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The day before Father’s Day is often referred to as “Fatherless Day” and commemorates fathers who are not able to see their children due to death or separation. It is understandable why several groups of single fathers chose that day to rally at the state capitol in Springfield and at a Lake County courthouse. The two rallies were organized by different groups, but the groups have the same goals: increasing fathers’ access to their children.
The rally in Lake County was organized by a group called Illinois for Parental Equality, which works to reform family court to give fathers more time with their children. A similar group called Illinois Fathers organized the Springfield rally. "It can be very hard to spend time away from your child. It's heart-wrenching,” said Illinois Fathers supporter Nick Hickman at the rally.
Are Courts Biased Against Fathers?
Ben Winderweedle, president of Illinois for Parental Equality, feels that the odds are stacked against fathers in family court. However, some people who work in family court do not agree with him. One longtime Libertyville attorney was quoted by the Chicago Tribune as saying that he does not see bias one way or another and that the trend has been towards judges granting more equal parenting time between the mother and father. Other fathers’ rights activists want the default to be 50/50 time between the parents so that the children have equal time with both parents. However, many judges avoid this due to concerns about the child’s stability.
The New York Post recently reported on a New York City professor who is passionate about helping single and same-sex partnered women get pregnant. However, instead of going through a sperm bank, he has a more unorthodox method and donates sperm in more casual locations, including city bathrooms. Ari Nagel has fathered 22 children around the country, including in Illinois, this way. While many of the children were conceived using sperm he gave to the women, he does admit that about half of the children were fathered the “old fashioned way”. What is especially interesting from a family law standpoint about Nagel and the children he fathered is that he pays child support for five of them. Of course, many fathers pay child support, but Nagel claims that he had agreed in advance with the women that he was providing a service for them and that he had no financial obligation to the potential children. However, even though there may have been an agreement, New York does not recognize donor agreements outside of assistive reproductive technology centers, such as sperm banks.
A second parent adoption is a way for a non-biological parent to adopt a child while the biological parent’s rights stay intact. There are many reasons why a second parent adoption may make sense for a wide variety of families.
Second Parent Adoptions
When most people think about adoptions they think about a traditional adoption scenario where the biological parent or parents give up all rights to the child and another person or couple are given parental rights. A second parent adoption is a very different scenario. With a second parent adoption, a biological parent keeps his or her parental rights and the “second” parent is also given parental rights through the adoption process. At the end of the process, another person has all the rights and responsibilities that come with being the legal parent of the child.
Purpose of Second Parent Adoptions
After your divorce agreement is finalized you may decide that you want to modify some of the terms, including the terms related to parenting responsibility and time. In order to modify the parenting parts of your agreement, you must meet certain conditions. It is important to understand when you can modify parenting time and responsibility in a divorce agreement in Illinois and what you need to prove for a judge to be willing to consider your proposed modifications.
When Can You Modify an Agreement?
In Illinois, modification of divorce agreements is governed under 750 ILCS 5/610.5. Generally, parents can modify the terms of parenting agreements if they both consent to the modifications. Outside of both parties consenting, there are other ways to modify the parenting provisions of a divorce agreement. In terms of language, at the beginning of the year Illinois family law moved away from the terms “custody” and “visitation,” and now looks at custody in terms of parenting time and parenting rights. It is important to understand these changes because any modifications moving forward will need to use these terms and concepts.
If you or your child has been the victim of violence from a family member, you may be considering getting a restraining order to help protect yourself and other family members at risk of being victims of violence. Indeed, it is important to have a basic understanding of domestic violence and restraining order laws in Illinois.
What is a Restraining Order?
A restraining order, formally called an “Order of Protection,” prohibits a person from engaging in abusive or harassing behavior. Orders of protection are issued after there has been evidence of domestic violence. In Illinois, domestic violence is defined as abuse by one family or household member against another family or household member. “Family or household member” includes a spouse or ex-spouse, children, stepchildren, people who share a child, parents, people who are dating each other or used to date, and people who live together or used to live together. Domestic violence also includes a person with disabilities and his or her caretaker.
