My spouse is ignoring the divorce proceedings. What should I do?

In order for your divorce proceedings to progress to the Decree Nisi stage you have to be able to prove to the court that your spouse has received your divorce petition and has had the opportunity to respond to it.  

It can therefore be very frustrating if they are ignoring the proceedings and not returning the Acknowledgement of Service Form and causing the divorce to remain at a standstill.   

There can be many reasons why the respondent in a divorce doesn’t cooperate.  While it could well be that they are doing so just to make life difficult for you and increase your costs in some cases the respondent is simply struggling to cope with the breakdown of the marriage and burying their head in the sand.   If you are still in contact with your spouse or have mutual contacts that could act as go-betweens before you take things any further you may wish to contact them to encourage them to seek legal advice.  

If such contact fails or is inappropriate because of the nature of the breakdown of the relationship then you will need to consider the next steps.  If you have proof that your spouse has received the petition and read it you may wish to discuss with your solicitor the possibility of making a deemed service application.  

A further option would be for your solicitor to arrange for the personal service of your spouse with a copy of the petition by a process server.   The process server will physically hand a copy of the papers to your spouse and then make a statement to the court confirming that your spouse has been served.  The court will then use this as proof that the respondent has been served.  

While your spouse certainly can cause delay and increase your costs by not co-operating this is not insurmountable.  

George Green’s Specialist family and Divorce lawyers give advice regularly on divorce and the financial aspects of divorce.   If you wish to discuss your matter please Jane Williams on 01384 340 528 (jwilliams@georgegreen.co.uk) at our Cradley Heath office.  We represent clients from the West Midlands and beyond including Dudley, Stourbridge, Cradley Heath and Wolverhampton.