Nearly one in three women will be sexually harassed at work, and although workplace sexual harassment tends to affect women more often than men, men can be victims, too. Reporting sexual harassment is rarely easy and straightforward, and it can become even more complicated when power dynamics are at play. If you are being harassed at work, it is important to know your rights, as well as the potential consequences you could suffer if you do not take action to stop the sexual harassment.  

How Are Victims of Sexual Harassment Affected? 

In addition to the embarrassment and awkwardness of dealing with sexual harassment in the moment, sexually harassing actions can leave the victim feeling terrible for days, weeks, and even months afterward. Some of the physical and psychological side effects that victims report after being sexually harassed at work include, but are not limited to: 

• Nausea
• Weight loss or gain
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Headaches
• Sleep disorders 
• Sexual dysfunction 

Even people who consider themselves strong and resilient may be surprised by how poorly they feel after being harassed at work. There is no shame in admitting that a hostile workplace environment leaves you feeling shaky, anxious, or even fearful about going into work and facing the person who harasses you. You may also feel anger at people who observe the sexual harassment without intervening, or for coworkers you speak to about the behavior who fail to stand up for you.

If you are getting or have already gotten divorced in Illinois, chances are that you are receiving or paying spousal maintenance payments. Also known as alimony or spousal support, spousal maintenance is less common than it used to be but is still common enough that it is important to be aware of the laws that regulate this area of family law. One of the questions that spouses frequently have after divorce, whether they are making or receiving alimony, is whether certain actions or events could cause alimony to end. Like most legal issues, the answer in a specific case is, “It depends.” Read on to learn more. 

What Can End Alimony Payments? 

The most common reason that spousal maintenance payments terminate is that the court order requiring one spouse to make payments comes to an end. While the court order for spousal maintenance is renewable or fixed, it has a firm or potential end date. It is important to not stop making payments without a court’s explicit permission. 

The second most common reason for terminating spousal maintenance payments is that the receiving spouse gets married or begins living with a new partner in a conjugal relationship (living with a romantic partner, as opposed to living with a roommate or family member). The spouse getting married or cohabitating is responsible for informing the paying spouse about the change in arrangements and can face serious court penalties for failing to do so in a timely manner. 

Every child deserves to have a safe, comfortable home in which to grow up. When parents get divorced, one of the court’s main duties is to make decisions that will benefit the children of the marriage. Often, this means that one of the spouses will be compelled to make child support payments to the other in order to help them raise the children.  

When Is Child Support Awarded? 

Child support is almost universally granted to one of the spouses during a divorce that involves the parents of minor children. Illinois courts base their child support decisions on an “income shares” model. This model considers both parents’ incomes and the number of children, as well as the amount of parenting time each parent has. The amount of child support is based on an estimation of the total cost of raising the child. This cost is then equitably divided between the parents based on each of their respective net incomes. The parent with more parenting time will usually receive the support payments.  

Can I Appeal a Child Support Order? 

If you believe that a mistake was made when the court awarded child support, you have the right to appeal the decision. However, a person ordered to pay child support cannot appeal the decision just because they do not like the result. In order to appeal a child support order, a petitioner must have legal grounds to do so. For example, if you believe that insufficient evidence or prejudice played a role in the ruling, you may benefit from appealing the decision.  

On the whole, couples today are considering the potentially negative impacts of divorce more carefully than couples of the past, especially when there are children involved. This means fewer marriages end in divorce, and, when they do, couples are more conscious about the way they choose to separate. Many people are children of divorced parents themselves and have experienced the pain of high-conflict divorce first-hand. Others have simply read the research and know that divorce does not have to be a catastrophic experience when adults can work cooperatively together. Whatever the reasons may be for you, if you are considering collaborative divorce, the time to approach an attorney committed to helping you with the process is now. 

Do Not Wait Until You File for Divorce

Some couples figure they will wait to file for divorce and then hire attorneys to finish representing them throughout the process. However, this is usually not a good idea; the way you file for divorce has the potential to impact the rest of the divorce proceedings. For example, if you and your spouse have not already resolved issues like child support, asset division, and alimony, you will not be able to finalize your divorce and may need to litigate these issues on a temporary basis.

Hiring your collaborative divorce attorney before filing for divorce is the best time to start working on things - and the sooner, the better. Your attorney can help you manage your hopes and expectations during divorce, as well as brainstorm solutions to potentially difficult issues such as child custody. You can begin setting your own expectations and get a sense of the divorce process with your own attorney before you, your spouse, and your spouse’s attorney all begin meeting together. If you have a sense of what you want, and are willing to be flexible, you can generally move fairly quickly through the collaborative divorce process and file for an uncontested divorce. 

Although students are often the focus of sexually harassing behavior on Illinois’ university campuses, the truth is that employees of a university may be subject to sexually harassing behaviors as well. Studies on the subject show that universities tend not to screen applicants for histories of sexual harassment or prior misconduct, potentially leading to hiring employees with a clear tendency towards sexually predatory behavior. Such behaviors could come from fellow employees, department managers, or even bold students. Sex-based discrimination may also be more subtle, such as being passed up on a promotion because you are pregnant or might become pregnant. 

University employees who are being sexually harassed or discriminated against because of their sex may wonder whether they should file a complaint under Illinois’ laws or a Title IX complaint.

Illinois Has Laws Against Sexual Harassment

Although Title IX may be a valuable resource for students who are not protected under Illinois sexual harassment laws, Title IX investigations are not subject to the same rigorous, standardized procedural processes as criminal and civil procedures under Illinois law. You may not get the investigation or adjudication you want if a sexual harassment case is handled internally through a university’s Title IX administrators. You may not necessarily be able to have an attorney, bring witnesses, or have other evidentiary rules to your advantage in a university’s Title IX hearings.