Gitlin on Divorce: 2024-25 Edition

The 2023-24 version of Gitlin on Divorce: A Guide to Illinois Family Law became available in August 2023 and the 2024 edition is now available!

Statutory Changes 2015-19. Note that from 2015 to 2019 nearly all of Illinois statutory law has changed.  These changes include:

• 2015: Original maintenance guidelines.
• 2016: 8-year process of updating Illinois family law saw its conclusion with:
  • Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (IMDMA) Rewrite;
  • New parentage act–the Illinois Parentage Act of 2015 (effective 1/1/16);
• 1/1/2017: The Technical Corrections Act to the Rewrite to the IMDMA (companion animals and name change as part of divorce judgment).
• 7/1/2017:  Income shares for child support.
• 2018: Maintenance guidelines amendments including more granular approach to presumptive lengths of maintenance and other changes.
• 2019: Major rewrite to the maintenance guidelines.

Statutory Changes 2021. We also had a host of statutory changes in 2021. The key 2021 and 2022 amendments that are now integrated into the 5th Edition of Gitlin on Divorce are:

• Technical changes made to the IMDMA based on case law (Pub. Act 102-349);
• Court-ordered retainers based upon an affidavit (102-480);
• *A host of changes to the child support health insurance provisions within § 505.2 (Pub. Act 102-87);
• *New law addressing temporary relocation (Pub. Act 102-143);
• “Hope Cards” in domestic violence cases;
• New law regarding foreseeability involving modification of child support and maintenance obligations

Now that the dust has started to settle, we have seen a wave of appellate court cases attempt to make sense of the wholesale changes to Illinois family law. The newest version of Gitlin on Divorce: A Guide to Illinois Family Law incorporates all of the significant changes in the statutory law and includes all of the important cases.

2022 5th Edition. The 2022-23 version of the book represents a complete Rewrite to make the book more accessible and better relate to your day-to-day practice.

2023 First Update to the Fifth Edition. The 2023 update completes the work on the book’s rewrite while including 30 cases critical to an understanding of how Illinois family law has evolved in light of the host of changes to our statutory scheme.

2024 2nd Update to the Fifth Edition. The changes include:

• Chapter 2, Jurisdiction. We address a new non-family law case that develops the law regarding service of summons and allows “drop service”—otherwise known as general vicinity service. This Chapter also expands upon § 2-6[b][2] “Service in Difficult cases under Section 203.1 of the Code” and discusses the option for service of summons under SCR 102(f) through social media (1)(A), Email (1)(B), or text message (1)(C).
• Chapter 5, Temporary Relief. The First District appellate court cited this Book with approval when reversing an order for sale of the marital residence, finding that doing so can constitute an abuse of discretion unless there exists dire circumstances.
• Chapter 8A Property. We update the Section titled “Stock Options, Restricted Stock, and Similar Forms of Benefits” to focus on the direct award of benefits per the Revenue and Private Letter Rulings including Revenue Rule 2004-60. We address whether such awards are limited to vested options, RSUs, and RSAs.
• Chapter 8B Property. We reworked § 8-24[e][4] “Consideration of VA Disability Benefits” due to the issue’s complexity including discussing two 2023 out-of-state decisions that develop the contractual-indemnification approach in the wake of the seminal Supreme Court Howell decision. This Chapter also reworks § 8-24[g] “Sale of Property during Pendency of Suit” in light of the November 2023 Gabrys decision. We also update the section involving long periods of separation and the effect on the overall property division. We discuss the March 2024 decision involving the contractual indemnification approach to dividing military retirement disability pay.
• Chapter 9, Premarital Agreements. We discuss the Third District’s Amyette decision and urge that the abrogation of a maintenance waiver should be limited to the facts of the case—involving a 20-plus year marriage where the wife was the primary caretaker for the parties’ minor children and the husband failed to support the wife’s desires to further her education during the marriage. Further, the case involves a wife who was five years from optimal social security while the husband was six years younger. The appellate court commented on time he had before reaching age 67 when he could increase his non-marital retirement assets while maintaining a solid middle-class lifestyle.” Yet the case emphasized that general equitable principles cannot invalidate a premarital agreement but only involuntariness or a limited form of unconscionability.
• Chapter 10, Child Support. Our Child Support Chapter anticipates the passage of Senate Bill 3284 that includes both an overall second clean-up from the 2016 Rewrite as well as language to make it more difficult to impute income. We address the August 2023 A.H. decision that refines our law regarding 503(g) trusts and provides a benchmark regard potential retroactive relief.
• Chapter 11, Parental Allocation. This Chapter comprehensively includes references to Public Act 103-126 that rewrites the guardian ad litem statute at Section 506(a)(2) of the IMDMA. Now guardian ad litem’s reports are deemed admissible subject to cross-examination and the roles of the guardian ad litem have been statutorily defined. This chapter also addresses Supreme Court Rule 909 that establishes guidelines for parenting coordinators.
• Chapter 12, Relocation. This chapter was comprehensively edited and updated, including the 2023 Kenney decision that continues the line of caselaw that affirms the trial court’s decision involving relocation. This case introduced the concept of where the children live in terms of their “conscience lives.”
• Chapter 15, Maintenance. We include a new subsection, § 15-7[d] “Responsibilities for Caring for Disabled Child” in light of the 2023 Stine decision where the mother was primarily responsible for care of a disabled child, thereby limiting her ability to work outside the home.
• Chapter 16, Judgments. This Chapter alerts the reader to key issues when potentially seeking to appeal from a temporary order in light of the 2023 Gabrys decision. This case warns that a denial of a motion to reconsider an injunction would ordinarily not set the timeframe for filing of an interlocutory appeal.
• Chapter 16A, Settlement Agreements. We have entirely reworked this chapter. This work includes better explaining Illinois’ law involving postnuptial agreements, considering our dual 2021 appellate court decisions involving post-nups.
•        Chapter 17, Modification. The entire discussion involving termination of maintenance because of cohabitation has been edited, expanded upon, and refined. We include comprehensive references to a spreadsheet that supports the caselaw breakdown. We analyze each post-Sappington appellate court decision consistent with the caselaw driven non-exclusive factors. This Chapter focuses on the First District’s decisions in Edson and Larsen decision where the appellate court affirmed the denial of maintenance termination. In each case, the boyfriend did not have free access to the former wife’s house, no belongings were stored at each other’s house, and the couple did not share any financial accounts. We also discuss the A.H. decision in terms of the applicable law involving child support petitions and provide an updated executive summary.
• Chapter 20, College. This Chapter refines the discussion of the UIFSA involving the original forum state’s law controlling the duration of the support obligation and accordingly the potential obligation for post-high school educational support. The support for disabled children section also alerts you to the Illinois Supported Decision-Making Agreement Act (eff. Feb. 2022).

• Chapter 21, Domestic Violence. We address whether there exists an implied civil right of action for breaches of the IDVA. We include a new case involving a domestic battery where the prosecution overcame an objection to the victim’s statements because the victim was determined to be unavailable to testify considering the totality of the evidence. The chapter discusses the December 2023 decision that continues to take a narrow view of what constitutes a dating relationship under the IDVA. We discuss the 2024 In re Marriage of Doe decision that held that the domestic violence proceedings involving allegations of sexual abuse were not a subterfuge for custody modification. Finally, we update our statutory reference to include the 2024  amendments to the IDVA.