Kansas City Divorce & Family Law Blog by Stange Law Firm, PC

On behalf of Stange Law Firm, PC posted in Child Support on Wednesday, March 25, 2015. The term “boilerplate” is often heard in law, referring to something that is standardized and of generic application, such as a prewritten contract form or document that commands similar utility for high numbers of people. Candidly, a one-size-fits-all document or legal approach does not often avail in the realm of family law, for one very simple reason. Families. Families are, of course, anything but boilerplate. Every family in Illinois, Missouri and across the country is distinctly unique, rendering it a virtual certainty that any

On behalf of Stange Law Firm, PC posted in Child Support on Tuesday, March 3, 2015. Historically, and over many decades, child support outcomes have dictated that divorced mothers be awarded custody of the children in a marriage and that noncustodial fathers have visitation rights and take on the role of making regular child support payments. Although that is the long-tenured family law paradigm all across the country, including in Illinois and Missouri, its routine application by judges in divorce cases has become, well, far less routine in recent years. Empirical evidence amply supports that. Quite simply, many more couples

On behalf of Stange Law Firm, PC posted in Child Support on Wednesday, February 25, 2015. It is our hope that our readers in Illinois, Missouri and elsewhere find the following divorce-related story instructive rather than purely voyeuristic, given that its details do highlight a few germane points regarding money matters in marital splits. And what a story it is. Candidly, and as a family law firm with centrally strong Illinois ties, it would be a bit difficult for us to avoid mentioning the ongoing developments in the contentious Illinois divorce battle between Kenneth Griffin and Anne Dias Griffin. Bottom

On behalf of Stange Law Firm, PC posted in Child Support on Friday, February 13, 2015. Let’s talk contempt of court. Here’s a threshold question: What is it? What exactly does it mean, and how does it relate to family law? Certain family law issues can be contentious and not easily revolved. Emotions can run high, and a judge sometimes needs to step in to craft a post-divorce order that binds all affected parties to an agreed-upon plan or schedule. Often, it is matters relating to children that bring judicial intervention and continued oversight to the fore. Most commonly, that

On behalf of Stange Law Firm, PC posted in Child Support on Thursday, February 5, 2015. We noted in our immediately preceding blog post that child support in Illinois “is a topic centrally marked by subjectivity.” That is, families are organic units, with support-related concerns and outcomes necessarily being different in every case. Our February 3 blog entry duly notes that, remarking as well on the material impact that judicial discretion over support matters can play in a given case. An online overview of child support considerations in Illinois renders it quite apparent that a judge’s close and singular involvement

On behalf of Stange Law Firm, PC posted in Child Support on Tuesday, February 3, 2015. For those seeking to get a firm handle on what child support is all about in Illinois (the duties, offsets, exemptions, judicial considerations, time limits, enforcement mechanisms for noncompliance and so forth), the metaphor of a swamp might be useful. Swamps are murky. What might seem firm footing suddenly becomes slippery. What seems fixed and obvious going forward can suddenly change materially based on suddenly altered circumstances. That is fundamentally true with child support matters as well. Things can seem to be perpetually in