The news came out of Chicago recently that the court has denied Amanda and Leo Ware custody of their three children. Amanda, known at the time as Amanda Hamm, had spent five years in prison for child endangerment after she watched the father of her three children drown the six-year-old, three-year-old, and 23-month-old. News reports say that he allegedly wanted to kill the children because they interfered with the couple’s lifestyle of drugs and sex.
After serving her sentence, Amanda Ware married Leo Ware and had three children together. They had custody of the children until state authorities became aware that Amanda was the person involved in the previous drowning case. The couple was brought to the attention of the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services when a doctor recognized Amanda while she was delivering her most recent child. DCFS then took the three children into state custody.
Earlier this month Cook County Circuit Judge Demetrios Kottaras ruled against the Wares in their application for custody. The judge found that the couple was still unable to care for their children, but could continue supervised visitation with a permanency planning hearing scheduled every six months. In the meantime, the children will remain in foster care.
It is every parent’s worst nightmare: a knock on the door and an investigation by the Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS) accusing you of child abuse. Even parents that have nothing to hide and have not mistreated their children at all still fear that a wrongful allegation will have ongoing consequences. Hopefully, at the end of the day, the truth will win, but it is important to have some idea of the process to know what you are up against.
Someone Calls DCFS
The Illinois Department of Child and Family Services is the agency that is responsible for investigating claims of child abuse and neglect. DCFS has a hotline that anyone can call to report suspected abuse or neglect of children. There are also people called “mandated reporters”, such as doctors and teachers, that are required by law to inform DCFS if they have any suspicion of child abuse.
Once someone calls DCFS about you or your family, this may be enough to start an investigation. The person who answers the phone call will decide whether there is enough evidence to begin an investigation.
While children are not often named parties in family law litigation, they are frequently greatly affected by the outcome of family court matters such as parenting time and visitation.
Illinois family law has three different ways that the interests of children can be represented. The three types of attorneys are: attorney for the child, child representative, and guardian ad litem. While each may sound similar, there are important differences between these roles and the nuances should be understood.
Attorney for the Child
An attorney for the child is one kind of child representation lawyer. An attorney for the child advocates for the wishes of the child. Unlike the kinds of child representation lawyers listed below, an attorney for the child is not supposed to put his or her own thoughts or feelings into his or her representation and is only to represent a child’s wishes. This is closest to the type of relationship that an adult would have with his or her attorney.
NOTE: As of July 2017, the law governing child support in Illinois has changed. Please see our Child Support page for more information.
State Senator Michael Hastings (D-Tinley Park) sponsored legislation that would change the way child support is calculated. According to the Chicago Tribune, Senator Hastings said, "Illinois has a lot of archaic laws. The child support laws on the books do not consider the modern family when determining the necessary child support for many families." HB 3982 would change the child support laws from taking into account just one parent’s income, to using both parents’ incomes to determine the amount of child support that should be paid. Most states do take into account the income of both parents.
Current Child Support Laws
Couples sign prenuptial agreements before marriage so they are able to determine, in advance, how assets will be divided if there is a divorce. The Illinois Uniform Premarital Agreement Act governs prenuptial agreements. Couples enter into prenuptial agreements assuming that the court will enforce them if there is a divorce. However, there are situations that make a prenuptial agreement, or some of the provisions in a prenup, invalid.
When preparing and signing a prenuptial agreement, it is important to have a knowledgeable prenuptial agreement attorney to ensure that you do not accidentally have your agreement invalidated in whole or in part.
Duress
For a prenuptial agreement to be valid, both parties must sign the agreement willingly. There cannot be coercion or duress on either party to sign the agreement. One spouse saying that he or she will not get married without a signed prenuptial agreement is not necessarily enough to be duress in itself. However, the court will look at the amount of time before the wedding that the prenuptial agreement was signed. If an agreement was signed immediately before the wedding, then there may be a case for duress. Duress is generally when one person does not feel like he or she has any other options but to sign the agreement.
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