My Spouse Left Me and I Don’t Know Where They Are. Can I Still Get a Divorce?
Though not knowing where your spouse is at will inevitably make you serving your divorce papers a little bit more difficult than it would normally be, make no mistake that it will not keep you from getting a divorce.
If you want to start the process of a divorce, but do not know where your spouse is, the first thing that you would need to do is to conduct your own due diligence. You will need to at least try to make attempts to find out where your spouse is at. You can begin doing this by checking with places such as your spouse’s former employer, maybe neighbors, friends or family members of your spouse. You can also go to the county recorders office and see if you can find and locate your spouse that way. Voter registration polls or the post office may sometimes be helpful, as well as utility companies or phone companies. Checking with all those places will be your due diligence in an effort for you personally to attempt to try to locate your spouse.
If after making legitimate attempts you’re still unable to find your spouse, then what you’ll need to do is serve your complaint and your summons for divorce through publication. To do so, you’ll first need to file an affidavit with the court to request a divorce by publication. Your affidavit will include a notarized statement that you fill out and sign letting the court know that you have not seen or heard from your spouse for a specific period of time, typically six months or longer. You’ll sign off on the fact that aside from not seeing or hearing from him or her, you do not know the location of your spouse. You must then publish your summons and your complaint in a newspaper for a period of four weeks, one time a week.
Ultimately, if your spouse fails to answer within 20 days after the fourth and final published summons, then the court will grant you a divorce as an uncontested divorce because your spouse failed to answer.
If you have a situation similar to this and would like more information please do not hesitate to contact our office to speak with an experienced Family Law attorney. Our office can be reached at (702) 998-1188, info@ljlawlv.com, or by scheduling a consultation online.
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