When clients ask me how to prepare for divorce mediation, I always send them my crash course on IL law and Divorce.
Anyone seeking a divorce in IL should be well versed on the basic statutes governing an IL Petition for Dissolution (Divorce), and/or Allocation Agreement (Parenting Plan).
Goals and expectations for any type of divorce strategy should be based on whether it is statutory, or it deviates from the statutes.
Now if you actually refer to Il Marriage and Marriage Dissolution Act, you will need a translator to decipher the “legalese”, so I am outlining the main areas of focus in plain old English. Here we go:
“Best Interests of the Child”: Parenting Time (formerly known as Child Custody) in Illinois
When it comes to parenting time of children during and after a divorce, the law places greater importance on the interests of the children involved than on the interests of the divorcing spouses. In assessing the fairness of parenting time arrangements, parenting
plans and the amount of child support to be paid, divorce courts in Illinois focus on the best interests of the child.
Because this standard is the touchstone of a solid parenting plan or child support agreement, spouses need to keep it at the center of their argument during a mediation session that includes determining parenting time. Arguing that a certain parenting time arrangement is unfair to you probably won’t get you very far. Instead, you will need to shift the focus of your argument to the child’s best interests, and how the proposed parenting time arrangement would fail to serve those interests. Alternatively, in advocating for a particular parenting time arrangement or parenting plan, articulating how the child’s best interests are served by that proposal is far more effective than simply saying it is fairer to you.
In many instances, the debate over the best interests of the child comes down to “stability”. The age-old question is whether divorcing parents should seek to maintain stability and continuity for children by creating a parenting plan that minimizes disruption to the children’s established routines – or does the separation of the parents justify significant interruptions to the children’s routines to account for the new reality? Divorce attorneys learn early how to argue both sides of this divide. A parent seeking primary parenting time and care of children will often argue that he or she was the “primary caretaker” of the children, and that minimizing the disruption in the children’s lives requires a parenting plan that focuses on
giving the children one primary home, coupled with occasional visitation with the other parent. A parent seeking shared physical custody will often argue that the need to prevent prolonged separation from either parent requires a more balanced parenting schedule, and that the benefits of both parents’ involvement outweighs the inconvenience and instability the children may experience bouncing between households.
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