Illinois is a no-fault State, meaning that there are no fault-based grounds for divorce such as adultery, mental cruelty, physical cruelty, habitual drunkenness, abandonment, and the like. In Illinois, if one spouse wants a divorce, they will get their divorce based on irreconcilable differences. The only requirement is that the parties must live separate and apart for a continuous period of not less than six months immediately preceding the entry of judgment dissolving the marriage. This meets the irreconcilable differences requirement as grounds for the dissolution of marriage. Living separate and apart does not mean the parties must live in separate houses. As an example, spouses using separate bedrooms with no meaningful communication but sharing fundamental financial obligations are considered to be living separate and apart under the statute.A divorce can cost several hundreds of thousands of dollars or it can cost less than $10,000, depending on how reasonable the litigants are in terms of negotiating a deal. Most divorce attorneys in Chicago, Illinois bill hourly and require an initial retainer which is then offset against the time spent on the case. If there is a retainer amount remaining at the end of the case, it is refundable. If the retainer is exhausted and there are additional billings, we ask the client to simply pay their bill monthly. In the event of a trial, typically, we ask for a trial retainer in advance of trial. The retainer amount is based in part upon the complexity of the issues in the case. Typically, the money in the marital estate pays for both family law lawyers with a right of either litigant to ask that the payment be reallocated to the other spouse at the end of the case in what is called a contribution hearing. In the event there is a dispute between the parties after judgment for dissolution of marriage, there is no marital estate to pay the divorce attorneys’ fees so each party pays their own if they have the ability to pay. Each party reserves the right to ask the other party to pay their fees in this post-judgment circumstance.