Peoria Family Law Blog

If you are an unmarried father in Illinois, you may need to go through several legal steps to ensure you have the rights and resources to build a relationship with your child. One possible way to solidify your rights is to sign a Voluntary Acknowledge of Parentage form. Once you sign this form, you are legally responsible for supporting your child. Understanding how the VAP process works may help you determine the best way to secure your parental rights.

According to Illinois Legal Aid, state law assumes you are a child's father if you are married to his or her mother when she conceived or delivered. However, if you are not married to the child's mother, establishing parentage requires additional steps. The simplest circumstance occurs when you and the child's mother both agree that you are the father. She may agree to list your name on the child's birth certificate, but this step alone may not legally establish your parentage. The state requires a VAP form. You may sign and submit this form before the child is born or at any time after the birth.

Parents often have many considerations when it comes to divorce and their children, from child support payments they will need to make (or expect to receive) and discussing these issues with young kids. However, custody can be an especially challenging issue for many parents for various reasons. For some parents, the summer is a great time to approach the custody process because kids are out of school. For example, sharing parental responsibilities with an ex may be easier when school obligations are not part of the picture. On the other hand, this time of year can also be challenging with respect to custody.

If your child is out of school, they may be exposed to stressors and negative emotions while you or your child's other parent work through the divorce process. It may be easier to discuss this topic with your child during this time of year, since they are not occupied with homework and spending most of their days in the classroom. If you and your ex will share custody, this may be a convenient season to familiarize yourself with the changes in your lives since children do not have to be taken to and from school every day. On the other hand, issues related to childcare may arise, especially if you work.

With the popularity of smartphones on the rise, everyone seems to use some type of social media. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other platforms offer excellent opportunities for meeting new friends and staying in touch with old ones. While going through a custody dispute, what you post on social media may be problematic. 

If you regularly use social media, you may have difficulty giving it up altogether. Fortunately, you probably do not have to avoid posting during your custody battle. You should, however, think about what you post online and in other places. Here are four social media posts that may complicate your custody case: 

Many couples who have a lot of assets at stake compose prenuptial agreements to describe how they would like their property divided should they decide to divorce. However, not every couple takes this option, though after tying the knot, some couples may wonder if they should have done otherwise. Fortunately, drafting a postnuptial agreement is an option. Still, any couple should be careful that they do not unintentionally make the postnup unenforceable in an Illinois court of law.

Per FindLaw, since postnuptial agreements generally handle the same issues that prenuptial agreements address, the same circumstances that can cause a court to void part or all of a prenuptial agreement also apply to a postnuptial. Like a prenuptial, a postnuptial agreement should be in written form. The spouses involved should have reasonable time to read over it and ponder its provisions. No pressure or duress should be involved to force a party to sign the agreement.