Posted by Mary E. Ramos | Divorce
A person may still receive a divorce in the state of Texas if they are unable to locate their spouse, it just requires a few extra steps than a regular divorce.
If you truly do not know where your spouse is living, you may petition the court to allow you to serve your spouse via publication known as Divorce By Publication. This entails filing a notice with a local published newspaper. Once such a notice has been published and a service of citation has been returned to the Court, you will also need to swear and affirm to the court that you have made a good faith effort to locate your missing spouse.
The Judge may appoint what is called an attorney ad litem, who is an attorney that is appointed to represent the interests of your missing spouse. They will do public searches and attempt to locate your spouse. If they are unsuccessful, they will file with the Court a Statement of Evidence which sums up their efforts to locate your spouse.
Once your spouse has been served notice of the pending divorce through publication and the attorney ad litem has completed their searches, you may proceed at trial on a default basis, meaning your spouse is not there. If the Judge is satisfied that you and the attorney ad litem have made all reasonable efforts to locate your spouse, you may proceed with a default divorce and finalize your case.
If you are contemplating a divorce but unable to locate your spouse, please contact the Ramos Law Group, PLLC.