Posted on October 06, 2015 in Press Releases

Lincolnwood divorce lawyer Maxine Weiss Kunz of Weiss-Kunz & Oliver, LLC has been named a “Top 10 Under 40 Family Law Attorney” by the National Academy of Family Law Attorneys (NAFLA).

The Lincolnwood law firm of Weiss-Kunz & Oliver, LLC is pleased to announce that Founding Partner Maxine Weiss Kunz has been named a 2015 “Top 10 Under 40 Family Law Attorney” for the state of Illinois by the National Academy of Family Law Attorneys (NAFLA).

NAFLA employs a comprehensive selection process to determine the top family law attorneys in each state. Selected attorneys must be nominated by a licensed practicing attorney and meet the minimum requirements for membership. The NAFLA processing committee then selects a portion of the nominated attorneys to advance to the final selection stage, in which the NAFLA Board of Governors formally determines the top family law attorneys in each state.

Lincolnwood divorce lawyer Maxine Weiss Kunz is one of the Founding Partners and Principals at Weiss-Kunz & Oliver, LLC. She graduated with her Juris Doctorate from Chicago-Kent College of Law and earned her B.A. from Indiana University. She dedicates her legal practice to family law matters including: divorce, adoption, premarital and postnuptial agreements, parentage and paternity, dissolution of same sex marriages, child representation, collaborative law, mediation, and appeals. She is a certified Guardian ad Litem and Child Representative for the Cook County court system and is also a certified mediator and collaborative lawyer within the state of Illinois.

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 Posted on September 29, 2015 in Divorce

Once you decide that divorce is inevitable, how do you tell your spouse? This is a personal decision with legal components. You may wish to consult your lawyer before going through the below options.

The obvious answer may be to tell them outright. You can advise your husband or wife of your desire to dissolve or separate from your marriage orally or in writing (email, text, etc.). However, unless you have consulted a lawyer and gained their agreement, it is often best NOT to put your intentions in writing.

Another option is to tell your spouse during a therapy session. This is a good option for a spouse that anticipates an angry or depressed response.

Alternatively, you can have your lawyer tell your spouse you want a divorce or legal separation. This can be done either informally or formally. Informally is usually done by a letter written from your lawyer to your husband or wife. The letter normally includes the underlying Complaint (Petition for Dissolution of Marriage, Petition for Dissolution of Civil Union, Petition for Legal Separation, or the like) and sets forth your intentions.

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 Posted on September 01, 2015 in Infidelity and Divorce

The website Ashley Madison, which openly facilitates adulterous relationships, was recently hacked, exposing thousands of its customers' identities. It is important to understand how adultery affects a potential maintenance award in a divorce proceeding. Under Illinois law, courts will look at the following factors to determine whether a maintenance award is appropriate:

• The income and property of each party, including marital property apportioned to and non-marital property retained by the party seeking maintenance;
• The needs of each party;
• The present and future earning capacity of each party;
• Any impairment of the present and future earning capacity of the party seeking maintenance due to that party devoting time to domestic duties or having forgone or delayed education, training, employment, or career opportunities;

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 Posted on August 17, 2015 in Child Custody

Changes are coming to the custody and visitation portions of the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (IMDMA). However, at this time and in prior years, there are distinct differences between the terms “custody” and “visitation.” Many litigants of custody battles do not know if they should be awarded custody of their children.

Each parent to a divorce usually believes they want “custody” of their children. However, often times what that parent is asking is whether the child(ren) can spend more time with one parent than the other. Technically, this is not custody of a child. Technically, under the current statute, the term of art “visitation” determines how much time each parent spends with a child.

Custody, in contrast to time, is decision making. The parent that decides the choice of doctor for a child is making a custody decision as one example (medical decision making). If the parents can agree on the choice of doctor, it may be appropriate to award joint custody to the parents. Other major custody issues involve decision making related to extracurricular activities (enrollment and selection), child care, religious training or lack thereof, and the like. If two parties can agree on all of these decisions, than they are strong candidates for joint custody.

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 Posted on August 03, 2015 in Child Custody

Under Illinois law, grandparents, great-grandparents, and siblings of a minor child who is one year or older, have standing to bring an action in circuit court by a petition requesting visitation. The petition must be filed in the county in which the minor child(ren) reside.

