Chicago Family Law Attorneys for Women Answer Frequently Asked Questions

Our firm takes pride in the quality of our work and in our ability to keep our fees reasonable and competitive in the Chicago metro area. Just as with the length of a divorce, no attorney can predict what a contested divorce will cost because we never know what the other side is going to do. The cost is closely related to the time (as all law offices work on an hourly basis), but we work hard to be efficient and pragmatic in moving your case to a conclusion. We do this by ensuring that each client is properly attended to and communicated with throughout the case. This is the best way of ensuring the case stays within a budget is through personal attention and constant contact with our clients to make sure you are not just another file or number like many offices that operate “volume” practices. Rather, our experienced, compassionate, and (when needed) aggressive attorneys focus on the individual needs of each client. As a result, we will not be your least expensive option for a divorce lawyer nor will we be your most expensive. Instead, we strive to offer our clients exceptional legal service for the best value possible.

An uncontested divorce is a divorce in which both spouses agree on all terms of the divorce relating to property, child custody, child visitation, child support, alimony and debts, and do not require the court to divide property or make a determination regarding custody, visitation and support. In an uncontested divorce, your attorney’s job is to take the terms of your verbal or written agreement and convert them into a legally binding document. We are not like most law firms that use a form, instead, we tailor each agreement to fit the specifics of each case while ensuring that your rights are protected. The cost of an uncontested divorce typically ranges depending on the complexity of your case.

You may not have to pay for all the attorneys’ fees arising from your divorce. Under limited circumstances, Illinois courts permit “fee shifting,” a concept that allows a court to shift the payment of legal fees from one spouse to the other when one spouse is better able to pay for legal fees. For example, if you stayed home while your husband pursued his career for the last 10 years, a court may order your husband to pay some or all of your attorneys’ fees. However, beware of any attorney that promises the other side will pay. Making these types of promises (or other promises on things like costs or time) are a great way to get clients, but a poor way of keeping them. As we focus on and the majority of our clients are women, we regularly investigate the feasibility of seeking a fees and costs from your spouse. Each case is different so please contact one of our attorneys for additional information.

The Women’s Divorce & Family Law Group by Haid & Teich is extremely sensitive to the financial disparities faced by women in divorce and custody cases. For this reason, we work hard to maintain very reasonable legal fees while providing the highest quality of legal representation.

Unfortunately, we are all too familiar with this problem, and it is far more common than most people realize. If your spouse has concealed assets, we will work with you to find hidden money, income or property using all means legally available. We have the ability to send subpoenas to employers, businesses, banks and close friends or relatives of a spouse, and when appropriate, we will work with forensic accountants, private investigators and other professionals to help trace and locate the hidden money, income or assets. However, one must always keep costs into account and make a cost/benefit analysis when it comes to finding hidden funds. For example, it does not make sense to spend $1000 to find $1000. Your attorney will work with you to determine what degree of investigation is worthwhile in your particular case.

Our firm is very familiar with non-traditional families and is credited with filing (and completing) Illinois’ first same-sex divorce. However, separation and/or divorce for non-traditional or alternative families is sometimes more complicated than for traditional families because the law has not yet caught up to the unique challenges facing these families. When possible, advanced planning through prenuptial agreements and estate planning can reduce the strain of divorce and/or separation. However, when pre-planning isn’t possible, as with traditional families undergoing a divorce, we work to obtain your goals in a diligent and pragmatic manner.

As noted above, in 2011, our firm handled the first same-sex divorce case in Illinois. Since then, our attorneys have been actively involved in advancing this area of law and consulting on the issue. Please contact us for further information and to discuss the legal options available to you.

The impact will vary widely depending on the type of estate plan you have. We encourage all of our clients to address this issue immediately following (and sometimes during) the divorce process in order to protect themselves and their loved ones.

Yes, we represent anyone looking for personalized and efficient legal care. Although our practice is focused on representing women in family law matters, we also provide the same attention and service to men. In fact, about 25% of our clients are men, which we mostly obtain from referrals from other attorneys. Our firm was established to help reduce inequality experienced by gender differences, and we do not feel this goal would be properly promoted by limiting our practice solely to women.

For good or bad, Illinois is a “no-fault” divorce state, which means that Illinois courts will not consider whether a spouse is having an extramarital affair when it comes to the distribution of property. However, an affair can impact how child custody is determined. When an affair is part of the facts in a case, we work diligently with our clients to obtain child custody arrangements designed to protect the child’s physical and psychological wellbeing.

No, you will not lose everything to your spouse. In Illinois, courts will attempt to divide the property of both spouses equitably―or fairly―looking at numerous factors such as the potential earning power of each spouse, the length of the marriage, and the assets each spouse brought into the marriage. Our lawyers are skilled at preparing and presenting the evidence for a favorable property division in a unique manner to ensure that you obtain your fair share of marital assets.

In most custody cases, the child or children end up living with one parent the majority of the time, and the parent with primary care responsibilities is entitled to child support. This means that if you are the primary caretaker or custodial parent of a child or children, you are entitled to child support. The minimum amount of child support is set by Illinois law.

In Illinois, grandparents currently do have custody and visitation rights with respect to their grandchildren in certain circumstances. For child custody rights, a grandparent must prove that the child’s parents are unfit, that continuing or allowing the child to reside with the parents would be harmful to the child, and/or that living with the grandparent would be in the child’s best interests. For visitation rights, a grandparent may be awarded visitation if the court finds that the child would be affirmatively harmed (physically and/or mentally) by not having visitation with the grandparent. If you are a grandparent seeking visitation rights, please contact one of our attorneys for more information.

Illinois child custody laws require courts to focus on “the best interest of the child” and not the best interest of the parent(s) when deciding child custody. In determining a child’s best interests, the court will usually take into consideration what each parent wants, what the child wants if he or she is of sufficient age and capacity to form a preference (usually 14 years of age, and other factors indicative of the child’s physical, mental, and moral well-being. In most cases, the court will try to order arrangements that are least disruptive to the child, and it will always try to protect the child from parental disputes.

For a complete list of child custody factors, please see our child custody and visitation page.

Legal custody is the decision-making responsibilities associated with a child’s education, health care, medical treatment and religious upbringing. Physical custody refers to where the child lives and who has responsibilities associated with daily childcare. In a joint custody situation, parents share legal and physical custody of a child. However, this does not always mean each parent has the child exactly one-half of the time. Rather, one parent is generally the custodial parent, with whom the child lives most of the time, and the other parent has visitation rights.