Warrenville Child Custody Lawyer

No one enters a marriage with the intention of getting a divorce. Unfortunately, marriages don’t always work out. When you make the difficult decision to divorce your spouse, that means you no longer want them to be such an important part of your life. However, it doesn’t mean you want your relationship with your children to change.

This dilemma can be one of the biggest challenges of getting divorced. Trying to maintain a strong relationship with your children while living separately from your former partner is difficult, even in the best circumstances. Thankfully, you don’t have to figure out how to do this alone. A Warrenville child custody lawyer from Wolfe & Stec LTD will help you seek fair child custody during a divorce in Illinois.

Child Custody Laws in Illinois

Why You Need to be Represented by a Warrenville Child Custody Lawyer

Illinois law offers two main ways to get custody of a child during divorce: You and your spouse can mutually agree to a parenting plan, or a judge can enforce a parenting plan at the end of a legal process. Typically, the former is much better than the latter for everyone involved. However, in either case, you want a child custody lawyer representing your interests.

Most people understand why they need a child custody lawyer in Warrenville during a contentious divorce that ends up in court. Lawyers understand how to document the facts and present a case before a judge. Without a lawyer, you could easily run afoul of bureaucracy, making mistakes that damage your case.

But why would you need a child custody attorney when you don’t have a contentious divorce? One way a lawyer can help is by making sure your custody agreement is thorough. Illinois requires a child custody and parenting plan to include all of the following elements:

• How significant decision-making responsibilities will be allocated between the parents
• Where the child will live at all times
• A schedule for visitation and methods for negotiating changes to the schedule
• Where the child will be enrolled in school
• Contact information for both parents
• Rules for communication between the parents.

These are just some of the elements that a parenting plan must cover; a judge might ask for much more information before they will approve it. Experienced child custody lawyers at Wolfe & Stec LTD will help you create a parenting plan that includes every required element and accounts for the best interests of your child. Don’t take the risk that a judge will deny your plan.

Decision-Making Responsibility

Two types of custody will be determined by a court or agreed to in a parenting plan. The first type of custody, legal custody, is known as decision-making responsibility in Illinois. This type of custody determines who is responsible for making decisions for your child.

Before your divorce, you and your spouse jointly had decision-making responsibility. However, that isn’t necessarily true after a divorce. If you are on good enough terms with your ex, you could agree to joint decision-making responsibility. If you aren’t, you or your ex might obtain exclusive legal custody.

There is also the option to divvy up legal custody based on specific issues. For example, you might have decision-making responsibility for the healthcare of your child, while your spouse could have decision-making responsibility for their education.

Parenting Time and Visitation

The other type of custody is physical custody, which is referred to as parenting time and visitation in Illinois laws. This type of custody determines how much time each parent spends with their child. Even if one parent has sole custody, which means the child lives with them full-time, the other parent can receive generous visitation rights — unless frequent visitation may endanger the child. If a child is capable of expressing a well-reasoned opinion about parenting time or visitation, their input will be considered by the court.

Are you about to get divorced in Illinois? Do you have children? Contact the Warrenville child custody attorneys at Wolfe & Stec LTD at 630-305-0222 to find out how we can help you keep a strong relationship with your children after a divorce.

Why Choose Us?

Child Custody Lawyers in Warrenville with Decades of Experience

Child custody is often one of the most contentious issues during a divorce. In most cases, both parents want to continue spending as much time with their children as they did before the split. Unfortunately, this is rarely possible. One or both parents will have to compromise.

At Wolfe & Stec LTD, we understand how difficult it is to compromise over something as important as time with your child. You can trust our experienced child custody attorneys to support you and your children in the following ways.

Emotional Support

We’ve never seen an unemotional divorce. Most divorces occur after one or both partners have reached an emotional breaking point. Feelings of love, anger, and sadness are all common. It can be easy for these feelings to overwhelm you and prevent you from making objective decisions. We understand what you are going through and will help you release those emotions without hurting your case. Our law firm can even direct you to outside support services that you or your children may need during these trying times.

Experienced Negotiation

While you and your spouse may not even be on speaking terms, that doesn’t mean that you will have to let a court decide the outcome of your divorce. Our Warrenville child custody attorneys can look at your custody goals from an impartial point of view. Using objective facts, we’ll negotiate with the other attorney on your behalf. This means we might be able to get you most or all of your stated goals through an agreement without having to put your fate in the hands of a judge. Even if negotiations ultimately fail, we will do everything we can to limit how much control a judge has over your future.

Personalized Attention

Every family is different, and every parent has different priorities. We never assume that your goals are the same as anyone else’s. Some parents will fight relentlessly for sole physical custody but don’t care as much about legal custody. Other parents prioritize power over a child’s healthcare or school decisions more than anything else. Before we take up your case, our child custody attorneys in Warrenville will take the time to fully understand your position.

FAQ

If this is your first divorce — or even your second or third — you probably have lots of questions. This is especially likely if this is your first time dealing with child custody. Our legal team is committed to addressing as many of your concerns as possible. The following are some common questions we receive during child custody disputes.

Can I prevent my spouse from getting custody of our children if they have been abusive?

A judge can consider the bad conduct of a parent when allocating parenting time if that conduct affects the parent-child relationship. Thus, if your spouse has abused your child, the judge will take that into account and will likely place strict limits on any parenting time. The judge may even deny your spouse unsupervised visitation. If your spouse abused only you, though, some judges might choose not to consider that conduct, sadly.

How does a judge determine the best interests of my child?

If your child is capable of expressing a well-thought-out opinion, the judge may choose to interview your child in chambers in private. The judge might also rely on a trained psychologist’s or social worker’s opinion about the best interests of your child.

Can child custody be modified after a divorce?

Yes. The courts understand that child custody agreements may not continue to be in a child’s best interests as they get older or as family members experience new life events. A child custody lawyer in Warrenville from Wolfe & Stec LTD will help you petition the courts to modify a custody agreement if it becomes necessary.

What are my options if my spouse is not complying with the child custody agreement or order?

There is a reason that a judge must approve a child custody agreement, even if it’s one that both parents have agreed to. Child custody plans are not optional. If your spouse violates a child custody plan, you can petition the court to enforce the plan or impose changes to the plan because of those violations.

If you have additional questions about the child custody process, ask one of our attorneys during your initial consultation.

Contact Wolfe & Stec LTD for Child Custody Help Today

Your children are the most important people in your life. Don’t let a divorce harm your relationship with them.

If you want to protect your custody rights after a divorce in Illinois, the attorneys at our law firm can help. Contact us at 630-305-0222 to discuss your legal options.