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.
It began, as so many long stories do, with a date: September 3, 2005. Traci L. Danielson and Justin W. Mitchell married in Hubertus, Wisconsin, unaware that twenty years later, the precise coordinates of their union would be retraced in a courtroom several states away. On April 16, 2025, Traci filed a petition in Cook County, Illinois, seeking the dissolution of that marriage. She was fifty-one. He, forty-nine. They both live in Chicago now, full-time employees, parents to three children: one now in adulthood, one in adolescence, and one still clinging to childhood.
The marriage, Traci argues, has reached an impasse. Represented by attorneys Megan S. Rayford and Stephanie E. Powers of the Women’s Divorce & Family Law Group by Haid and Teich, LLP, she details irreconcilable differences—deep, structural issues beyond repair. Reconciliation, she asserts, is not only unlikely, but unwise.
The petition requests primary residential custody of their three children, with Traci seeking sole authority over significant decisions concerning their health, education, and upbringing. She asks that Justin, employed and self-supporting, be ordered to provide child support and contribute to associated costs such as education and healthcare. She also seeks spousal maintenance for herself, citing her inability to maintain the standard of living established during the marriage. Notably, she requests Justin cover her legal expenses due to income disparity.
No custody litigation is pending elsewhere. No order from another jurisdiction exists. This, then, is where the unraveling must be traced—from a shared past to an indivisible present.
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