ILLINOIS DIVORCE LAW BLOG

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In my practice, much of the emphasis on this blog is placed on complex child custody litigation, and how to manage these difficult issues with child custody litigation.  Yet, in some of my cases along with child custody issues there can be significant financial issues and division of property issues. One issue that sometimes arises is the valuation of a family owned business, or the valuation of a percentage share in a corporation our group of companies.

With certain exceptions  all property acquired during marriage through the time, skill and efforts of either spouse is considered marital property. The disposition of property is governed by Section 503 of the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (IMDMA). Under Illinois law, all property acquired by either spouse during a marriage is presumed to be marital property.

A business begun by one spouse after the date of marriage and before physical separation will need to be divided in a dissolution proceeding, and if you and your spouse cannot agree on its value it may need to be evaluated by an expert.  Under the IMDMA the Court can appoint its own expert to advise it about financial issues in a case, but more typically each arty will retain a CPA-level expert to determine values in the business and property interests, and then be available to testify at trial (if necessary) regarding the values that the Court should determine in a marital estate.

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In  my practice, I have the privilege of working with parents who are the targeted end of a toxic  alienation campaign.  The above video highlights the importance of the reintegration therapist, with the reminded that there are very few clinicians that actually have the training and experience to work with “brainwashed” children.

“A therapist that’s going to be helpful to an alienated parent and their damaged children here should have clinical and research experience, at least to know the research completely, and be able to differentiate the weak studies from the strong studies. They also should have a lot of grassroots experience in working with families in high-conflict divorces and forensics. They should be able to have expertise, whether it’s forensic sociology or forensic psychology.

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https://amandasillars.com/blog/f/parental-alienation-literature-2016-and-beyond?blogcategory=Books

Amanda is the founder of the Eeny Meeny Miney Mo Foundation and the creator of the Australian Parental Alienation Awareness Day, on the 12th of October. Amanda is regularly consulted as an emerging subject matter expert in this field. Amanda’s goal, and that of the Eeny Meeny Miney Mo Foundation, is to educate parents, Family Court and mental health practitioners on parental alienating behaviours, the dynamics, processes and profiles, and the trauma, stress, and lifelong impact it has on children.

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Nearly 40% of the Parental Alienation literature has been published since 2016. Parental Alienation research has moved beyond an early stage of scientific development and has produced a scientifically trustworthy knowledge base.

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The Parental Alienation Study Group has completed a thorough critique of a book that has been published seeking to discount the reality of Parental Alienation. PASG has done a thorough and clinically sound debunking of this book, and the review published by PASG is worth reading by any clinician or legal professional involved in PA mitigation. https://pasg.info/app/uploads/2023/04/Analysis-of-Mercer-Drew-2023-04-04.pdf

A Comprehensive Review of Misinformation and Other Inaccuracies in Challenging Parental Alienation: New Directions for Professionals and Parents

Created by Parental Alienation Study Group

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As a long-term member of the Parental Alienation Study Group, I am pleased to see that there is going to be an excellent seminar this summer on new developments in the field. See the recent post from Dr. Harman. Dr. Harman is an accomplished and awarded scientist and teacher, and has published many peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and has presented her research regularly at scientific conferences around the world. Dr. Harman’s areas of research expertise focus on the topic of power in relationships: power in how intimate partners influence each other for good or bad. As an applied social psychologist, her work has applied social psychological theories on intimate relationships to the study of public health problems ranging from STI prevention to domestic violence. For nearly the last decade, her primary focus has been on the study of parental alienation.

Aside from her professional publications, Dr. Harman also writes articles for general audiences, such as The Conversation, and her work is republished on thousands of other news sites (e.g., Associated Press, Raw Story). Her 2016 TEDx talk on parental alienation, has had thousands of views.

Dr. Harman regularly conducts trainings for legal and mental health professionals on parental alienation, and has served as an expert witness and consultant on civil and criminal cases involving parental alienation and other forms of family violence.

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For the decades that I have been practicing Family Law/Divorce/Child Custody, I have always endeavored to deliver good value for the money spent on legal fees. Aside from keeping my hourly rates at a moderate level so that they are affordable for all clients, I also have some pride in the fact that my Firm really works to manage the cases aggressively and at the same time, cost effectively.  With this in mind, I thought I’d post some suggestions on how clients can help keep legal costs down in a contentious divorce:

Here are 7 ways to save on divorce costs:
1.  Try to maintain some measure of BIFF (Brief, Informational, Firm and Friendly) communication with your spouse over children’s issues. Use Our Family Wizard or similar platform. When all communications go through lawyers, the costs go up.
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Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS)

Parental alienation occurs when efforts are made to discourage a child’s attachment to a parent. This often occurs during acrimonious divorces, when one parent discourages the child/children from having a relationship with the other. Mechanisms often used to alienate the child/children are extremely harmful to children and include the following:

  • Slandering the other parent. This involves making deprecating statements about the other parent repetitively. This often includes fabricated information.
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In my law practice, a number of issues that come up with divorce and child custody matters are focused around a spouse with a High Conflict Personality.  HCPs can make a divorce and child custody case difficult to the point of being traumatic, and it is so important to have a lawyer that understands these personality types, and has management strategies for dealing with HCPs in the courtroom.  Attorney and HCP expert Bill Eddy offers a podcast on the link below, along with some appropriate advice:

” Here are four of the biggest mistakes when dealing with HCPs:

Trying to give them insight into their own behavior

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So what accounts for the post-holiday divorce?

Why Does Divorce Spike In January?

According to experts, the biggest reason that divorces rise following the holidays is a desire for one person in the marriage to start fresh and begin another year with a clean slate.

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