Divorce can prove to be a wrought, highly emotional, and painful experience. However, even the most amicable divorces need to go through a legal process to be finalized. And a contentious dissolution of a marriage must be handled with extreme sensitivity and discretion.
How can you ensure that you follow the right steps to a legal divorce? Should you personally hand your spouse divorce papers?
An excellent process server from the Firefly Legal team can work with confidentiality and thorough legal compliance. This may be your best option to legally serve divorce papers and begin proceedings. Let’s take a look at how this process works.
Why divorce cases must be legally filed
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), out of every 1,000 marriages in the U.S., 2.5 end in divorce. Although these statistics have decreased significantly from the often cited 50%, typically, divorces aren’t seamless or easy. Using the appropriate legal channels can help protect both spouses and their assets.
Just as marriage recognized by the government comes with legal benefits and ramifications, a dissolved marriage must be processed through the appropriate legal channels. For example, if you’re living apart from your spouse, but haven’t divorced, you can’t fall in love and legally remarry.
Even if both spouses agree to end the marriage, shared assets can become complicated. Without legal recognition, although spouses may agree to split assets or share custody of children, if one spouse changes their mind, the other may not have legal recourse to maintain possession of property and finances or a verbally agreed upon custodial arrangement.
Why serving processes is important
When dealing with highly sensitive matters like divorce, legal proceedings require a meticulous adherence to proper procedures. One misstep could cause multiple challenges and headaches. However, hiring an excellent process server can help to avoid issues.
Legally serving divorce papers is the first crucial step to begin the dissolution of a marriage. Some of the reasons why following this step provides vital legal compliance and protections include:
- Ensures due process: When a spouse is legally served divorce papers, this provides important notification of the legal action taken against them. Due process is a constitutional right that ensures all parties in a divorce case have adequate time to respond and participate in the legal process and helps protect them against unfair legal proceedings.
- Establishes legal validity: Establishing legal validity is vital to divorce proceedings, and begins with the proper service of divorce papers. Courts require proof that a claimant has formally notified the other party of a divorce petition. Failure to correctly serve papers can result in delays or could even result in dismissal of a case.
- Facilitates communication: Divorces are often emotionally charged, and communication between spouses may be volatile or non-existent. When you legally serve divorce papers, it provides you with a structured, recorded form of communication and a starting point for negotiations, including alimony, asset division, and child custody. This helps to set the tone for transparency and can minimize contentions and misunderstandings.
- Legal compliance: When divorce papers are served in adherence to state laws and regulations, it lays the foundation for a legally sound divorce process and allows a divorce claim to move forward.
- Protects your interests: Legally serving divorce papers can offer you protection and peace of mind. Serving papers provides a documented record of service, proof that you’ve taken the necessary legal steps to initiate divorce proceedings, and can be invaluable evidence in any challenges to the validity of service.
What does serving divorce papers mean?
Any time you file a legal claim against another party, you’re legally required to notify them and allow for due process. This includes serving legal papers through an unbiased third party. When you hire the right process serving firm, a professional team can utilize methods like skip tracing to ensure your papers are served.
Divorce papers typically include a legal summons and a petition for divorce. These documents legally notify the recipient of intended legal action and inform them of their responsibilities and rights throughout the divorce proceedings.
Divorce papers also provide your spouse with important details including your grounds for divorce, proposed child custody and division of assets, and any requests for spousal support.
This sets the stage for effective communication and settlement negotiations. The serving process also provides a documented timeline of divorce proceedings, and allows an establishment of jurisdiction for the courts — in other words, it assigns your case to the appropriate court.
A complete guide to legally serve divorce papers
Although nationwide process serving adheres to general federal regulations, how to legally serve divorce papers can vary from state to state. Process serving industry leaders, such as Firefly Legal, offer services nationwide that account for nuances in state and regional legal compliance.
Nevertheless, there are universal steps you can take to serve divorce papers.
Consult an attorney
An amicable divorce without the need for child custody arrangements and with no assets to divide may not require structured legal proceedings or attorneys to represent both parties.
However, an attorney can still advise you on how to protect yourself in a divorce. Most reputable attorneys have established professional relationships with process serving and legal services firms as well.
File for divorce
Register your intent to file for divorce with your local court system. This step allows you to legally notify the courts and your spouse of divorce proceedings. Court filings also provide legal documentation that can protect you should any challenges arise.
Waiver of papers
If one party refuses to agree to a divorce, a claimant in divorce proceedings can ask the court for a waiver of process services. This allows the dissolution of a marriage even in instances where a spouse avoids taking part in legal procedures.
In an amicable or uncontested divorce, both parties can agree to waive their rights to served processes. This means that legal documentation and due process may not be formally addressed.
Service by an unbiased third party
Depending on the state and local region, the delivery of legal documentation may occur through several different methods. Process servers can include:
- Sheriff’s office: In some areas of the U.S., a law enforcement representative is required to legally serve divorce papers. If you’ve hired an attorney, the attorney’s office will contact the sheriff’s office for you. However, if you aren’t using a lawyer to handle your divorce proceedings, you may have to contact the sheriff’s office on your own to begin the legal process.
- Certified process server: Nationwide, certified and trained process servers can be recognized by the courts and can ensure your divorce papers are served, will verify delivery, and adhere to legal compliance. If your spouse is avoiding divorce proceedings, a process server can use innovative technology via skip tracing (and other methods) to track them down.
- Certified mail: Depending on where you live, certified mail that requires a signature upon receipt is another acceptable option to legally serve divorce papers.
- Service via publication: In rare instances, a spouse may disappear and prove untraceable. If this occurs, you may be able to publish a legal notice of your intent to begin divorce proceedings in your local newspaper, or, in a national newspaper.
It’s important to legally serve divorce papers to safeguard the integrity of the legal process and protect the rights of all involved parties. This guide can serve as a basic foundation to help you adhere to legal guidelines and can offer clarity in complex divorce procedures.
Correctly serving processes is an integral step in any divorce case, and may help relieve some of the emotional stress the dissolution of a marriage can entail.
To learn more about industry-leading, nationwide process services, insights into process serving, and more, visit Firefly Legal.
