This is probably the second or third time I am remember this happening, but this morning I open up my email and the first email I read is from a client who says that their spouse had passed away and was wondering what they had to do.
From the perspective of what you need to do procedurally when a spouse dies during the divorce and the case has not finalized yet, is that you need to dismiss the divorce case.
If you filed for divorce and your spouse never responded, then you can dismiss your case with just your signature. If you had a divorce case where your spouse filed their response, then normally you would need their signature to dismiss the case.
So when you need to dismiss your case when one of the parties has passed away, you will still need to file the request for dismissal, but you will need to attach a copy of the death certificate to the request for dismissal form so the court can see that they have passed away.
These are unfortunate circumstances that occur and is a good reminder that it can happen during the divorce process. It is also good to remember to make sure all your financial affairs are in order and have been discussed, especially when going through a divorce.
One can just hope that during the divorce process, where one of the parties dies, is that folks did not let life insurance policies lapse. I know many times when people are going through a divorce, they sort of put those things on hold for some reason.
