When you file for divorce, one spouse typically moves out of the marital home. Whether you are the one who stays or the one who moves out, you are likely to have several immediate concerns, including how to ensure that your spouse continues to help pay your family bills and how to manage co-parenting your children. Your lawyer can help you address these concerns by requesting temporary orders from the court, which remain in effect until the divorce becomes final.

What Types of Temporary Orders Can I Request in a Divorce?

Either spouse can petition the court for temporary orders addressing these issues:

• Paying family bills. If one spouse makes significantly less than the other and cannot immediately cover their personal living expenses, the other spouse will typically be ordered to make spousal maintenance payments.

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Financial preparation prior to filing for divorce can substantially ease your stress during and after divorce. If you have been out of the workforce for some years, the idea of becoming self-supporting can be daunting. The three biggest expenses you need to plan for are your home, car, and food. Your fourth largest expense will be for medical care and health insurance. The annual premium for an individual health plan in 2018 was nearly $7,000--over $500 per month--and that plan comes with an average deductible of $1,500. Fortunately, Illinois has a Spousal Continuation Law (215 ILCS 5/367.2) that allows you to remain on your spouse’s employment-based insurance plan after divorce.

How to Stay on Your Spouse’s Health Insurance After Divorce

If you want to remain on your spouse’s health insurance after your divorce, your spouse must notify their employer and insurance company of the divorce within 30 days of the final decree. This will trigger the insurance company to send you a notice about the continuation of coverage. You must return your response to the insurance company within 30 days.

The Cost of Spousal Continuation Coverage After Divorce

When you elect spousal continuation coverage, you must pay the entire premium. That includes both the amount an active employee would normally pay plus the employer contribution. Employees typically pay about 20 to 30% of the total premium, with the employer picking up the majority of the cost.

If you anticipate that your divorce will be both complicated and contentious — perhaps due to parenting style differences, children with special needs, or substantial income and assets to be divided — consider which of these two options sounds better:

You and your spouse each choose an aggressive lawyer who will fight out your issues in one-to-one negotiation or in court, if necessary. Consider which of you has more money to spend and is more likely to drag out the legal process out of spite.

You and your spouse agree to resolve your divorce without going to court, working cooperatively with a team of professionals who will provide a neutral perspective and recommendations on both financial and parenting issues with a focus on the best interests of your family as a whole.

Divorced parents often try to stay in the same area in order to maximize both parents’ involvement in the lives of their children, but that is not always possible. One parent may have a career opportunity that requires relocation, or maybe they just want to move closer to their family. If the relocation distance is substantial, the other parent may object because it will affect parenting time with their children and add the burden of travel costs. These cases often must be argued in court.

What Distance Does Illinois Consider a Relocation?

Illinois law 750 ILCS 5/600(g) defines relocation in terms of the distance between the child’s current primary residence and the new address, as measured by an internet mapping service which provides a distance in miles driven.

When one spouse has a significantly higher income than the other, the transition from married to single life can be particularly hard on the lower-earning spouse after divorce. This is especially true when the latter spouse has taken on most of the home and family duties in order to support the other’s career advancement. 

To ease the transition, the higher-earning spouse often makes monthly maintenance payments to the other for a year or more after the divorce. However, there are many misconceptions about Illinois laws on spousal maintenance, also known as alimony. Both spouses should go into a divorce understanding what they can realistically expect when negotiating a maintenance agreement.

Q: What if I Do Not Think I Need Maintenance at the Time of the Divorce, But Change My Mind Afterward?

A: If you waive your right to maintenance in your final divorce settlement, you cannot go back to court later and try to obtain maintenance (750 ILCS 5/457e). Therefore, one important step in the divorce process is to work out a budget and determine how much money you will need to support yourself after the divorce.