While the vast majority of marriages in Illinois end via a divorce, Part III of the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act also makes another process available to spouses: annulment. Annulments, technically known as “declarations of invalidity of marriage,” differ from divorces in that a divorce is a formal dissolution of a marriage. An annulment states that, from a legal standpoint, the marriage never happened. Qualifying for an annulment can be more challenging than simply filing for divorce. However, it does create different legal consequences that may be beneficial.

Qualifying for an Annulment

Unlike divorce, which has low barriers to access, annulments are only available in a limited set of circumstances. Marriages are eligible for an annulment if:

Divorces can be both stressful and emotionally confusing. Oftentimes, people who feel ready to enter into a new relationship during or immediately after a divorce are faced with the decision of whether to allow their new romantic interest to spend the night at their house. However, overnight stays during divorce might have unfortunate legal and practical consequences. The presence of children could also further exacerbate these legal issues.

The Consequences of an Overnight Stay

Allowing a new partner to stay overnight might have an effect on a person’s ability to receive spousal support, depending on the exact terms of the support agreement. This is because the default rule in support agreements, under section 510(c) of the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act, allows the supporting spouse’s obligation to end once the supported spouse begins romantically cohabiting with someone else. While a single overnight stay is probably not enough to qualify as cohabitation, the court will look at a variety of factors, including:

Collaborative divorce, a new trend in divorces, emphasizes both spouses working together to come to an amicable end to the marriage rather than going through the traditional adversarial process in the court system. Collaborative divorce has various advantages. It can be faster. It decreases conflicts. And, according to US News, it can save parties thousands of dollars over the course of the divorce. However, despite these benefits, collaborative divorce is not always the right option for everyone. Therefore, understanding who can best profit from this divorce model can help make the entire process easier.

Who Benefits from Collaborative Divorce?

Collaborative divorce has several meanings. These can range from the use of a professional mediator to work out the specifics of the divorce, to the use of lawyers specially trained in negotiating settlements. However, the success of all these methods has one thing in common: they require parties that are on good enough terms that they can actually collaborate. This requirement concerns some people who fear they will be unable to work with their spouses well enough to succeed at collaborative divorce.

Anyone who has watched Law and Order or another similar show is familiar with phrases like “innocent until proven guilty,” and “prove beyond a reasonable doubt.” These phrases refer to the burden of proof in criminal cases. They instruct the lawyers as to who has to prove something and how convincingly they have to prove it. Divorce cases also have burdens of proof, but since it is not a criminal court they operate slightly differently.

What Is a Burden of Proof?

A burden of proof is a legal rule that sets the standard for how a person must prove a fact to be true in court. The burden has two components: who has to prove the fact and how convincingly they have to prove it. Both of these components depend on exactly what type of fact the parties are trying to prove.

For a long time, social scientists held a common belief that living together before marriage was a strong predictor of divorce. However, new research from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro casts doubt on that idea. Past studies compared divorce rates based on the age at which the spouses married, and found a significant increase in divorce rates among couples who cohabitated prior to getting married. This study’s author believed that this was the wrong way to go about measuring things. Instead, she opted to compare couples based on the age that they began living together, regardless of when they got married.

 What the Study Found

 The UNCG study found that if the researchers compared couples by their age of cohabitation, their divorce risks were equal regardless of whether they were living together before marriage. This is because many couples who move in together begin to “act married,” regardless of whether there has been an official ceremony. The study also did confirm another common belief that couples that pair up earlier have a higher likelihood of divorce. In fact, divorce rates drop by as much as 25 percent for people who cohabitate in their mid-twenties as compared to those who begin living together at 18.