Peoria Legal Blog

Divorce risk is greater if a wife earns more than her husband

On behalf of Parker & Parker Attorneys at Law posted in divorce on Friday, May 10, 2019.

Some men in Illinois and elsewhere in the country simply can't handle situations where their wife is the higher earner. However, this is an increasingly common fact of life. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that nearly 40 percent of wives earn more than their husbands. While there are some couples capable of focusing on other aspects of their relationship, long-existing social and cultural forces still place a higher value on husbands bringing home more bacon than their wives.

There's research suggesting women with a high net worth that's more than what their partner earns are at a greater risk for divorce. Although other experts contend that couples may still remain together even if a wife earns more. In some instances, this may be because the lower-earner can't afford to live independently. But a study of more than 6,000 couples found that the divorce risk is approximately 30 percent higher when a husband is not working full-time.

Study finds opioid use doubles fatal accident risks

On behalf of Parker & Parker Attorneys at Law posted in personal injury on Wednesday, May 8, 2019.

Figures from the US Centers for Disease Control reveal that doctors in Illinois and around the country write about 214 million prescriptions for opioids each year. Much has been written about the effect the opioid epidemic is having on society as a whole, but little research has been done to find out what kind of impact the powerful and highly addictive drugs are having on road safety.

Researchers in the 1990s concluded that about 1% of the drivers killed in motor vehicle accidents lost their lives because of opioids, but the results of a study published recently in JAMA Network Open, a medical journal, suggests that this figure has now reached a worrying 7%. A pair of researchers from Columbia University came to this conclusion after studying data on 18,321 two-vehicle accidents that took place between 1993 and 2016. After scrutinizing toxicology tests results, they determined that drivers under the influence of opioids are twice as likely to die behind the wheel.

How to be sure if your spouse is hiding assets or not

On behalf of Parker & Parker Attorneys at Law on Thursday, May 2, 2019.

If you and your spouse are getting a divorce you may assume that distrust comes with the territory. While this may be true, sometimes your distrust may be warranted.

Sometimes a spouse will try to hide assets during divorce. If this is occurring in your divorce, you may not receive your fair share of the marital assets unless those assets are uncovered.

What factors influence understaffing in nursing homes?

On behalf of Parker & Parker Attorneys at Law on Thursday, May 2, 2019.

A lack of staff is often cited as one of the primary reasons for neglect in nursing home care. When there aren’t enough workers around, residents have a much higher chance of suffering from malnutrition, falling, dehydration and many other injuries or diseases.

While searching for the right place to take your parents to in Illinois, it can be difficult to spot the signs of understaffing at the facility. Maybe you went during a busy day for them, or they’re just a few months away from cutting jobs. Before you choose where your loved ones are staying, you should familiarize yourself with the most common problems that leads to a lack of staffing at nursing homes.

Stay-at-home parents during a divorce

On behalf of Parker & Parker Attorneys at Law posted in divorce on Tuesday, April 30, 2019.

A significant number of parents in Illinois leave the workforce to raise their children, especially mothers. Across the country, around one-quarter of all mothers stay at home, while 7 percent of fathers do the same. This choice is widely supported in surveys of American attitudes, especially when stay-at-home mothers are involved. Over half of people in some surveys say a mother could do a better job than anyone else raising the kids at home, even including the children's father. Even 10 percent of all highly educated moms with a master's degree choose to stay home from work in order to raise their children.

In some cases, one parent stays home to raise the children because the cost of daycare can be so high. However, in other cases, families simply decide to focus on the benefits that can come from one parent focusing on child-rearing. In addition to being certain that they can trust their child's caregiver, they can also focus on educational play and other key priorities. Therefore, some parents, especially mothers, with high-powered careers of their own may decide to opt out of the workforce to support the family from home. This can also give the working parent more opportunity to stay late on the job and pursue opportunities for promotion, given that the stay-at-home parent is there to handle parenting.

