You might be surprised to learn that there are occasions where this occurs. But don’t be, it does happen and there are times where married couples drift apart without every getting a divorce.
Whether it be because they were young when they married and just grew apart or that trip to Las Vegas, the next day waking up to find that they were married.
There is really never a problem until you start thinking of re-marrying and are forced to have to deal with getting divorced first.
If several years have gone by it may be very difficult to locate your spouse. But you are going to have to look, because you have to give notice to them one way or another that you have filed for divorce.
The California Courts require you to make a sincere effort to locate your missing spouse before you can ask the court for a default judgment. In fact, if you have no idea at all after an all hands search, you might have to petition the court to file a “service by publication.” Service by publication means that you put an ad in the newspaper in an attempt to advise your spouse your filing for divorce. This can be a lengthy process and is therefore advised that you first try hard to locate your spouse by any and all means possible.
You should attempt to do the following things to locate your missing spouse so you can get divorced.
- Try to locate the last known address
- Go to the last known address and ask about your spouse. Try to find where they moved to
- Ask all friends, employers, neighbors, relatives and anyone else who may have known them
- Check with the local assessors office
- Search the Internet including using social media websites such as Facebook and LinkedIn.
- Use a private investigator or other service to locate them
If you are not able to locate your spouse through one of the above methods, make sure to keep a detailed record of your attempts to locate them. Keep a log of everyone you spoke to and all the things you did to attempt to find them. You will need to prove to the court that you made a diligent effort to locate them.
We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation service that specializes in the divorce process. Please give us a call to discuss the particulars of your case.
