Legal Question in Family Law in Illinois

moderate impaired 23 year old.

My wife and I have been divorced for over 7 years. My oldest daughter who is now 23 years old is moderately impaired. Basically she has a learning disability. I want to remove her from child support because she is collecting social security ( S.S.I.) She resides with her mother. She has medi-caid but her mother refuses to release a copy of the card to me for my insurance. My insurance has agreed to keep her on my medical insurance as a dependent. My ex-wife has sought and got legal gaurdianship of her without my knowledge. Considering she has done this am I legally responsible for her as her father or has my ex-wife taken away all my rights for her with the legal gaurdianship. We live in the county of Cook in Illinois. Could you please site the section of the law that pertains to this.

Thanks,


Asked on 6/27/07, 11:01 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Peter Olson The Olson Law Firm, LLC

Re: moderate impaired 23 year old.

I didn't see a question in your post but let me address what I suspect the controversy is. With non-minor children you look at section 513 of the Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act. This says there can be court ordered support beyond minority for college OR if child is physically or mentally disabled. Has anything been ordered by the court already regarding the daughter's support? Because you've seemingly been supporting her to now (age 23). If court says that child is disabled, then the financial obligation has no end date. These are close cases...I have one right now where the mother's trying to get "disability" support for a child that allegedly has ADHD. It's not an easy case to prove if the child has only very mild disability. Your case may be different though if the daughter's receiving SSDI and a guardianship has been required. If there's a guardianship that says that one doctor has already said that the child is disabled (doctor's report is required part of guardianship proceeding).

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Answered on 6/28/07, 10:05 am


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