Posted on September 26, 2012 in Personal Injury

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 Posted on September 24, 2012 in Family Law

It used to be that almost anything other than holding hands was strictly forbidden before marriage. However, in today’s western societies, it’s quite normal to become engaged in sexual relationships long before marriage is even considered. Television is dominated by reality shows where young singles pursue all kinds of relationships, and tabloids are full of stories about celebrities who switch partners more often than they change their underwear. In today's culture, it’s not always clear who the biological parents of a child are.  This presents many legal problems, for example, child support, custody, and paternity issues. Some cases have been reported over the years where the mother of a child has lied about who her child’s biological father is and tried to get child support payments from another man who she claims is the bio-dad. According to one study, paternal discrepancy (i.e. a child is identified as being biologically fathered by someone other than the man who believes he is the father) rates “vary between studies from 0.8% to 30%.” Luckily, a paternity test can be taken to set the records straight.

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 Posted on September 23, 2012 in Personal Injury

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 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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