Child custody, or the allocation of parental responsibilities, as it is now known in Illinois courts, is a difficult subject in a high-conflict divorce. In these cases, the court must often step in and make a decision for the parents on behalf of the child’s best interests.

Spousal abuse, infidelity, and addiction are frequent catalysts for this type of conflict. Substance abuse causes many divorces. In some cases, one parent may attempt to use the other’s drug or alcohol use against them to limit their chances of receiving custody or visitation.

A recent study found that when one spouse is a heavy drinker and the other is not, divorce is much more likely to occur. Couples who participated in the study had a divorce rate of 30 percent when both were not heavy drinkers or both were heavy drinkers. However, when only one was a heavy drinker — having six or more drinks at one time — the divorce rate increased to 50 percent. Alcoholics may also be more likely to engage in domestic abuse, as two-thirds of spousal abuse victims report that the perpetrator was drinking at the time of the attack.

The more complex a divorce is, the more likely there will be experts utilized to provide information to the case. These professionals are often called in by one side to help sway the court’s decisions on various elements. Attorneys can rely on an expert to help prove their client’s parenting skills, disprove the other’s parenting abilities, reveal hidden bank accounts, or prove through bank statements that the other spouse was spending marital money on an affair. Below we outline a few different types of family law experts that could play a role in your own divorce case.

Child Psychologist or Child Expert

A child expert is a psychologist who meets with parents, children, and other family members and relevant parties in order to make recommendations on a parenting plan and custody.

Forensic Accountant

Much of divorce is about asset division, alimony, and child support. A forensic accountant may be called in to assess tax issues, provide insight into a spouse’s standard of living, place value on a business, or provide information about credit card statements or cash-flow.

While child support may have been originally decided years ago with your divorce, that does not mean the court order will remain unchanged. Even after a child reaches the age of 18, the parent who pays child support sometimes still has obligations, particularly if they have the financial means to pay for college, and the other parent does not have the ability to do so.

How Does the Court Make a Decision?

Not all children end up going to college, and not all children of divorce go, either. If a child’s parents do not have the ability to pay, they will either have to come up with the money themselves, take out loans, or simply not attend. However, if their parents do have the means to pay, and the child has proven academic success, the court may decide to create an order of support for college expenses that the non-custodial parent is responsible for. To make this decision, the court will consider the following:

• Finances of each parent;
• Finances of the child, such as scholarships or financial aid;
• Child’s academic achievements; and
• Standard of living the child has become accustomed to.

As such, if the child was not planning on attending college, their grades are not good enough to get in, or the custodial parent has substantially more financial resources to pay for college, the court will likely not require you, the non-custodial parent, to pay, or will only require you to pay a small portion.

Temporary custody is usually decided during divorce, as the child’s parents are likely to split up before the marriage is dissolved, and is subject to change when the divorce is finalized. After all, divorce typically takes many months, as assets and debts need to be accounted for, child support and spousal support are debated, and division of property is negotiated.

However, in some cases not associated with divorce, a parent (or parents) may wish to willfully give temporary guardianship to another party. For example, a mother with full legal custody may wish to grant the child’s father guardianship if she knows she will be leaving the country for an extended multi-month work trip, during which she will be unable to take care of her child. A guardianship attorney can help make this possible.

Who Can Be Given Custody?

According to 755 ILCS 5/Probate Act of 1975, temporary guardianship may be awarded to a relative or family friend when the parent of a child temporarily cannot provide care. A parent can decide who they want to have as the temporary guardian of their child as long as that person is at least 18 years of age, not a felon, a U.S. citizen, not legally disabled, and of legally sound mind. Typically, a parent will choose:

Marital property includes all assets obtained during a marriage, whereas non-marital property is everything owned before marriage. For middle-age to older adults, aside from real property, savings are the largest aspect of marital property. A survey by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers found the division of retirement plans and pensions was the second-leading cause of contention in divorce.

Do Retirement Plans and Pensions Get Divided During Divorce?

Retirement accounts, pensions, and IRAs are all considered marital property if they were obtained during the course of the marriage, or if they were contributed to during the marriage. For example, if an IRA started out at $10,000 before the marriage, and it was worth $100,000 after 20 years of marriage, the majority of the assets would be considered marital property and should be divided between the two spouses.

401(k) Accounts

Splitting a 401(k) account can be complicated, and technically comes after divorce. After the marriage has been dissolved, a qualified domestic relations order (QDRO) must be filed, which is not part of the divorce agreement. The QDRO must reflect what was outlined in the divorce agreement. Each retirement account needs its own QDRO, and each QDRO must be reviewed by an attorney.