Legal Question in Family Law in Illinois

Re: parents paying for living expenses while in school?

Hello. I have a two part answer for your question. 1. Even though you are 19, you

still can petition the divorce court that handled your parents' case to order dad and mom to pay your college tuition and other related

school costs based upon their financial ability

to do so. That is the law in Illinois, but it

will not apply if you graduated from high school

and did not go directly to college. In other words, if you worked and lived on your own, after

college, and then decided to enroll in college,

there is a 90% possibility that the court will

not order mom and dad to contribute.

2. Taking into account what I said above,

apply the same principle to the expenses that

you list in your question. If these expenses

are college related, and you went directly from

high school to college, without sitting out a

semester, there is a better than 90% chance that

the court will consider ordering mom and dad

to contribute to the costs of these obligations,

but the court would order mom and dad to pay

based upon their ability to pay. For instance,

the court would examine your parents' income,

household expenses, and the number of other dependents that each may be responsible for.

I suggests that you seek legal representation, before attempting to get mom and dad to contribute, and have the lawyer come to court

with you.