Disclaimer: All facts gleaned from the filings stated hereafter are only as truthful as the petitioner. The tone of this article expresses a style of writing historically employed by America’s greatest writers and, as such, is for opinion purposes only. No intentional harm is due. Do not read if the topic of divorce (even your own) causes you emotional distress. Continue at your own risk.
A petition stamped filed at 4:26 p.m. on February 10, 2026, places the marriage of Matthew James Zivick and Dawn Gonzales Zivick before the Circuit Court of Cook County, Domestic Relations Division. Case number 2026D000973 seeks a judgment dissolving a union that began on May 15, 1994, in Chicago and was registered in Cook County.
The filing states that both parties, aged 62 and 60 respectively, reside at the same Chicago address and have satisfied Illinois’s 90-day residency requirement. It asserts that irreconcilable differences have caused the irretrievable breakdown of the marriage, that efforts at reconciliation have failed, and that any future attempts would be impracticable and not in the family’s best interests. The petition further notes that the parties will have lived separate and apart for at least six months preceding the entry of judgment, as construed under statute and relevant case law.
No children were born to or adopted by the parties during the marriage, and the respondent is not currently pregnant. The petition confirms that no other dissolution action is pending in any jurisdiction. It acknowledges the acquisition of marital property and debts during the marriage, to be divided and allocated in just and equitable proportions, and recognizes that each party holds non-marital property to be awarded accordingly.
The petitioner asks the court to dissolve the marriage, equitably divide marital assets and debts, award each party his or her own non-marital property, and bar the respondent from receiving maintenance or attorneys’ fees, asserting she is capable of self-support. The language is precise and statutory, designed less to persuade than to establish entitlement under the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act.
Filed as winter gives way to the routines of a new calendar year, the petition signals the start of a structured legal process rather than its conclusion. Service, response, disclosure, and adjudication will follow in due course. For now, the document stands as a formal reckoning: a marriage measured against statute, and submitted to the court for resolution.
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