The hearings other firms advise against
Child Custody Lawyers in Chicago, IL
Your children are not a schedule to be conceded.
Chicago · Cook County · All of Illinois
I.The Matter
Illinois no longer awards “custody.” It allocates parental responsibilities and parenting time, and the allocation follows the evidence. Arami Law represents parents in contested custody litigation, including the fully litigated hearings other firms counsel their clients to avoid. We are known, plainly, for the parents everyone else gave up on.
Allocation of Parental Responsibilities in Illinois
Since 2016, Illinois courts allocate significant decision-making (education, health, religion, extracurriculars) and parenting time separately, under the best-interests factors of 750 ILCS 5/602.5 and 602.7. Those factors are not a form to fill out. They are contested terrain: caretaking history, each parent’s willingness to facilitate the other’s relationship, the child’s adjustment, and the credibility of every claim made about both households. For unmarried parents, this allocation follows directly from a paternity determination.
Guardians ad Litem in Cook County Custody Cases
Contested cases often involve a guardian ad litem or child representative appointed under Section 506. How a parent presents to that appointee, and how the investigation is engaged, documented, and where necessary challenged, routinely shapes the outcome. This is not a process to walk into uncoached.
How Custody Cases Proceed in the Circuit Court of Cook County
Cook County requires parents in contested parenting disputes to attempt mediation before litigating most scheduling issues, and each parent must file a proposed parenting plan early in the case. Where the dispute persists, the court may appoint a guardian ad litem or child representative under Section 506, order a professional evaluation under Section 604.10, and set the matter for hearing. Each step is an opportunity to build the record or to lose control of it, and families who treat mediation and the investigation as formalities usually regret it.
What Do Illinois Courts Consider When Allocating Parenting Time?
The statute lists the factors, and judges apply them concretely: who has performed the caretaking over the past two years, the child’s adjustment to home and school, each parent’s willingness to facilitate the other’s relationship with the child, the distance between households, and, with appropriate weight for age and maturity, the child’s own wishes. No single factor controls. The parent who can prove their answers with records rather than assertions holds the advantage on every one of them.
Fathers’ Parenting Time in Illinois
A word to fathers: we have built much of this practice representing fathers who were told to accept every-other-weekend and be grateful. The statute is gender-neutral. The evidence is what decides. We prepare fathers to litigate on the evidence, and we win parenting time that reflects the parent, not the presumption.
Legally reviewed byKourosh Arami, Esq.Founding Attorney · Chicago-Kent College of Law · 21 years of Illinois family law practiceEditorial Policy
Retained by
- Fathers seeking equal or primary parenting time
- Parents facing relocation, on either side of the petition
- Parents in high-conflict cases with GAL or child representative involvement
- Parents seeking modification when the current allocation no longer fits
Arami Law serves clients across Chicago, Cook County, and the collar counties, including the North Shore communities of Winnetka, Wilmette, Glencoe, Kenilworth, Evanston, and Lake Forest.
II.The Approach
Prepared as if it will be tried.
Build the caretaking record
School, medical, and daily-life evidence assembled from day one. Judges allocate time to the parent the record proves, not the one who testifies loudest.
Engage the 506 appointee
Guardians ad litem and child representatives are advocates to be persuaded and, when warranted, challenged. They are never ignored.
Try the hearing
When the other side counts on you folding before trial, being visibly prepared to litigate is itself leverage. And if it must be tried, we try it.
Protect the long term
Allocation judgments drafted with precision: decision-making, schedules, relocation terms, and enforcement mechanics that hold up for years.
III.On the Record
Ali R.
Verified Google Review
Custody matter
“Mr. Kourosh went above and beyond to help me and my children get the best result. Unlike other attorneys, he really cares about my family and the clients that he fights for. Any time I ever had any questions, he was always there to answer them. I was always in the loop.”
IV.Questions
Custody in Illinois, answered.
V.The Inquiry
Submit your matter for confidential review.
The firm accepts a limited number of matters each year. Kourosh personally reviews every inquiry, in confidence.
Prefer to speak directly? (312) 212-1399
Serving Chicago, Cook County, and all of Illinois.