Maintenance (formally known as alimony) is financial support for an ex-spouse. This can be ordered by the court during the divorce as temporary support and/or after the final Judgment for Dissolution of Marriage is entered. Maintenance only applies if the parties were married.

As of January 1, 2019, Illinois changed the way maintenance is calculated. Maintenance is now calculated by taking 33% of the payer’s net income – 25% of the receiver’s net income. Additionally, Illinois places a cap on the amount of maintenance (excluding temporary maintenance) one can receive, which cannot be more than 40% of the couple’s total combined income.

For example:

There have been many memes passed around (at least in my industry) that joke about a baby boom and an increased demand for divorce due to the stay at home order. Behaviors that people used to ignore because they could escape to work or the gym or a restaurant with friends, are gnawing at the psyche of isolated COVID-19 couples. Like that little habit he has of chewing with his mouth open. Or how she hums Merry Christmas every time she washes her hands.

This is even more exaggerated when parents must juggle homeschooling kids and working remotely from home. Arguments about who is teaching science today result in simmering resentment and passive aggressive loud typing on one’s laptop.

Although this is unchartered territory, we do know that the stay at home order will someday end. It must end, for all of our sakes. But until then, choosing whether to divorce your spouse needs to be made with great care. Divorcing your spouse is not easy, emotionally or financially. Before you go down the path of hiring an attorney and filing your petition for dissolution, try these tactics to keep the peace:

Many couples decide to separate before they fully commit to a divorce. However, simply moving out of one's shared household is not enough to make a separation official. In many cases, couples in Illinois will want to take steps to protect their rights by filing for a legal separation. This will allow them to consider many of the issues that will be addressed during divorce, such as the allocation of parental responsibilities and parenting time, spousal support, and property division, but they will continue to be legally married after the separation. Although this may sometimes be the first step on the road to divorce, some partners will decide to remain separated rather than get divorced due to the financial benefits a legal separation can offer them and their children.

Can a Legal Separation Save Me Money?

One of the main reasons why couples will decide to remain separated rather than divorced is the financial benefits that come along with remaining legally married. Reaping the benefits while separated may not be a long-term plan, but it can help you save up for a divorce in the future if you do not have the funds at the moment. Here are a few advantages to obtaining a legal separation instead of a divorce:

Emily Rapp is a new appointee to the ISBA’s Women and the Law Committee. Her main areas of practice are Family Law and serving as a Guardian ad Litem in Kane, Kendall and DuPage Counties.

Emily was a teenager when bitten by the legal bug. She read Silent Spring, a book by Rachel Carson that discussed the effects of herbicides and pesticides on the environment and decided right then that she wanted to be an environmental lawyer. Then she took environmental law. She is a family law practitioner.

Emily is a 2011 graduate from Loyola University School of Law. During her law school years, she was a 711-licensed clerk at the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office and clerked for the CTA. In law school, after determining environmental law was not her forte, she had dreams of becoming a Cook County prosecutor. Cook County did not share Emily’s dream. Resourceful Emily had a back-up plan, family law. She used her connections to find her first job out of law school at Peskind Law Firm in St. Charles. She credits that firm and Steve Peskind with teaching her a lot about family law and dealing with clients. From there she went to work for Weiler & Lengle. Rory Weiler continues to mentor her to this day. In April of this year, she opened her own practice, MagnusonRapp Law, in downtown Geneva.