Pensions are big money in the state of Illinois. Virtually every public sector employee contributes to one of the state’s 17 pension funds, and almost all police and fire departments have locally administered pension funds. Illinois courts have long held that, in most cases, a pension is marital property that can be distributed to a former spouse in a divorce. However, merely stating that a former spouse is entitled to half of a pension is legally insufficient. The parties must enter a Qualified Illinois Domestic Relations Order (QILDRO) with the court.

What is a QILDRO?

A QILDRO can be incorporated into a marital settlement agreement, or may exist as a separate document. The QILDRO must contain the caption of the divorce case and the name of the pension systems to which the public sector employee belongs. QILDROs can contain either exact dollar amounts or percentages. If the parties opt to include percentages, a separate QILDRO calculation order must be submitted to the court that determines what share of the pension the former spouse will receive.

Divorcing couples typically have a lot of contention over money. In many cases, this is the one issue that prevents couples from reaching an amicable divorce settlement and keeps divorce cases in court for years. Usually, there is a great deal of money, property, businesses, or other assets at stake. All too often, the thought of having to cash in these assets to split in a divorce is enough to make one spouse commit financial infidelity.

Financial infidelity is defined as one partner’s secretive act of spending money, having separate credit cards or accounts, or incurring debt without the other partner knowing. In divorce proceedings, it is common to employ an accountant to uncover financial infidelity. On the surface, it may be hard to uncover such behavior, but taking a closer look at certain transactions can shed light on what has been happening behind the scenes. Here are several way in which a spouse can hide assets:

• Overpaying the IRS – a spouse could overpay income taxes and instruct the IRS to use the overpayment against future tax payments;
• Accruing commissions – a spouse could instruct his employer to withhold paying out commissions until a later date;
• Forgoing promotions and raises – a spouse could ask for a promotion or raise to go into effect after a divorce is finalized;
• Making large purchases – a spouse could shield assets in a large purchase, like a piece of artwork or an antique. The spouse could also have this piece undervalued to shield more money;
• Transferring funds – a spouse could transfer funds to a friend to pay a fictitious debt or into a pension or 401(k) plan to cloak assets as valid outlays of money;
• Setting up secret accounts – a spouse could open up a separate account of which the other spouse is unaware. The spouse could even go as far as opening an account in another person’s name to shield assets; and
• Protecting assets through owning a business – for spouses that own a business, a number of assets can be protected behind the corporate entity. There are also a number of things a spouse can do to reduce the value of the business so it would affect the distribution of assets during the divorce.

Finding a Paper Trail

You and your spouse are never going to see exactly eye-to-eye on everything. In fact, there may be certain topics or behaviors that lead to very strong disagreements and, yes, possibly even fights. Of course, not all fighting is healthy for your marriage, but, when done respectfully and with a purpose, arguing occasionally can help you better understand each other. Sometimes, though, one spouse may shut down, completely blocking all avenues of communication in the face of conflict. There can be many reasons that you or spouse begin to engage in such behavior, often called stonewalling by relationship experts, but if it is not constructively addressed, stonewalling can destroy your marriage.

Two Different Types

Stonewalling can take several forms. Aggressive stonewalling may be used by a more controlling or manipulative partner simply because he or she knows it will upset his or her spouse. By refusing to engage or communicate, an aggressive stonewaller can feel like he or she is control over the situation. Defensive stonewalling, as you might expect, is just the opposite. A spouse who feels threatened or overwhelmed may retreat into him- or herself, unable—and sometimes unwilling—to deal directly with the issues at hand.

For the last three decades or so, a couple looking to end their marriage in Illinois have had the option to do so on the “no-fault” grounds of irreconcilable differences. This alternative to divorce on more “traditional” fault grounds has been long seen as a way of reducing contentious and complications in the divorce process. Of course, even no-fault divorces can have their challenges, but the simpler proceedings have led to the decline of divorce filings on grounds of fault. Now, recent law changes have officially put an end to at-fault divorce in the state, and updated other provisions to help facilitate more efficient dissolutions when appropriate.

Burden of Proof

Prior to 2016, when a spouse filed for divorce citing one of the many possible fault grounds—including adultery, mental or physical cruelty, abandonment, and habitual substance abuse—he or she would be required to provide evidence of the other spouse’s behavior. As you might expect, this could often be quite difficult, as spouses inclined to engage in such activities typically would go to great lengths to hide their actions. For example, despite have serious suspicions, actually proving an extramarital affair to the court could be nearly impossible.

As part of the Illinois divorce process, if a divorcing party is not able to resolve all of the pertinent divorce-related issues present in their case, the case will proceed to a “trial.” This is not like the trials you may see on popular television shows: this trial will be in front of the judge assigned to your case, and will not be heard by a jury. The only people that will be present will be the parties themselves, the attorneys for each of the parties, and any witnesses the parties intend on examining for the purpose of helping the court decide the unresolved issue(s). Although a divorce “trial” typically lasts much shorter than a civil or criminal trial that is to be decided by a jury, divorce trials can nonetheless be equally draining and costly. So how do you know when you should attempt to settle your divorce case and when you should proceed with a trial?

Factors to Consider before Settling Your Divorce Case

A popular song from yesteryear declared that “you have to know when to hold ‘em . . . [and] know when to fold ‘em.” In some ways, divorce can resemble a game of strategy: there are issues that can and should be litigated and matters that are so inconsequential that spending much time arguing with the other party over them is a waste of resources. In attempting to determine if a particular issue falls into one category or the other, ask yourself these two important questions: