Section 503 of the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act requires that a court divide the marital property in just proportions considering all relevant factors, including, among other things, the dissipation by each party of the marital property. Legally, a spouse dissipates (or wastes) marital assets when he or…
In a divorce, the Court has the obligation to equitably divide the marital assets and debts, and determine whether maintenance would be appropriate. While non-marital property is not subject to being divided in a divorce, it may have a profound impact on the appropriate division of the marital assets and…
Brad is a financial manager with Big Business USA. He earns an annual salary, and doesn’t have an employment contract. However, his employer does give him the opportunity to receive an annual bonus, based on the company’s performance in general, and Brad’s performance in particular. Whether or not Big Business…
In my last post, I set forth the legal framework in which Illinois courts examine whether property is marital or non-marital. In this post, I apply that analysis to a hypothetical fact pattern. Let’s assume Greg and Sandy are married. During the marriage, they purchase a house and title it…
A common misconception many people have at the start of the divorce process is that only jointly-titled assets are considered marital property, and that everything else is not. For a number of reasons, often times the asset in question is the marital residence. Perhaps the husband has bad credit, and…