Filing for Divorce necessitates serving the spouse. However, if you do not know where your spouse is, how do you proceed? The answer, in California, is to file for a ‘Publication Divorce’.
A Publication Divorce is a procedure that involves a number of steps. Here is a list of the steps needed:
- file the petition for Divorce
- perform a ‘search’ for the spouse based on the last known state in which the person lived
- send a letter to all people resulting from the search
- if none of the search results respond stating that he/she is the spouse, then you would proceed with the other steps; however, if a person replies that he/she is the spouse, then he/she would be served and the Divorce would continue as in any Divorce without the need to do any further ‘publication’ steps
- get confirmation from the post office near the last known address that there is no forwarding address of spouse
- attempt to process serve spouse at last known address (as proof that he/she is not there)
- ask the court to approve publication
- publicize the divorce for the legally required time period
- wait the necessary time period and then enter the default paperwork
- Divorce will be complete when the judgment is entered and the required waiting period is over
These steps can be time consuming but the effort is worthwhile as you will be divorced if all steps are performed correctly. A Publication Divorce typically takes about 1 year but could take longer. The important thing is to have the Divorce handled by an Attorney who is experienced in this type of matter.
Legal Action Workshop is very experienced in the area of Publication Divorce For questions about this type of Divorce call us @ 1-800-HELP-444 or visit our website for more information www.LegalActionWorkshopLAW.com .