Reviewed by Joshua P. Haid, Managing Partner
Chicago Mothers’ Rights Lawyers
If you are a mother facing divorce or a custody dispute, you may have been told a comforting myth — that the courts favor mothers, that your children will of course stay with you. It is not true, and believing it can cost you dearly. Since 2016, Illinois law has been entirely gender-neutral: there is no presumption that a mother gets the children, and fathers today fight for custody more than ever, sometimes with more money and more aggression. Your rights as a mother are real and powerful — but they are not automatic. They have to be understood, asserted, and protected.
That is the entire reason this firm exists. The Women’s Divorce & Family Law Group by Haid and Teich LLP was the first law firm in the Chicagoland area built around women’s and mothers’ rights — not a general practice that also takes a mother’s case, but a firm founded to stand with mothers and their children. We have been recognized as Super Lawyers every year from 2016 through 2025, named a Top 10 family law firm by the American Institute of Family Law Attorneys, and featured in O, The Oprah Magazine and ELLE. When a mother needs someone who knows this fight and has devoted a practice to it, this is where she comes.
Your children and your rights as their mother are worth protecting. Talk with a Chicago mothers’ rights lawyer in a free, confidential consultation — call 312-445-8830.
The truth about mothers’ rights in Illinois
For generations, courts assumed young children belonged with their mother. That is no longer the law. Illinois today decides parenting time and decision-making by one standard — the best interests of the child (750 ILCS 5/602.7) — and applies it without regard to whether a parent is the mother or the father. In practice, this means a mother can no longer count on the court’s old assumptions, and must be ready to show why her continued central role serves her children.
The good news is that what the court actually weighs still plays to a mother’s real life: who has done the daily caregiving, who manages the doctors and the school, who provides the stable, nurturing home. Those facts matter enormously — but only if they are gathered and presented well. Your rights as a mother are not about gender; they are about the truth of what you do for your children, told to the court in a way that protects them.
What are a mother’s rights in a divorce?
A mother in Illinois has the right to seek every protection the law provides for her and her children: parenting time and decision-making responsibility based on her children’s best interests; child support from the other parent, calculated on both parents’ true incomes; spousal maintenance if she earns less or set aside a career for the family; and an equitable share of the marital property, including the home and retirement accounts, regardless of whose name is on them. If she or her children have been threatened or harmed, she has the right to seek an order of protection. And she has the right to strong, informed representation so that none of these protections are signed away or quietly diminished. Illinois law is gender-neutral, but these rights are real — and asserting them fully is exactly our work.
What rights does an unmarried mother have in Illinois?
An unmarried mother has strong rights from the start. In Illinois, a mother is automatically her child’s legal parent at birth, while an unmarried father has no automatic right to parenting time or decision-making until his paternity is legally established. Until then, the mother holds parental rights. Once paternity is established — voluntarily or through the court — the father can seek parenting time and responsibilities, and the court will apply the same best-interests standard. If you are an unmarried mother, this makes early legal guidance especially valuable: it lets you protect your position, establish or respond to paternity on the right terms, and secure child support for your child.
Why mothers choose our firm
Mothers come to us because this is not a sideline for us — it is who we are. We were the first firm in Chicagoland built around women’s and mothers’ rights, and we have spent more than 15 years standing with mothers through custody disputes, child and spousal support, relocation, paternity, parental alienation, enforcement when the other parent won’t pay, and protection when a family is in danger. Every case receives partner-level attention — your fight will not be handed to a junior associate. We gather the full truth of your role as a mother and present it with force, we bring the other parent’s real finances into the light, and we prepare every case as if it will be decided in court, because that readiness is what protects you at the table. You do not have to face this alone, and you will not be outmatched.
Related: Child Custody & Parental Responsibilities · Child Support · Spousal Support · Chicago Divorce · Domestic Violence & Orders of Protection
No mother should have to fight for her children without a firm that fights for mothers. Reach out for a free, confidential consultation.
