Legal Question in Family Law in Illinois
payong for divorce?
my husband of 16 years is an alcoholic, the whole time weve been married. i fianlly told him to leave. hes been out for 7 months. i have worked part time the last 8 yrs and am currantly looking for work. he has a good job. he has paid me approx. 400.00 since hes been gone. we have a 16 yr old. i cant afford to pay for a divorce to force hinm to help me financially. can he be made to pay for divorce?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: payong for divorce?
Assuming your husband makes decent money you've got to do something to start the support flowing...that's a lot more money at stake than a couple thousand dollars for a lawyer in the long run.
Couple things, first if your income is fairly low I'd suggest you try and get court costs waived. Second, have you looked into some of the free lawyer providers out there?
IL law does allow for one party to be required to pay the fees of the other...but it takes a little while into the case to make that happen.
Re: payong for divorce?
Yes. He will certainly be made to pay for your legal fees. The state of IL has a "leveling of the playing field" statute in which the spouse who earns money (your husband in this case) has to pay the other spouses legal fees.
More importantly, you can get immediate child support right away. You do not even have to wait for the court process regarding the divorce. You can start getting temporary child support and temporary maintenance in a very short period of time (a matter of a week or so in many cases).
If your interested in getting more information regarding these matters, please let me know by contacting my anytime. Good Luck
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