Over the past few decades, the pet's role in the family has dramatically evolved. Dogs lives have gone from a chain in the backyard to organic diets and high-end doggy daycare. Likewise, the pet cat's role has elevated from family pest killer to the star of the internet. With these changes came our changing perspective of pets as individuals, rather than property.

But legally, pets are still considered to be personal property and are divided as such during a divorce. Illinois courts do not recognize pet custody agreements in the way that they recognize child custody agreements and instead consider pets to be the same as other property outlined in Part V of the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act.

However, you and your partner might want to consider creating your own pet custody schedule outside of court. Talk to your attorney about ways to model your pet custody agreement if this is an option for you. Otherwise, you will need to prove that your home is better suited for the pet than your former spouse's home.

The presence of children can often make a divorce more complicated, and parents want to make sure that their divorce affects their children as little as possible. Parents tend to focus their concerns on the possible emotional impacts of divorce, but they should also remember that divorce can have an effect on their children's physical health as well, if steps are not taken to keep them healthy. In fact, a recent study from San Francisco State University found that children of divorce are more likely to consume sugary beverages such as soda, which can have a negative impact on their health.

The Study's Findings

The study examined the eating habits of 37 children in families that were recently separated or divorced. The goal of the study was to determine if a parental divorce increased children's risk for obesity-inducing behaviors such as the consumption of sugary soda. The researchers found that of the behaviors they studied, including soda consumption, skipping breakfast, eating fewer fruits and vegetables, and eating out more often, the only one affected by the divorce in a significant way was the increase in soda consumption.

Divorces can be emotionally-charged affairs, and those emotions can provoke people to overstep certain legal bounds. Often, this can manifest as people trying to do their own investigations into their spouse's lives, trying to catch them cheating or collecting evidence of other bad behavior to cast them in a worse light in court. This trend has only become more pronounced with the advent of cheaper surveillance equipment and other technology that allows ordinary citizens to spy on their spouses. While the desire to engage in this sort of behavior is understandable, it is often better to leave the divorce investigation to the professionals. People who overstep the bounds of the law can find out that the evidence they gathered cannot be used in court, and they may even end up facing criminal charges because of their actions.

What Can Be Used in Court

Generally speaking, in order for the results of an investigation to be admitted as evidence in court it must have been collected legally. This is particularly important with regard to two common areas of spousal snooping, recording conversations and checking up on a spouse's online life.

One of the biggest questions that often comes with a divorce is “Who gets to keep the house?” Houses are often one of the most substantial assets a couple has, so it is understandable that the dispute over it gets a lot of focus. However, there is an aspect of dividing up the house that often gets overlooked, the mortgage. Marital property division also includes dividing up the marital debt, so couples going through divorce should be aware that the mortgage will need to be divided up as well. There are some general concerns people going through a divorce should be aware of, as well as special issues in the case of an underwater home, a problem plagues millions of U.S. households.

General Concerns

One of the most important things to understand with a mortgage division is that divorce does not actually affect a person's contractual obligation to pay a debt. This means that when the court makes the mortgage one spouse's obligation, the creditor can still pursue the other in the event that the first spouse fails to pay. Although, it is important to note that the spouse the court did not make responsible would have a recourse against the responsible spouse in court. Of course, if the responsible spouse is not paying their debts in the first place, that right may not be of much practical use.

Engagement rings are a symbol of a couple's commitment to each other, but beyond that they are also valuable assets in their own right. In fact, The New York Times reports that the average value of an engagement ring is $4,000. A broken engagement or a divorce often raises questions about who gets to claim that value. The question is especially important for younger couples who may not have much in the way of tangible assets. As it turns out, the way the relationship ended is important for determining who gets the ring. The rules are different between a broken engagement and a divorce. For a broken engagement, it depends on who breaks the engagement, and for a divorce it tends to remain the property of the wife regardless.

A Broken Engagement

A broken engagement is governed by an Illinois statute known as the Breach of Promises Act. The Breach of Promises act was the state legislature's attempt to curtail the number of lawsuits that were occurring because of people breaking off engagements. In the past, people were able to sue for monetary damages related to broken engagements, and recover for things like emotional harm. However, people abused that system, so the legislature limited the damages recoverable to actual monetary harm people suffered as a result of the broken engagement.