Posted on September 20, 2012 in Personal Injury

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 Posted on September 18, 2012 in Personal Injury

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 Posted on September 16, 2012 in Family Law

In Illinois there is an option for people who want a quicker and easier divorce, it is called a joint simplified dissolution of marriage. The law in Illinois has set this procedure for people who have no children and little to no assets. It is a divorce which must be agreed upon by both parties because it is a joint petition. Both sides will need to go to court together and file for the divorce. Before it seems too easy to do, there are certain requirements which must be met in order to file for a joint simplified dissolution of marriage.

There is an Illinois residency requirement for both parties. Either spouse must have lived in Illinois for at least 90 days, which can include being stationed there by the military. But the two sides can’t live together during that time. Separate living arrangements must be kept for at least 6 months in order to qualify for this kind of divorce. The marriage will be childless and not last longer than eight years. There are also qualifications which must be met as to the assets that are held by the married couple before they split.

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 Posted on September 15, 2012 in Personal Injury

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 Posted on September 12, 2012 in Family Law

Divorce is never an easy process, but it is important to know what it entails even if you never experience it.  In the process of divorce, there are various topics which must be settled, either by the court or through an agreement between the two parties looking to divorce.  Such topics include child custody, child support and division of property.  To truly understand the last topic, division of property, it is important to know how a court looks at property during a divorce.

Illinois has two classifications of property according to their law.  Marital property would be the assets that are divided between the two parties who are divorcing.  These assets are generally obtained during the years of marriage.  They can include real estate, cars, bank accounts and other assets or property regardless of how the title or the deed is held.  Yet there are certain exceptions to this determination.

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 Posted on September 11, 2012 in Personal Injury

A 14 year old boy’s life was forever changed on a fateful day in February of 2012. Hunter Himes was on his bike traveling home from a friend’s house when he was hit by a car near Beller Drive and Lemont Road in Darien. The car trapped him underneath and made him sustain injuries that caused him to be in critical condition and in a coma. He was airlifted to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn where he made a partial recovery from his injuries; to this day Hunter is unable to walk or talk.

The driver who caused the car accident was Timothy J. Hagan, a 40 year old man from the 3000 block of Drover Lane in Darien. He was taking a right-hand turn onto Lemont Road, but he did not see Hunter approaching the crosswalk. Hagan was ticketed for not yielding to a pedestrian in a crosswalk.

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 Posted on September 08, 2012 in Personal Injury

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 Posted on September 05, 2012 in Family Law

An important reform has been enacted due to an unfortunate set of circumstances. On Tuesday August 21^st, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed Senate Bill 3823 which increases the punishment for people who abuse visitation rights of non-custodial parents. It is a very serious problem which is illustrated in the regrettable case of Steven Watkins.

On November 25^th, 2008, Watkins went to the home of the Skinner family in Ashland, Illinois. He was picking up his child, Sidney, from his ex-wife’s house when things became ugly. This visitation was court-ordered but unfortunately short-lived for Watkins. Shirley Skinner, Sidney’s grandmother, was charged with shooting Watkins in the back of the head. She received 55 years in prison when she was convicted for the murder.

The visitation abuse did not start there. According to Steven’s mother Penny Watkins, “He (Steven) had several times ran up against opposition from the mother of the child. She (Sidney) was sick, she didn’t feel good, she had wet her pants – several different excuses. Steven would go to the local police. … (They said), ‘we’ll go with you, but if the mother refuses to give you the child, that’s all we can do.’” Steven Watkins’ parents also received visitation rights of Sidney after the passing of their son, which they were not able to exercise, since Steven’s ex-wife moved the child out of state.

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 Posted on September 05, 2012 in Personal Injury

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 Posted on September 02, 2012 in Personal Injury

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