Illinois General Assembly - Full Text of Public Act 102-0480
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Public Act 102-0480


 

Public Act 0480 102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY

  
  
  

 


 
Public Act 102-0480
 
HB3484 EnrolledLRB102 13864 LNS 19215 b

    AN ACT concerning civil law.
 
    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
 
    Section 5. The Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of
Marriage Act is amended by changing Section 501 as follows:
 
    (750 ILCS 5/501)  (from Ch. 40, par. 501)
    Sec. 501. Temporary relief. In all proceedings under this
Act, temporary relief shall be as follows:
    (a) Either party may petition or move for:
        (1) temporary maintenance or temporary support of a
    child of the marriage entitled to support, accompanied by
    an affidavit as to the factual basis for the relief
    requested. One form of financial affidavit, as determined
    by the Supreme Court, shall be used statewide. The
    financial affidavit shall be supported by documentary
    evidence including, but not limited to, income tax
    returns, pay stubs, and banking statements. Unless the
    court otherwise directs, any affidavit or supporting
    documentary evidence submitted pursuant to this paragraph
    shall not be made part of the public record of the
    proceedings but shall be available to the court or an
    appellate court in which the proceedings are subject to
    review, to the parties, their attorneys, and such other
    persons as the court may direct. Upon motion of a party, a
    court may hold a hearing to determine whether and why
    there is a disparity between a party's sworn affidavit and
    the supporting documentation. If a party intentionally or
    recklessly files an inaccurate or misleading financial
    affidavit, the court shall impose significant penalties
    and sanctions including, but not limited to, costs and
    attorney's fees;
        (2) a temporary restraining order or preliminary
    injunction, accompanied by affidavit showing a factual
    basis for any of the following relief:
            (i) restraining any person from transferring,
        encumbering, concealing or otherwise disposing of any
        property except in the usual course of business or for
        the necessities of life, and, if so restrained,
        requiring him to notify the moving party and his
        attorney of any proposed extraordinary expenditures
        made after the order is issued; however, an order need
        not include an exception for transferring,
        encumbering, or otherwise disposing of property in the
        usual course of business or for the necessities of
        life if the court enters appropriate orders that
        enable the parties to pay their necessary personal and
        business expenses including, but not limited to,
        appropriate professionals to assist the court pursuant
        to subsection (l) of Section 503 to administer the
        payment and accounting of such living and business
        expenses;
            (ii) enjoining a party from removing a child from
        the jurisdiction of the court for more than 14 days;
            (iii) enjoining a party from striking or
        interfering with the personal liberty of the other
        party or of any child; or
            (iv) providing other injunctive relief proper in
        the circumstances; or
        (3) other appropriate temporary relief including, in
    the discretion of the court, ordering the purchase or sale
    of assets and requiring that a party or parties borrow
    funds in the appropriate circumstances.
    Issues concerning temporary maintenance or temporary
support of a child entitled to support shall be dealt with on a
summary basis based on allocated parenting time, financial
affidavits, tax returns, pay stubs, banking statements, and
other relevant documentation, except an evidentiary hearing
may be held upon a showing of good cause. If a party
intentionally or recklessly files an inaccurate or misleading
financial affidavit, the court shall impose significant
penalties and sanctions including, but not limited to, costs
and attorney's fees resulting from the improper
representation.
    (b) The court may issue a temporary restraining order
without requiring notice to the other party only if it finds,
on the basis of the moving affidavit or other evidence, that
irreparable injury will result to the moving party if no order
is issued until the time for responding has elapsed.
    (c) A response hereunder may be filed within 21 days after
service of notice of motion or at the time specified in the
temporary restraining order.
    (c-1) As used in this subsection (c-1), "interim
attorney's fees and costs" means attorney's fees and costs,
including an allowance from the other party for a retainer fee
to obtain an attorney, assessed from time to time while a case
is pending, in favor of the petitioning party's current
counsel, for reasonable fees and costs either already incurred
or to be incurred, and "interim award" means an award of
interim attorney's fees and costs, including an allowance from
the other party for a retainer fee to obtain an attorney.
Interim awards shall be governed by the following:
        (1) Except for good cause shown, a proceeding for (or
    relating to) interim attorney's fees and costs in a
    pre-judgment dissolution proceeding shall be
    nonevidentiary and summary in nature. All hearings for or
    relating to interim attorney's fees and costs under this
    subsection shall be scheduled expeditiously by the court.
    When a party files a petition for interim attorney's fees
    and costs supported by one or more affidavits that
    delineate relevant factors, the court (or a hearing
    officer) shall assess an interim award after affording the
    opposing party a reasonable opportunity to file a
    responsive pleading. A responsive pleading shall set out
    the amount of each retainer or other payment or payments,
    or both, previously paid to the responding party's counsel
    by or on behalf of the responding party. A responsive
    pleading shall include costs incurred, and shall indicate
    whether the costs are paid or unpaid. In assessing an
    interim award, the court shall consider all relevant
    factors, as presented, that appear reasonable and
    necessary, including to the extent applicable:
            (A) the income and property of each party,
        including alleged marital property within the sole
