Mother filed a petition to establish parentage of her minor son. She sought an order for the child to apply for "Special Immigrant Juvenile" (SIJ) status. The Trial Court found that the minor had been abandoned by his father. It granted mother sole decision-making responsibility and parenting time. However, the court found that the minor [...]
Plaintiff sued for injuries she sustained. Defendants' 105-pound dog bit her. She claimed negligence. The Trial Court granted summary judgment for Defendant on a common-law negligence claim. There was no evidence that Defendants knew or had reason to know that their dog was dangerous. The dog was in the care and control of Defendant's brother. [...]
The Circuit court had statutory authority to award the wife maintenance and child support from the date of her request in the petition for dissolution. Appropriate credit was given for the temporary payments husband had made. Section 505(a)(3.1)(A) of the Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act now explicitly excludes accelerated depreciation from the calculation of [...]
The child's father died. His ex-wife refused to let father's civil union partner see the child any longer. Father's civil union partner filed a petition for visitation and allocation of parental responsibilities as the child's step-parent. The Trial Court and the Appellate Court denied relief to the civil partner. The civil partner appealed to the [...]
In a divorce proceeding, wife filed an emergency motion for injunctive relief. She alleged that husband secretly amended his revocable trust to remove her as successor trustee and beneficiary. A few months before he filed a divorce petition. Wife alleged that this trust had been part of the parties’ agreed estate plan and contained substantial [...]
The trial court granted husband a reduction in the amount of maintenancehe was obligated to pay wife. It denied wife’s requests for an increase inthe monthly award based on the statutory maintenance guidelines. And it denied a retroactive increase for the time period the case was pending. Wife appealed. The Appellate Court affirmed. The wife [...]
The MSA provided that each year the parties would conduct a "true-up". It would be based on husband's tax documents. The true-up would determine if he paid the proper amount of support in the prior year. Subsequently, husband filed a motion to modify child support. He asked the court to reduce his monthly support obligation [...]
The Court entered an order for father to have primary parental decision-making authority for educational and healthcare decisions. And the majority of parenting time for the parties' 2-year-old son. Mother appealed. She argued that the court's rulings were against the manifest weight of the evidence. The Appellate Court affirmed the Trial Court. Evidence showed a [...]
The Court did not abuse its discretion in denying the motion of husband. He is disabled, has MS, and receives social security benefits. He seeks to modify the maintenance amount he receives from wife. Husband did not offer any evidence showing that his MS had progressed in a way that was not anticipated in the [...]
The husband and wife brought a joint motion to voluntarily dismiss their respective petition and counterpetition that were on file. At the hearing on the motion for voluntary dismissal, the court granted the motion. But, it entered judgment against the husband in favor of the wife’s former counsel in the amount of $7,500. This was [...]