Legal Question in Family Law in Illinois
Rights of children upon death of their mother
My husband's ex-wife is dying of cancer and has been moved into a nursing home. The 2 youngest children (10 & 12) moved in with us to join their older brother (18 in Jan 2008), who has lived with us for 5 years. The children's aunts and grandmother seem to think that they can make decisions regarding what items in the apartment they can help themselves to. My husband and I feel that everything should go to the children and they should be allowed to take what they want and decide if anything can be taken by anyone else. Granted, there isn't a lot - the ex lived off of the kids child support - but what there is should be their shouldn't it? Do the kids have any rights in this matter? Do we need to get them an attorney? On a related note, the child support goes automatically to the ex's bank account - which a sister now has control of. They are being very difficult and don't seem to be willing to give us that money back. Isn't that also the children's money? Since their mother didn't use any of it this month, shouldn't it all come back to us to support the children? We do plan to hire an attorney to stop the support, but we know that may take a while and meanwhile, the ex keeps getting paid and we're broke with 2 more mouths to feed.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Rights of children upon death of their mother
You need to get an attorney for your husband and/or the children. Probably Husband first.
Need to transfer custody and terminate support.
The children would be entitled to all of their mother's asets upon her death.
email me if you have any questions.
Re: Rights of children upon death of their mother
Your posting touches on two issues:
Ex-wife's apartment and the items in it AND the child support termination.
First, regarding items in the mother's (ex-wife) apartment, there's nothing you can do on this issue. Essentially as long as the ex-wife is alive no one technically has rights to these things. Who's to say she's not letting the others take the items? This is a non-issue...if she dies then the children have rights potentially.
As for the child support, you need to get a Petition for Change of Custody and Termination of Child Support on file in Court ASAP. Child support won't stop until you do this. Sometimes you get the termination ordered retroactively but it's tough to squeeze the money out of the other parent.
Call if you'd like to discuss.
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