If you have a house and you are getting an uncontested divorce in Illinois, choosing the right lawyer is important. If you don’t handle your house properly, what you thought was an easy uncontested divorce might turn into something you fight about after the divorce has already been completed.
There are many lawyers who handle uncontested divorces for a flat fee.
But all too often, they devote insufficient effort to understanding the issues relating to real estate, and further, they do not know who to properly handle said issues.
For example, there are many different living arrangements that can occur when real estate is involved in a divorce. Some of them are as follows:
- Both spouses continue living together
- One spouse lives in the house
- Both spouses move out, and it sits empty
- Bout spouses move out, and the house is rented
Regardless of which option will work for you, what you should know is that the devil is in the details.
Many Illinois uncontested divorce lawyers will ignore the details. On one hand, there is no way to solve every possible problem that two divorcing spouses might have. On the other hand, there are certainly some common areas of trouble which an uncontested divorce lawyer can help you avoid.
In an uncontested divorce in Illinois, the settlement agreement that is entered in court is called a marital settlement agreement (an “MSA”). Ideally, the MSA should cover the major and predicable aspects of what should be done with your real estate.
On important aspect of being a lawyer is asking the right questions. Even when handling an uncontested divorce in Illinois, it is important for a lawyer to ask the right questions.
When a client of mine needs to handle real estate in a divorce, I try to ask the right question so I can get my client what they want, and also so I can protect my client from predictable risks.