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.
Filed in Cook County on May 22, 2025, Patricia A. Johnson’s petition to dissolve her marriage to Shaun L. Johnson is less a tale of collapse than of quiet disintegration—undramatic, unyielding, and final. The couple, married since June 23, 2012, had lived under the same Chicago roof long after their shared future had frayed at the edges. Now, after nearly 13 years of marriage and with their two daughters grown and emancipated, Patricia has drawn the legal curtain.
According to the petition, irreconcilable differences rendered reconciliation not only futile but contrary to the interests of the family. This isn’t a battlefield divorce—there are no skirmishes over maintenance or demands for dependency. The petitioner asserts that both parties are financially independent, capable of supporting themselves and covering their own legal expenses. The focus, instead, is on a just and equitable division of what was jointly built, with each retaining what was individually theirs.
The petition, filed by Patricia’s attorney Bradley Scott Chelin of Chelin Law Group, requests a fair division of marital property and debts, along with the retention of each party’s non-marital assets. Maintenance is off the table. There is no demand for health or life insurance coverage from the other, just the acknowledgment that each will remain responsible for their own.
In a marriage that began with promise but met the slow attrition of irreparable difference, this petition marks a deliberate and self-contained exit—unremarkable perhaps in drama, but not in clarity. The court is asked to affirm what reality has already confirmed: that the marriage is over.
Please contact VowBreakers for access to documents related to the case.
