Family

Learn the basics of marital settlement agreements as you walk through a sample agreement and review relevant provisions of the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act.

Discovery is key to effective representation. Know what document production is required at the initial stages of a divorce case and the evidentiary value of recorded conversations, text messages, Facebook messages, emails, and other communications.

Learn the nuts and bolts of drafting a comprehensive parenting allocation judgment. Recognize common drafting pitfalls and how to avoid them. Discuss sample parenting time and holiday schedules. Get pointers on preparing your client for mediation.

The financial affidavit is the divorce lawyer’s greatest tool. Learn how to prepare the affidavit with your client and how to avoid pitfalls and sanctionable offenses. Understand how to effectively disclose and discover income, assets, expenses and debts.

Gain valuable information and tips on how to start your case with a beneficial initial consultation. Learn about red flags to watch for. Expedite your client’s case through the use of effective pleadings. Included in this session are samples for just about everything.

Essential guide for attorneys dealing with complicated property and financial concerns in a dissolution of marriage action.

An attorney and a trained custody evaluator will discuss analyzing a 604 report and developing a strategy for your case at trial as well as examining a favorable expert witness or unfavorable expert witness through cross-examination.

This program explores the impact of a DCFS indicated finding, reviews the DCFS Administrative Appeal process and covers successful strategies in overturning indicated findings at the administrative hearing level.

This highly engaging and interactive session offers a demonstration of both a direct examination and a cross-examination of a business valuation expert in a divorce matter with annotated comments throughout to instruct you on the strategy and tactics used by the attorneys involved.

There are several uses for business valuations beyond simply valuing the business. Learn other ways in which to use the information, such as to help determine the owner’s true economic income for support; to locate hidden assets; or to locate additional liquidity. You will also learn how to structure a settlement when the only significant asset of the marital estate is the business; what if non-marital real estate is used by or leased to the marital business or vice versa; and how to get these items covered indirectly at trial.

A brief overview of the Market, Income and Asset approaches – what are they and how they should be used. Learn the valuation methods to be used within each approach and when each is appropriate.