Yes. The only grounds for divorce in Illinois today are irreconcilable differences. There is no fault involved in having “irreconcilable differences.” 

What’s more, what you or your spouse did during your marriage generally has no effect on how your property gets divided. (There may be some exceptions to this. If you have questions, ask your Illinois divorce lawyer.) 

What that means is that it doesn’t matter if your spouse lied, cheated, or had an affair. Your marital assets will still be divided equitably. 

(NOTE: While your spouse’s “bad behavior” typically won’t affect the division of marital assets or the amount or duration of spousal support, if your spouse spent marital money for a non-marital purpose (e.g. an affair) your spouse may be held accountable to replace the amount of money they spent back into the marital estate. In Illinois this is known as “dissipation.”) 

No. As long as you’ve been a resident of Illinois for at least 90 days you can file for divorce at any time, whether you’re separated from your spouse or not. 

However, you can not finalize your Illinois divorce unless you’ve been separated from your spouse for at least six months OR IF you and your spouse agree that you have irreconcilable differences. 

If you and your spouse DON’T agree that you have irreconcilable differences, then you have to be separated for six months before you can get a divorce. 

Also, you and your spouse can be living in the same house and still be deemed to be living “separate and apart,” as long as you are no longer living together as man and wife. 

NOTE: You can FILE for divorce whenever you want. You just can’t finalize your divorce unless your spouse agrees or until you’ve been separated for six months. 

Yes. E-filing is mandatory in all Illinois civil cases. The entire divorce process, however, is not electronic. A judge MUST sign off on your final divorce papers in order for your divorce to be legally binding. Depending on what county you file in, and whether your divorce is amicable or contested, you and/or your spouse may have to appear in court in person or via Zoom to complete your divorce. 

A legal separation is a legally-recognized way to change some of the rights and responsibilities between spouses who no longer live together, but it does NOT end a marriage. 

In Illinois, spouses can divide marital property between them IF THEY BOTH AGREE. If the spouses don’t agree, their property can’t be divided in a legal separation. 

In a legal separation, a court can order one spouse to pay maintenance (i.e. spousal support) and child support to the other. The court can also allocate parental responsibilities (decision-making and parenting time) between spouses.  

In the past, there were two main reasons people filed for a legal separation instead of a divorce: 

     a. So that they could keep their spouse on their health insurance; 

     b. For religious reasons. 

Today, many health insurers will not continue to cover a spouse who is legally separated on their other spouse’s health insurance policy. (The separated spouse may be entitled to COBRA benefits, though.) 

Because of its limited scope, very few people file for a legal separation in Illinois today. 

Yes.  An annulment is known as a “declaration of invalidity of marriage” in Illinois. It treats your marriage as if it never even happened. There are very limited grounds upon which you can get an annulment in Illinois. Those grounds are: 

• One spouse lacked the capacity to consent to the marriage. For example, if someone didn't have the mental capacity to understand what s/he was doing, then his/her marriage can be annulled. Or, if someone was under the influence of alcohol, drugs, etc., at the time of the marriage. then s/he may have lacked the capacity to consent to the marriage.  Also, if someone was induced to enter into a marriage by force, duress, or fraud, s/he may not have “consented” to the marriage. 

• One spouse didn’t have the physical capacity to consummate the marriage by sexual intercourse and the other party didn’t know that at the time of the marriage. 

• Either (or both) spouses was only 16 or 17 years old and didn’t have his/her parents’ or guardian’s consent to get married; or 

• The marriage was prohibited. (For example, you can’t marry someone who is closely related to you or is already legally married to someone else.) 

(NOTE: Legally annulling your marriage does NOT necessarily annul your marriage religiously. Religious annulment is a whole separate thing! If you are looking for a religious annulment, talk to your priest, rabbi, minister, imam, or appropriate religious official.) 

A judge must sign your final divorce papers in order for them to be legally binding. However, depending on where in Illinois you live, you may not have to actually go to court in order to obtain the judge’s signature. 

Before COVID either you or your spouse had to appear in court in person at your final divorce hearing in order to finalize your divorce. 

Now, many courts are doing uncontested divorce hearings via Zoom. In some counties you may even be able to get divorced simply by filing all the appropriate, signed paperwork with the judge.  

Check with your Illinois divorce lawyer to find out what the rules are in your county. 

NOTE: Both you and your spouse have the RIGHT to be at your final divorce hearing if you want. But generally, only one of you MUST show up. 

You can’t. 