Automaker aims to stop drunk driving crashes with technology

On behalf of Parker & Parker Attorneys at Law posted in personal injury on Thursday, April 25, 2019.

Drunk driving poses a serious risk to Illinois road users. Since the dangers of driving while intoxicated were exposed, people have pursued various options to crack down on the practice, from social shaming and public awareness ads to law enforcement initiatives and sobriety checkpoints. One car manufacturer is opting for an alternative path to stop drunk driving: a technical approach. Volvo is planning to use autonomous driving and safety technologies to allow the vehicles themselves to bring drunk drivers to a stop.

There are plenty of reasons to have serious concerns about drunk driving. In 2017 alone, 10,874 people lost their lives in motor vehicle accidents linked to driving while intoxicated. In many of these cases, the people killed were in other vehicles or passengers in the drunk driver's car. Thousands more suffered serious injuries. Volvo is attempting to address the issue with a system that will be installed in its cars in the next decade. It will make use of cameras and sensors to monitor driver behavior for signs of dangerous intoxication or distraction, including drivers with closed eyes and no steering wheel interaction.

How divorce can impact retirement savings

On behalf of Parker & Parker Attorneys at Law posted in divorce on Tuesday, April 23, 2019.

Many divorcing couples in Illinois focus on issues such as who gets custody of the children and who gets the house. Unfortunately, retirement decisions are often overlooked or not given sufficient consideration. Even if parting spouses are years away from retiring, there are issues related to this type of savings that could create some unpleasant financial woes later in life.

For instance, even though an IRA is for one individual party, its related assets are often considered marital property. Marital assets can also include retirement assets in the form of pension plans. In some cases, the portion of a pension that was earned prior to marriage could still be lumped in with other marital assets. However, there are ways for a divorcing spouse to keep their pension plan intact by offsetting it with other assets.

How the Bezos couple split Amazon assets

On behalf of Parker & Parker Attorneys at Law posted in divorce on Friday, April 19, 2019.

While some parts of the Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos divorce are more salacious, other aspects seem more amicable. The couple agreed on a divorce settlement that would give MacKenzie some Amazon stock while Jeff would have voting power for her shares. Here are some details about the Bezos divorce that Illinois residents might want to know about.

Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos, who is 55, became the world's richest person with the online company's success. According to estimates from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, his fortune is worth around $150 billion. Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos were married for 25 years and met while employed at a hedge fund in New York. The couple has four children together.

Safety advocates raise awareness about distracted driving dangers

On behalf of Parker & Parker Attorneys at Law posted in personal injury on Tuesday, April 9, 2019.

The technology that leads to distracted driving tempts drivers throughout Illinois on a daily basis. Smartphones and dashboard touchscreens take people's eyes off of the road and result in accidents. According to the National Safety Council, these distracted driving crashes kill nine people and injure another 100 people every day. To educate the public about the serious problem, the council and other organizations promote Distracted Driving Awareness Month each April.

The Risk Institute has contributed to this year's event by coordinating a nationwide effort among dozens of public and private organizations to study research about distracted driving. The executive director of the institute called distracted driving an epidemic, and he hopes to initiate research-based solutions that alleviate the danger.

IIHS links rise in car crash fatalities with higher speed limits

On behalf of Parker & Parker Attorneys at Law posted in personal injury on Monday, April 8, 2019.

Ever since the nationwide 55 mph speed limit was abolished in 1995, 41 states including Illinois have raised the speed limit to at least 70 mph on their highways. Six of those states have done so since 2013. In addition, seven states raised the speed limit on some highways to 80 mph. However, according to a study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, this change is responsible for nearly 37,000 additional deaths between 1993 and 2017.

IIHS researchers analyzed annual traffic fatality data in that 25-year period and concluded that, specifically, 36,760 deaths could have been prevented if speed limits remained what they were in 1993. In 2017 alone, about 1,900 lives could have been saved. With every 5-mph increase in the speed limit, the number of car crash fatalities went up 8.5 percent.