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.
In the Domestic Relations Division of the Circuit Court of Cook County, a case bearing the number 2026D001001 entered the docket at 12:52 p.m. on February 11, 2026. The caption is spare and unadorned: Gregory Dostal, petitioner, and Ewa Dostal, respondent. What follows in the petition is a methodical accounting of a marriage that began on July 18, 2017, in Chicago and, according to the filing, has reached what the statute calls an irretrievable breakdown.
Gregory Dostal, 46, states that he has maintained residence in Illinois for the requisite ninety days before filing. Ewa Dostal, 44, also resides in Chicago. The court is asked to recognize that irreconcilable differences have caused the breakdown of the marriage, that prior efforts at reconciliation have failed, and that future attempts would be impractical and not in the family’s best interests. Jurisdiction is asserted; no other actions involving the parties are said to be pending in this or any other jurisdiction.
The petition acknowledges one child born of the marriage and affirms that the respondent is not pregnant. Both parties are described as fit and proper individuals for shared decision-making over major matters. The petitioner requests joint allocation of parental responsibilities and liberal parenting time for each parent. Should joint allocation prove impractical or contrary to the child’s best interests, he asks for final decision-making authority. The parties, the filing notes, have reached a formal agreement as to support and parental responsibilities.
Property, too, is addressed in careful, unsentimental terms. The marriage produced marital and non-marital assets—personal property, furnishings, automobiles, bank accounts, and other equities—each to be divided in just proportion under the governing statute. The petition seeks entry of judgment dissolving the marriage and such further relief as the court deems equitable and just. Filed in mid-February, when the year is still new enough to make reckonings feel immediate, the case now moves from private discord to public process, where timelines, statutes, and court orders shape whatever comes next.
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