If your spouse wants a divorce, and you've been separated for six months or more, the court WILL divorce you - whether you want a divorce or not. 

You and your spouse can mediate any or all of your divorce issues at any time, so long as you and your spouse agree. A judge may also ORDER you and your spouse to go to mediation. If you and your spouse can’t agree on issues related to your children a judge will typically order you to try to resolve your issues through mediation before scheduling a court hearing on your child-related issues. 

During mediation, a trained, independent, neutral mediator will help you and your spouse talk to each other. S/he will also help you resolve whatever issues you disagree about. 

If you want, your lawyers can go with you to mediation. (That's known as "lawyer-assisted mediation.") Or you can mediate without your lawyers being present. 

Even though you mediate your divorce, it is wise to talk to a lawyer BEFORE you mediate. That way you will fully understand your rights and responsibilities BEFORE you agree to anything. (Yes. You need a mediator and a lawyer!) 

NOTE: A mediator cannot force you to make an agreement. If you and your spouse don’t agree, then the mediation is said to have “failed” and you and your spouse will then go back to court. 

Yes. In Illinois, a court can ORDER you and your spouse to go to mediation. The court can order you to mediate your financial issues, your parenting issues, or both. What the court CAN'T order you to do, though, is to make an agreement during mediation. 

If you and your spouse don't come to a settlement at mediation, your mediation will fail and you have to go back to court. Then the judge will decide your divorce issues for you at a trial. 

It's also worth noting that judges will often order you to mediate the issues surrounding your children (i.e. your parental responsibilities) BEFORE they will give you a hearing date on those issues. That's because the judges would rather have you decide how you want to parent your kids yourselves (if that's possible).  

Finally, depending upon the county in which you live, a limited amount of mediation regarding parenting issues may or may not be provided to you free of charge. However, if you want to mediate any financial issues in your divorce, you generally have to pay for that yourself. 

Collaborative Divorce is a specific type of out-of-court divorce process that is designed to help you and your spouse resolve all of your divorce issues in a conference room instead of a courtroom. Collaborative Divorce means much more than that you and your spouse want to divorce “collaboratively.” It is its own divorce process and it follows an established structure. 

In Collaborative Divorce a team of specially trained divorce professionals, including divorce lawyers, coaches, child specialists, and neutral divorce financial professionals, help you and your spouse focus on what matters most to you and end your marriage respectfully. 

The hallmark of a Collaborative Divorce is that everyone (including the divorce professionals) MUST sign an agreement known as a “Participation Agreement” in the beginning of the divorce process that says that, if the Collaborative Process doesn’t work, all of the professionals will withdraw from your case. If that happens, the divorcing couple (you) then has to hire new professionals and start all over again. 

The purpose of the Participation Agreement is to make sure that everyone is incentivized to stay at the table and negotiate in good faith. (Normally, lawyers make more money when you fight. In a Collaborative Divorce, if you end up fighting in court, the Collaborative lawyers lose you as a client!) 

In 2017, Illinois passed the Illinois Collaborative Practice Act. This law governs how Collaborative Divorce in Illinois is done. 

The Illinois Financial Affidavit is a multi-page form that provides the court with a snapshot of your financial picture at a certain point in time. It is essentially a budget and a balance sheet. In it, you will have to list information about how much money you and your spouse make, what you spend, what you own and what you owe. 

You can get a copy of the Illinois Financial Affidavit online. It is a state form. All counties in Illinois now use the same Financial Affidavit. 

Theoretically, everyone who wants to get divorced in Illinois needs to fill out an Illinois Financial Affidavit. However, if you and your spouse are divorcing amicably, and you both know what your income, expenses, assets and debts are, you may waive the requirement of filling out an Illinois Financial Affidavit. 

Filling out the Illinois Financial Affidavit can be confusing! Illinois Legal Aid Online has a fabulous website that will help you complete your Financial Affidavit. CLICK HERE to check it out. 

Yes. If you have been a resident of the state of Illinois for at least 90 days, you can file for divorce in Illinois regardless of where your spouse lives. However, if your spouse has already filed for divorce in a different state, then you will have to deal with your divorce in THAT state. 

Of course, you will have to serve your spouse with a Summons and a copy of the Petition for Dissolution of Marriage that you have filed. The best way to do that is to talk to a lawyer in your area about how to do it properly. 

If you’re trying to get your spouse served with a Summons outside of the state of Illinois and you don’t have a lawyer, try talking to someone at your County Sheriff’s department. They should be able to tell you the steps you need to take in order to get your spouse served with a summons outside of Illinois.