Until January 2015, all decisions about maintenance payments would be decided based on the discretion of a judge. Each judge, on a case-by-case basis, would decide whether to award maintenance, how much to award, and for how long the award and payments would continue.
In January 2015, the Illinois legislature enacted Public Act 098-0961, which created a set of guidelines for judges to follow when awarding maintenance payments. In most cases, support payments will be decided according to the guidelines; in some cases, judges will have discretion to deviate from the guidelines, but the deviations from the guidelines are designed to be rare.