New maintenance guidelines are substantive in nature because they alter method for determining a maintenance award and address rights underlying a dissolution proceeding. New version of statute creates formula for calculating maintenance based on gross income of parties and length of marriage, after considering factors of old statute to determine whether maintenance is appropriate. Maintenance awards are no longer based on weight of various factors. The fact that payments will be made in the future does not mean that a spouse's rights are not being retroactively affected. As marriage, separation, and dissolution hearing all occurred in 2014, before new statute as to maintenance took effect, court properly applied prior version of statute, rather than new maintenance guidelines, even though order was not entered until 2015. Court's order requiring husband to pay half of wife's health insurance premiums until she became eligible for Medicare was legitimate exercise of court's discretion. (SCHWARM and MOORE, concurring.)
Illinois Appellate Court
Civil Court
Maintenance