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Illinois Divorce Law -- How long will my divorce case take?

This entry will detail some information about what you can expect from filing a divorce case in Cook, Lake, McHenry, DuPage, and Kane Counties in Illinois. Those are the areas where our firm has extensive experience with family law matters.

Every client or potential cleint wants to know how long it will take to get a divorce, modify a judgment, collect on back child support, et cetera.

The short answer honestly is--we don't know. Well, we can guess, but so much depends on the parties and their willingness to deal. If you have a couple willing to strike a deal with respect to division of assets and debt, custody, child support, maintenance, and the like, and do it promptly, a case can move very quickly. Where we see the couple can resolve their differences, we recommend simply negotiating a settlement and signing all of the necessary documents ahead of time, prior to filing suit. Suit is only filed when everything is resolved and ready to go. In that case you can usually get what is known as a "prove-up" (settled divorce hearing) date within a few weeks depending on the Court's schedule. We can put the basic document package together in about two weeks or so, depending on the complexity of the divorce (kids/no kids, a lot of assets and debt/minimal assets, etc.).

This saves a tremendous amount of expense because the Court sets automatic hearing dates where at least one party's attorney must appear--costing you money. And these dates can be as often as every thirty days, so you get the idea. The only reasons to file suit prior to reaching a settlement are when no settlement can be reached in a reasonable period of time (or at all), or where circumstances demand it (one party is cut off from finances, physical abuse).

We offer a flat fee deal for agreed divorces, with the caveat that in the event the case becomes contested we are paid by the hour for the additional work. Hopefully this accomplishes two things: one, it encourages our client to try to settle the case; and two, it covers us in terms of expense if the case somehow becomes contested.

So to answer the question finally, an agreed case can take a total time (from hiring our firm to resolution) of as little as two months. Contested cases have run anywhere from a year to two years. It all depends on whether the clients dispute something, and the nature of that dispute (child custody for example can be a very expensive and time-consuming dispute due to the need for hiring a child representative or guardian, child custody evaluation, et cetera).

Call any time at 630.434.0400 Ext. 165 to schedule a meeting with me or to ask a question.

posted by Raiford Palmer at 9:25 AM

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