Month: August 2012

In a recent child custody dispute that examines the role of legal citizenship, one state's highest court has ruled that parental rights trump citizenship status. This determination has set a precedent for custody battles that involve illegal immigrants in Illinois and...

Less than two months after their wedding, the wife of a brokerage firm's CEO has asked the court to annul the marriage. The woman claims her husband married her under false pretenses, concealing devastating information from her about his past and his future. Her...

It is only August, and this has already been a strange year for celebrity divorces. The press was almost disappointed that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes managed to settle their custody arrangements within days of their separation. Courteney Cox and David Arquette filed...

Quick question: What do marriage, birthdays, christenings, coming-of-age, death and graduations have in common? They are all rites of passage. These are just a few of the momentous events in our lives that we have built traditions around. Those traditions...

We are talking about how temporary restraining orders -- also called dissolution action stays -- work in Illinois. These orders are often used in child custody and domestic violence situations, but we are focusing on their role in property division in a divorce....

If Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes had not had an antenuptial agreement, how would they have approached property division? Every news article made a point of saying that Cruise was worth much, much more than Holmes. When she served him with the divorce papers, how could...

When you are preparing to say "I do" to the one you love, there are a number of things to consider, especially if this is not the first time you have been married. A financial advice columnist considered the matter recently, and she provided some interesting...

Randy Jackson, the youngest of Michael Jackson's eight siblings, has been center stage in a fight over control of Michael's estate. He is rumored to have authored a letter to the probate court calling for the ouster of the lawyers in charge of Michael's estate. Four...

We occasionally revisit the topic of how a couple can communicate with their children when they have decided to divorce. Experts say that both the message and the delivery should be tailored to the child's developmental stage. Babies, for example, need to feel secure;...