Process Service: How do I serve someone?

The Court requires that once you file your Petition for divorce, you must then have your spouse served. You can serve divorce papers to your spouse in various ways. If you and your spouse are divorcing amicably, your spouse can simply accept a copy of your divorce Petition and sign off on an Acceptance of Service that you will file with the Court.

If your spouse does not know you are filing for divorce or refuses to accept service of your Petition, there are two things you can do. Firstly, you can hire a licensed process server to serve divorce papers to your spouse. Upon completion of service they will provide you with a Certificate of Service that you will file with the Court. Secondly, you can mail a copy of your divorce Petition to your spouse via certified mail, restricted delivery, return receipt requested. Once they sign for the certified mail, you will file an Affidavit of Service with the Court showing proof of their receipt of the certified mail.

If you cannot accomplish service via any of these methods, you must prove to the Court that you have made a good faith effort to serve divorce papers your spouse and request to serve them via publication. If the Court grants your request to serve your spouse via publication, you must follow the Court’s guidelines for publication.

Affordable Family law can do more than just prepare your legal documents. We can also arrange for them to be filed with the Court and then served on the other party. Contact us today to learn how we can help you serve divorce papers (or other legal papers) to someone. We strive to make legal processes as easy and affordable as possible for our clients.