Do I Want Legal Separation or a Divorce
In Illinois, you have the legal options of seeking a legal separation or seeking a divorce. A legal separation is a formal court process that you go through to have you designated by court order as being legally separated. Merely being physically separated from your spouse or having separate financial accounts from your spouse does not constitute legal separation no matter how long you have lived apart. In the eyes of the State of Illinois, you are still married and your funds and the other person’s debts are marital assets to be shared and debts to be shared. A legal separation is a process that can be utilized when parties want to leave open the potential for reconciliation. The parties remain married after the process. Some couples also for their own person reasons have no objection to remaining married and do not want to be divorced, but want to live separate lives. The legal separation process also offers an alternative to persons who may be opposed to divorce for religious reasons. Another reason for a legal separation instead of a divorce may be that it will allow a spouse to continue to be enrolled in the other spouse’s medical insurance program.
There are also drawbacks to the legal separation process. For example, unless the parties agree to have the Court address the marital financial matters they will not be addressed in the legal separation process. The Court can address issues such as child custody and child support issues in the legal separation process, but the Court cannot divide the marital assets and debts. The legal separation process will thus leave those issues unresolved. The legal separation process can also take time and expenses and if the parties eventually decide to get a divorce, that time and expenses will later need to be expended again on a divorce. This is the reason, in my opinion, why the legal separation process is not one that is commonly seen in Illinois courts. Parties do not want to have to essentially go through the separation/divorce process twice. Another problem with a legal separation is that the parties are still legally married and cannot remarry until they go through the divorce process. It is important to weigh the above factors in deciding what option is best for you.