Family law encompasses various legal matters that pertain to family relationships, domestic relations, and related issues. Some of the key areas of family law include:
- Divorce: Divorce involves the legal termination of a marriage. It includes issues such as property division, child custody, child support, and alimony (spousal support).
- Child Custody and Visitation: Illinois use the terms allocation of parental responsibility of decision making and parenting time when referring to custody and child support. This area of family law deals with determining when children will spend time with each parent. It also involves making decisions about the child’s upbringing and welfare such as medical, religious and education decisions.
- Child Support: Child support refers to the financial support that a non-custodial parent is required to pay to the custodial parent to help cover the child’s expenses, including food, housing, education, and healthcare. In Illinois, child support is determined based on guidelines provided by the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act. The guidelines take into account the income of both parents and the number of children requiring support. The purpose is to ensure that children receive financial support that is proportionate to their parents’ income levels.
- Alimony/Spousal Support: Alimony, also known as spousal support or maintenance, is financial support provided by one spouse to the other after divorce or separation. It is intended to help the recipient spouse maintain a standard of living similar to that enjoyed during the marriage.
- Adoption: Adoption is the legal process of establishing a parent-child relationship between individuals who are not biologically related. It involves terminating the parental rights of the biological parents and transferring those rights to the adoptive parents.
- Paternity: Paternity cases establish the legal relationship between a father and a child. This may involve establishing paternity for purposes of child support, custody, visitation, and inheritance rights.
- Domestic Violence: Family law addresses issues related to domestic violence, including obtaining protective orders (restraining orders) to prevent further abuse and providing legal assistance to victims of domestic violence.
- Guardianship: Guardianship involves legal authority granted to an individual (the guardian) to make decisions on behalf of a minor child or an incapacitated adult who is unable to make decisions for themselves.
- Prenuptial and Postnuptial Agreements: These agreements are contracts entered into by couples before (prenuptial) or after (postnuptial) marriage, outlining how assets and liabilities will be divided in the event of divorce or death.
- Surrogacy and Assisted Reproduction: Family law addresses legal issues related to surrogacy arrangements, including parental rights and responsibilities, as well as issues surrounding assisted reproduction technologies such as in vitro fertilization (IVF) and sperm/egg donation.
These are some of the primary areas of family law, but the field is broad and can include other matters related to family relationships and domestic relations. As family law attorneys we specialize in these areas and provide legal assistance and representation to individuals and families facing various family law issues.