In the late 1990’s, Illinois passed detailed legislation that controls attorney’s fees in divorce and family-law cases. Lawyers and judges call this package of amendments the “Leveling the Playing Field Act.” While proponents of the amendments promised to quickly amend this law because of its problems, Illinois saw no amendments until 2009 and 2016. The more recent amendments provide tweaks to the law regarding attorney’s fees in divorce cases. And since then, we have two key Illinois Supreme Court cases: Heroy II and Goesel addressing contribution awards and disgorgement. Heroy II attempted to balance the historical ability / inability-to-pay standard with the language of our statute. Goesel finally addressed the split among the districts regarding whether the court could order disgorgement of earned fees.
For further updates, etc., see Gitlin on Divorce: A Guide to Illinois Family Law (5th Edition).
