Illinois Divorce in the time of COVID-19

Many people are wondering if the governor’s shelter at home order affects parenting time or visitation schedules.  It does not.  You should still continue with your parenting time/visitation schedules.  Some parents have provisions in the parenting agreements that state one parent has all “school holidays.”  School might be out or still in session remotely (it’s not clear), but most are interpreting this time away from school as not affecting parenting agreements in any way.

Courts are still operating, but said operation is limited.  The court will hear emergency motions via email and zoom.   The emergency needs to be a real crisis and not just something that is important.  If the matter is found not to be an emergency, the person bringing the request is likely to be sanctioned by the court for presenting a matter that is not a true emergency.

Agreed court orders can still entered. The court recently approved a method for finalizing divorces (called prove ups) remotely. Parties can still get divorced during this time if they have all the necessary paperwork signed.

We are scheduling meetings via Zoom and Facetime. It is mostly business as usual except there are not court dates for the next 3 weeks.