A grandparent, great-grandparent, or sibling may file a petition for visitation rights to a minor child if there has been an unreasonable denial of visitation by a parent and at least one of the following conditions exist:

• The child’s other parent is deceased or has been missing for at least 3 months;
• A parent of the child is incompetent as a matter of law;
• A parent has been incarcerated in jail or prison during the 3 month period preceding the filing of the petition;

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 Posted on July 17, 2015 in Lincolnwood Divorce Lawyer

Attorneys have a law degree. We all know that. They have a JD and technically speaking they are doctors of the law. But there are additional certifications and licensure that attorneys can seek following law school and while they are in practice. One of those certifications is from the National Institute of Trial Advocacy, also known as NITA.

NITA provides valuable and dynamic teaching methods to attorneys licensed to practice in Illinois and other jurisdictions. NITA employs expert faculty to enrich lawyers in advanced skills and provide them with Continuing Legal Education credits as required for each attorney to maintain their licensure. Attendees at NITA practice advanced skills in all areas of law, from jury selection to expert witness examination to family law (divorce law).

One of the courses taught by the National Institute of Trial Attorneys each year involves a 8-day (yes, 8 days) certificate program in family law advocacy. Divorce cases are a component of family law. This course includes advanced techniques in examining and cross examining expert witnesses, including custody evaluators (604(b) and 604.5 evaluators) and financial experts (CPAs and the like). In addition to daily drills and lectures, each attorney puts on a mock trial at the end of the program to duplicate and show off the skills they learned from the preceding 7 days of drills. That trial involves expert testimony and cross examination.

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 Posted on July 02, 2015 in Child Custody

Joint Custody v. Sole Custody

In Illinois, joint legal custody means that the parents will share in all major decisions affecting their child.  Sole legal custody means that one parent is given the authority to make all major decisions affecting the child without having to consult with the other parent.

In Illinois, parents can have joint legal custody, with the child primarily residing with one of the parents. On the other hand, one parent can have sole legal custody of the child, but have equal amounts of parenting time as the other parent. Therefore, the determination of joint or sole custody will not necessarily affect how much time the child spends with either parent.  In most cases, the non-custodial parent will be granted a reasonable amount of visitation time with the child.

While there is no presumption that joint custody is in the best interest of the minor child, having both parents cooperate and involved in their child’s lives is almost always in the best interest of the child. Thus, most of the time Illinois courts will hope for joint custody. However, both parents must demonstrate to the Court that they can work together in the raising of their child.

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 Posted on June 16, 2015 in Divorce

Divorce lawyers are often asked by potential clients what they, the client, should do when planning or preparing for a divorce. This is not a situation where they are trying to hide assets or income. On the contrary, this question is usually posed to protect the person that is contemplating divorce because their husband or wife may begin to hide assets, income or other information in the event of a divorce.

While this list is not all inclusive, consider the following if a divorce seems imminent. First, gather important documents, such as:

• Birth certificates;
• Social Security Cards;
• Prior years’ tax returns;
• Wills;
• Trusts;
• Premarital Agreements;
• Bank statements;
• Credit card statements;
• Medical records; and
• Any other document that is hard to duplicate

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 Posted on May 31, 2015 in Divorce

A qualified domestic relations order (QDRO) is (i) a domestic relations order (ii) that creates or recognizes the existence of an "alternate payee's" right to receive or assigns to an alternate payee the right to receive, all or a portion of the benefits payable with respect to a participant under a retirement plan, and (iii) that includes certain information and meets certain other requirements as provided by law. ERISA § 206(d)(3)(B)(i); IRC § 414(p)(1)(A)

So, what does that mean? In more plain language, a QDRO allows a person incident to a divorce, legal separation, or dissolution of same-sex partnerships, the right to divide their retirement benefits with their former spouse. This is particularly important if only one spouse to the marriage was saving for retirement and said savings are held in a qualified retirement plan.

QDROs are governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (the IRC), and the Plan holding the retirement funds. Unless incident to division in a divorce or similar domestic proceeding, ERISA and the IRC do not allow a retirement plan participant (i.e., the spouse saving for retirement by placing funds in a 401(k) Plan) to assign their interest in a retirement plan to another person. An exception to the anti-assignment rule occurs by way of a Qualified Domestic Relations Order.

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 Posted on May 21, 2015 in Family Law

A removal action occurs when a custodial parent, who is separated or divorced from the other parent, tries to move out of state with the children. The non-custodial parent can agree to the removal, in which case the parties would enter an agreed order with the court. If the noncustodial parent does not agree to the removal it will be up to the court to decide whether the removal is proper.

The court will consider the following factors known as the Eckert Factors to determine whether the custodial parent can move a child out of state over the other parent’s objection:

1. The likelihood that the move will enhance the general quality of life for both the custodial parent and the children;
2. The motives of the custodial parent in seeking to move to determine whether the removal is merely a ruse intended to defeat or frustrate visitation;

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