After the divorce process has been started and the paperwork is done, it’s time to serve the papers to the other party or, your now, ex-spouse with the advice of your family lawyer. Here are some ways by which you can have the divorce papers served.

What Is “Serving Divorce Papers”?

A lot of people don’t have any idea what is served in the divorce papers. What documents are included and what needs to be read or kept for the record? It’s a good idea to have knowledge about these things because you will know what you are going into.

The basic thing that is served with a divorce is a copy of the petition or complaint given by the willing party. It also contains a summon, which needs to be signed. You have to get back to the legal team of the willing party within a couple of weeks or else the divorce proceedings will start without you and it will not be a good impression if you wish to appeal the petition.

You Can Hand Deliver Them

Now that you know what is served with divorce papers, you need to know about the different ways by which divorce papers can be served and who can serve them. If you are on good terms with the spouse and there is no such violence on both ends whenever you meet, then you can deliver them by yourself to the defendant. You can say that from here on out, you will only let the legal teams speak to one another.

Use Mailing Service

Another way by which you can have divorce papers served to the other party is through mailing services. This can be done in two cases. One, you don’t want to physically go and see your partner, because either they are violent towards you or you have a restraining order against them. Secondly, you can use the mailing service if the partner is not within reach, as if they are in another state, city, or country.

Mailing services are great because you don’t have to do any of the work and your lawyer can arrange it for you too.

Use A Legal Person

If you want, you can also get your lawyer to go to the partner’s house and serve them the papers. You can accompany the lawyer if you want to, but it’s better if you don’t because this will not be a good impression on the partner and they can use it to their advantage in the appeal. You want to tread lightly when serving the divorce papers because you want to keep yourself secured and your case needs to be clean and as simple as possible. You don’t want to do anything which can prevent the divorce proceedings to go rocky and messy.

Have A Return Receipt Issued

This is a very important thing and you need to stress upon this receiving. When you use an external mailing service to serve the divorce papers to your partner, you want to get a return receipt from the mailing service with some sort of identification from your spouse. It can be their social security number, it can be their identification number or something which can prove that your partner was the one who received these papers from the mailing service. This is a sensitive and confidential matter and it should stay between the two of you.

Who Else Can Serve Divorce Papers?

Apart from you, there are a lot of people who can serve the papers for you.

• Anyone who is over the age of 18 can serve the papers.
• Your parents can serve the papers if you don’t want to do it by yourself.
• It needs to be someone you trust and who won’t start a scene or scuffle with the partner.
• You DON’T want your new boyfriend/girlfriend to serve the papers. Try to keep the relationship under wraps until the divorce process is over and done with.

Conclusion

There you have it! Divorce papers can be served in these different ways. You can choose any of these ways to have the papers served to the other party. Consult your divorce attorney Fairfax VA to find out the safest ways of serving divorce papers to your spouse.