Understanding the steps and breakdown of a divorce will help you fully comprehend what is needed and required in order to properly start and serve your ex-wife with divorce papers. Here is a quick breakdown of the standard procedures involved in filing the initial divorce and properly serving your ex-wife.
First, you will start the lawsuit. This begins with a “complaint.” This is a statement of the main points of the Plaintiff’s (you) reason for filing the lawsuit in family court. This is filed with the courts, and the courts will supply a date for the initial hearing.
This paperwork must then by served to your ex-wife, otherwise known as the Defendant in this case. This is called the “summons.” You can serve the summons by having anyone over the age of 18 deliver the papers to your ex-wife, either at work, at home, or anywhere, for that matter, as long as there is a signature or proof of service and delivery, typically some form of a receipt of service.
From this point, your ex-wife has a certain amount of time to respond to your complaint with what’s called an “answer.” This is prepared by either her or her attorney, and must be filed in the appropriate time frame or the case will be defaulted and the judgment will be awarded to the Plaintiff automatically.
There are a few other steps that you can include in order to preserve the case without having your ex-wife step out and make you start over with the filings-this is by filing a counter-petition, so that if one of you backs out, the case still moves forward with the other filing. This eliminates the possibility that your ex-wife could file a petition and then back out in an attempt to raise the costs for you and your attorney (if you have one) out of spite.
