Legal Question in Family Law in Illinois

Re: Joint Marital Property

According to Illinois Statutes, marital property is property that was acquired by either of you after you were married, that includes cars, furniture, pensions etc... There are some exceptions that deal with property you inherited, or exchanged for property you had before you were married, or property you acquired after you were legally separated, or by agreement between you and your spouse, or the increase in value or income from the above mentioned property.

This means any property that was acquired whether or not it is both of your names. If you have that kind of property, you can by agreement decide who gets what. For example, if you both have a cars that were acquired during your marriage, then you can both agree that one of you gets one car and the other gets the other car. If there is dispute then the court will have to decide.

Given the facts you provided you may want to talk with an attorney to see if you would qualify for a Joint Simplified Dissolution. In order to qualify you and your spouse would have to certify that a. neither of you is dependent on the other for support, or if you are, you are willing to waive the right to support, b. one of you is a resident of the state for at least 90 days, c. you use irreconcilable differences as grounds and you have been separated for 6 months and reconciliation has failed or would be impracticable, d. there are no children born or adopted and the wife is not pregnant, e. you were not married more than 8 years, f. neither of you has an interest in real property, g. you both waive any right to mainenance, h. the total market value of your marital property does not exceed $10,000, and the income from the property is less than $35,000, and neither of you has a gross annualized ioncome in excess of $20,000, i. you both have disclosed to each other all your assets and tax returns for all years of the marriage, j. you have a writtten agreement dividing all assets in excess of $100 in value, and you have allocated responsibility for debts and liabilities between you.