'm really a sap when it comes to the idea we're government of laws, not men, and the law protects people—all of those good concepts, which sometimes don't get as much attention as they should."

Read the full article by Dan Campana, "Rory Weiler: Doing the Right Thing to Assist His Clients, Invest in Profession", in Law & Lawyers (2014).

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 Posted on April 08,2019 in Illinois Divorce

Your divorce will likely require you to testify, either at the time of the final "prove-up" hearing (which is a short proceeding where the agreement reached by you and your spouse is presented to the court for approval) or at certain types of preliminary proceedings. The testimony at the prove-up is somewhat routine, and rarely requires a great deal of advance preparation. The preliminary proceedings are somewhat more complicated, and generally fall into two categories: a "discovery'' deposition, or a hearing before the court concerning temporary matters, such as a request for temporary child support or maintenance.

Unfortunately, most folks' ideas about "testifying" are formed by movies and TV shows, which, almost uniformly (and due largely to creative and time constraints imposed on those mediums) bear little relation to what you will experience. You will likely find your testimonial experience vastly different from what you have seen on TV.

The following information is provided to help assist you in preparing for your "day in court" and to answer certain common questions that almost everyone has. Prior to testifying, you and your family law lawyer will discuss your testimony with specificity to the issues involved and, as always, be sure to ask any questions you might have. Remember, your divorce lawyer has done this before. You probably haven't. Therefore, there is no such thing as a "stupid" question.

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 Posted on April 08,2019 in Child Support

Sweeping changes to the way Illinois courts will calculate child support are set to take effect July 1, 2017. Most people paying or receiving child support aren’t even aware of the first massive change to Illinois child support law in over 25 years, and in fact, many attorneys are similarly unaware of the new calculation methods.

For years Illinois has used a "percentage guideline" approach to the calculation of child support. This percentage guideline approach has simply taken a statutory multiplier (20% in situations where one child is to receive support) and applied it to the payor’s net income to reach a child support amount. For instance, a payor with $2,000 of net income was required to pay a $400 child support obligation for one child.

Effective July 1, 2017, Illinois will employ an "income shares" approach to the calculation of child support, and each party will have a specific, statutory amount of child support for which he or she is legally responsible. Although the new rules provide that the parent with the majority amount of parenting time with the children will not actually pay the statutorily determined support amount, the effect of establishing that parent’s child support obligation is a reduction in the amount of child support he or she will receive from the parent with less parenting time.

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 Posted on April 08,2019 in Child Support

Effective January 1, 2018, Illinois changed the number of cases subject to the statutory maintenance guidelines and the method for calculating maintenance in all pending divorce cases and for all divorces filed after January 1, 2018. Public Act 100-520, effective January 1, increased the combined income of divorcing individuals that would be subject to the statutory maintenance guidelines from $250,000 per couple to $500,000 per couple.

Read the rest of the article here: https://www.bestlawyers.com/article/new-year-ushers-in-new-formulas-for-calculating-maintenance-payments-in-divorce-proceedings/1839

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