        control of one party and alleged non-marital property
        within access to a party;
            (B) the needs of each party;
            (C) the realistic earning capacity of each party;
            (D) any impairment to present earning capacity of
        either party, including age and physical and emotional
        health;
            (E) the standard of living established during the
        marriage;
            (F) the degree of complexity of the issues,
        including allocation of parental responsibility,
        valuation or division (or both) of closely held
        businesses, and tax planning, as well as reasonable
        needs for expert investigations or expert witnesses,
        or both;
            (G) each party's access to relevant information;
            (H) the amount of the payment or payments made or
        reasonably expected to be made to the attorney for the
        other party; and
            (I) any other factor that the court expressly
        finds to be just and equitable.
        (1.5) A petition for interim fees that seeks an order
    for the payment of an initial retainer to retain an
    attorney shall have attached to it an affidavit from the
    attorney to be retained that the attorney has been
    contacted by the moving party and the attorney has agreed
    to enter an appearance if the court grants the relief
    requested, together with a certificate from the moving
    party that the interim fees granted will only be used by
    the moving party to retain the attorney. Any interim fees
    granted pursuant to this paragraph shall be paid directly
    to the identified attorney.
        (2) Any assessment of an interim award (including one
    pursuant to an agreed order) shall be without prejudice to
    any final allocation and without prejudice as to any claim
    or right of either party or any counsel of record at the
    time of the award. Any such claim or right may be presented
    by the appropriate party or counsel at a hearing on
    contribution under subsection (j) of Section 503 or a
    hearing on counsel's fees under subsection (c) of Section
    508. Unless otherwise ordered by the court at the final
    hearing between the parties or in a hearing under
    subsection (j) of Section 503 or subsection (c) of Section
    508, interim awards, as well as the aggregate of all other
    payments by each party to counsel and related payments to
    third parties, shall be deemed to have been advances from
    the parties' marital estate. Any portion of any interim
    award constituting an overpayment shall be remitted back
    to the appropriate party or parties, or, alternatively, to
    successor counsel, as the court determines and directs,
    after notice in a form designated by the Supreme Court. An
    order for the award of interim attorney's fees shall be a
    standardized form order and labeled "Interim Fee Award
    Order".
        (3) In any proceeding under this subsection (c-1), the
    court (or hearing officer) shall assess an interim award
    against an opposing party in an amount necessary to enable
    the petitioning party to participate adequately in the
    litigation, upon findings that the party from whom
    attorney's fees and costs are sought has the financial
    ability to pay reasonable amounts and that the party
    seeking attorney's fees and costs lacks sufficient access
    to assets or income to pay reasonable amounts. In
    determining an award, the court shall consider whether
    adequate participation in the litigation requires
    expenditure of more fees and costs for a party that is not
    in control of assets or relevant information. Except for
    good cause shown, an interim award shall not be less than
    payments made or reasonably expected to be made to the
    counsel for the other party. If the court finds that both
    parties lack financial ability or access to assets or
    income for reasonable attorney's fees and costs, the court
    (or hearing officer) shall enter an order that allocates
    available funds for each party's counsel, including
    retainers or interim payments, or both, previously paid,
    in a manner that achieves substantial parity between the
    parties.
        (4) The changes to this Section 501 made by this
    amendatory Act of 1996 apply to cases pending on or after
    June 1, 1997, except as otherwise provided in Section 508.
    (c-2) Allocation of use of marital residence. Where there
is on file a verified complaint or verified petition seeking
temporary eviction from the marital residence, the court may,
during the pendency of the proceeding, only in cases where the
physical or mental well-being of either spouse or his or her
children is jeopardized by occupancy of the marital residence
by both spouses, and only upon due notice and full hearing,
unless waived by the court on good cause shown, enter orders
granting the exclusive possession of the marital residence to
either spouse, by eviction from, or restoration of, the
marital residence, until the final determination of the cause
pursuant to the factors listed in Section 602.7 of this Act. No
such order shall in any manner affect any estate in homestead
property of either party. In entering orders under this
subsection (c-2), the court shall balance hardships to the
parties.
    (d) A temporary order entered under this Section:
        (1) does not prejudice the rights of the parties or
    the child which are to be adjudicated at subsequent
    hearings in the proceeding;
        (2) may be revoked or modified before final judgment,
    on a showing by affidavit and upon hearing; and
        (3) terminates when the final judgment is entered or
    when the petition for dissolution of marriage or legal
    separation or declaration of invalidity of marriage is
    dismissed.
    (e) The fees or costs of mediation shall be borne by the
parties and may be assessed by the court as it deems equitable
without prejudice and are subject to reallocation at the
conclusion of the case.
    (f) Companion animals. Either party may petition or move
for the temporary allocation of sole or joint possession of
and responsibility for a companion animal jointly owned by the
parties. In issuing an order under this subsection, the court
shall take into consideration the well-being of the companion
animal. As used in this Section, "companion animal" does not
include a service animal as defined in Section 2.01c of the
Humane Care for Animals Act.
(Source: P.A. 99-90, eff. 1-1-16; 99-763, eff. 1-1-17;
100-422, eff. 1-1-18.)

Effective Date: 1/1/2022