Husband not responding to petition
Problems with service of divorce petition
If your husband will not acknowledge service of the divorce petition, and you decide that the most straightforward way to deal with this is by personally serving the documents on him then you will
need to obtain a sealed copy of the divorce petition, from the court together with the other relevant
court papers, and I can advise you about what is required. Please be aware that you, as the applicant cannot serve the petition in person, although a friend may do so. The court would prefer it if a
professional process server is instructed to deal with this. However, this can add to the expense
and you may arrange for an independent third party to serve the papers yourself.
I think the most straightforward approach to check the requirements for personal service of the
divorce petition/application is if you ask a friend or trusted work colleague who is going to be serving
the application for the divorce to phone me to discuss the rules about this and what they should and
should not do before they attempt to serve it.
Then, after they have handed the petition to the husband/ dropped it by his feet, they will need to
phone me again for me to take the details to complete a statement of service, for them to sign.
Before they attempt service you should give the person serving the document a photo of the respondent. (Even if they can recognise him anyway.) This is so that I can attach this to their statement of service.
I confirm that dealing with the problems with service of the divorce petition because the respondent will not sign the acknowledgement of service is not included in the fixed-price divorce fee that I have quoted.
For over twenty years I've been advising clients on how to protect and progress their interests. If there is anything you want me to explain then please let me know.