For many people, divorce is a major challenge. As such, it has the power to stimulate some strange and irrational actions.
Indeed, many of the things that happen during a divorce would seem preposterous — but for the fact that they happening to you.
It would not be surprising for your spouse to hide financial information from you, to destroy records or to take other measures that would normally be unthinkable.
However, it probably would be surprising if your spouse simply disappeared.
The legal motivation
As explained by the Unified New York Court System, you must serve divorce papers upon your spouse in person.
In turn, many people misinterpret this rule, and believe that avoiding service by disappearing is a way to prevent a divorce from proceeding.
The misguided thinking is: the divorce is not able to proceed if someone does not physically hand “me” the divorce papers.
However, this is a fallacy, and an experienced attorney can help you chart a path forward if your spouse evades service.
The first steps
One of the first options most people pursue in this type of situation is to attempt to reason with their spouses.
It is likely that your spouse would have disappeared based on an emotional interpretation of legal facts.
Explaining the reality of the situation in a cordial manner could have more of a positive effect then you might expect.
The formal solution
If your spouse were to persist in evading you, or was otherwise unreachable for negotiation, you could arrange to serve your documents in another manner.
This would require formal application on your part, i.e.: filing a request with the Supreme Court requesting that you be allowed to undertake an alternative form of service.
If you are in the process of getting divorced, and have encountered service or process issues with your spouse, contact Bashian P.C.
