Illinois Divorce Laws & How To File (2024 Guide)

Jeffrey Johnson has written novels and movies in addition to legal analyses of eminent domain and immigration law. His experience in writing engaging fiction makes him uniquely capable of making the most dry and academic legal topics interesting (or.

Jeffrey Johnson, J.D. Deputy Legal Editor

Jeffrey Johnson has written novels and movies in addition to legal analyses of eminent domain and immigration law. His experience in writing engaging fiction makes him uniquely capable of making the most dry and academic legal topics interesting (or.

Written By Jeffrey Johnson, J.D. Deputy Legal Editor

Jeffrey Johnson has written novels and movies in addition to legal analyses of eminent domain and immigration law. His experience in writing engaging fiction makes him uniquely capable of making the most dry and academic legal topics interesting (or.

Jeffrey Johnson, J.D. Deputy Legal Editor

Jeffrey Johnson has written novels and movies in addition to legal analyses of eminent domain and immigration law. His experience in writing engaging fiction makes him uniquely capable of making the most dry and academic legal topics interesting (or.

Deputy Legal Editor

Adam has resided at the intersection of legal and journalism for two decades. An award-winning journalist and legal strategist, he’s covered high-profile trials in Florida. After law school, Adam and spent two years clerking for a U.S. District Co.

Adam has resided at the intersection of legal and journalism for two decades. An award-winning journalist and legal strategist, he’s covered high-profile trials in Florida. After law school, Adam and spent two years clerking for a U.S. District Co.

Adam has resided at the intersection of legal and journalism for two decades. An award-winning journalist and legal strategist, he’s covered high-profile trials in Florida. After law school, Adam and spent two years clerking for a U.S. District Co.

Adam has resided at the intersection of legal and journalism for two decades. An award-winning journalist and legal strategist, he’s covered high-profile trials in Florida. After law school, Adam and spent two years clerking for a U.S. District Co.

Updated: Jan 4, 2023, 3:25pm

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Illinois Divorce Laws & How To File (2024 Guide)

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Table of Contents

Divorce can be a complicated process. If you’re in the midst of a divorce in Illinois, there’s an added complication: new laws concerning divorce went into effect on January 1, 2022.

That means that whatever advice you may have gotten or what you thought you knew may not be all that accurate anymore.This article will fill you in on the new laws and how they might impact you as well as going over how to file and some basic information for divorce in Illinois.

New Illinois Divorce Laws as of 2022

The Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act that went into effect on January 1, 2022 contains a number of added provisions that, depending on your circumstances, might impact your divorce a great deal.

The new rule that went into effect that has the most broad impact concerns having the opposing party pay for a divorce attorney. Through motion to the court, one spouse can ask the court to have the other party cover the cost of an attorney. Since, as we’ll see below, Illinois is a state that seeks to distribute resources equitably — meaning as fairly as possible rather than equally — it makes sense that the court would want to ensure both sides have representation when the only thing preventing it is ready money.

The other new rules only affect divorcing spouses who have children, but they are potentially even more impactful to those individuals.

So if you didn’t seek a divorce in Illinois because you were afraid you might need to relocate during the proceedings or would be unable to afford an attorney to represent you, the recent changes might mean it’s time to start the process.

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Deputy Legal Editor

Jeffrey Johnson has written novels and movies in addition to legal analyses of eminent domain and immigration law. His experience in writing engaging fiction makes him uniquely capable of making the most dry and academic legal topics interesting (or as interesting as possible).

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