While it’s not common, there are times when someone would like to file for divorce, but can’t find their spouse in order to serve them the divorce papers. Perhaps the estranged spouse has ran off with someone else and there whereabouts are unknown. Whatever the circumstances are, with the help of a Southern California divorce attorney, you can start your divorce proceedings without serving documents to your spouse.
In order for this to happen, you must show the court that you exhausted every avenue possible while attempting to contact your spouse and serve the documents. If the court is satisfied that you made every effort to contact your spouse, you can file an Ex parte application for publication of summons. In short, you can publish your intention to divorce your spouse in a named California newspaper, or an out of state newspaper if your spouse lives out of state.
Once this has been done to the satisfaction of the court, your divorce can move forward without your spouse.
While the process explained here seems straightforward, it is a tricky process to satisfy the courts that you made every possible effort to locate your spouse before moving forward with your divorce. That is why it is crucial to hire an experienced family law attorney, like the ones at Wallin and Klarich, that can assist you with this process, and save you a lot of time, grief and money.
Going through a divorce is stressful enough. And if you want the best possible results, it shouldn’t be something you attempt to handle on your own.
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