Getting a divorce is rarely easy. However, it does not have to proceed in the fashion you may have seen on TV or in movies, in which spouses are constantly at odds with each other, have heated arguments, and fight ugly battles in the courtroom. If you and your spouse can both recognize that ending your marriage is the best choice for yourselves and your children, you may be able to agree to work together to complete the divorce process as peacefully and amicably as possible.
Even if you are ready to cooperate with your ex and work together to resolve matters in your divorce, you will want to work with an attorney who can assist in this process. With over 25 years of combined legal experience, the lawyers of SBK Law Group can help you understand your rights and the legal requirements that you will need to meet during your divorce, allowing you to end your marriage quickly, efficiently, and with minimal conflict.
While you and your spouse may agree to work together to complete your divorce outside of the courtroom, you will probably still experience some disagreements about the various issues that you will need to address in order to end your marriage. These may include how you will divide your marital property and whether one of you will pay spousal maintenance to the other. If you have children, you will need to create a parenting plan that specifies how you will share parental responsibilities, as well as a schedule of the parenting time each of you will have with your children.
While addressing these matters, you may use a variety of methods to resolve disagreements. In some cases, the two of you may be able to negotiate an agreement, either by sitting down in person and discussing the issues, sending written correspondence to each other through email, or communicating through your respective attorneys. Mediation and collaborative divorce can also be effective ways to identify your outstanding issues and resolve them in a way that both of you can agree on. It is important even in amicable divorces that you have an advocate available to advise you on the law, counsel you to avoid unintended consequences, and ensure you are equipped with the knowledge to come away from your amicable divorce with a thorough, fair, and well-contemplated settlement.
The goal of an amicable divorce is to create a settlement that you and your ex are both satisfied with. This settlement will address all of the issues involved in ending your marriage, and it will make decisions about how certain matters will be handled going forward. You can then attend a court hearing in which your settlement will be approved and your marriage will be legally dissolved. At this point, your divorce settlement will become a legally binding court order that both you and your ex-spouse will be required to follow. If your circumstances change in the years following your divorce, you may be able to ask for a modification of your divorce decree.
By agreeing to end your marriage as amicably as possible, you can avoid much of the difficulty and expense involved in the divorce process. However, even if you and your ex can cooperate to reach agreements on the various issues involved in your divorce, you should seek the advice of counsel throughout the process, and you certainly should always review your settlement with an experienced attorney prior to entering into any agreement.
At SBK Law Group, our Illinois divorce lawyers can help you identify any issues that may lead to difficulty in the future, and we can ensure that your rights are protected in the decisions you make. To learn more about how we can help you complete your divorce successfully, contact us online or by calling 630-427-4407. We assist with divorces in DuPage County, Kane County, Kendall County, Will County, and Cook County.