When you decide to file for divorce, you must serve the divorce papers to your spouse. Once they receive this petition, they have time to consider it, which many people use to gather financial documents, talk to a lawyer and more. However, there is a deadline—typically around three weeks—by which they must officially sign the papers and file them with the court so that the divorce process can begin and the court can set up the initial hearing.
But what if your spouse fails to respond? Maybe you serve them the divorce papers and never hear anything else about it. Perhaps they tell you that they’re not signing anything and refuse to get divorced. Is it necessary for them to respond?
You can still get divorced either way
It’s best if they do respond because this allows the court to move into the next stages, such as requesting financial disclosures. But it’s not strictly necessary. If they fail to respond, you can still get a divorce.
What happens is that the court can authorize a default divorce. This essentially means that the court grants you the divorce you requested, and they are much more likely to simply accept the terms that you proposed. In this sense, a default divorce may actually give you a better chance of getting the child custody arrangement you want or having assets divided in a way that you prefer.
This may mean that your divorce takes a bit longer. You still have to wait for the deadline to pass before you can move forward with the default divorce. But don’t make the mistake of assuming you can’t get divorced without your spouse’s cooperation. You just need to know what legal steps to take.
