When you are told by the Court that you need to arrange for service of your divorce paperwork, it can seem like a daunting task, but it doesn't need to be. Serving divorce papers is easy if you instruct a professional firm of process servers, who can talk you through the whole process.
I've received the paperwork from the Court telling me to arrange the serving of my divorce papers. What do I do?
The first thing to do is find a reputable firm of process servers. This is an unregulated industry, and not everyone knows what they are doing. We would always recommend you look for a process server who is a member of The Association of British Investigators, who are our self regulating body. Then you know your server will be properly insured, and, if something was to go wrong, you have someone to complain to. Not choosing a process server correctly could at best give you a headache, and at worst invalid your service and mean you have to start the whole process again.
What do I need to send them?
Your process server will need your divorce papers, and the 'Notice of Proceedings' which you may need to ask the Court to provide to you. They obviously also need confirmation of the name and address for the person being served, and a photo of them is also useful if you have one. Any other information you can provide such as working patterns, what car they drive, when they are likely to be home etc, is also useful, but not essential.
What happens then?
Your process server will start making attendances to the address to personally serve your respondent. A reputable firm will keep you updated as they go along. Once the Petition has been served the process server will produce a 'Statement of Service' which confirms the date and time of service. Once they provide it to you, you need to send it to the Court to 'lodge', so the Judge knows it has been served. You could ask your process server to do this for you, if you are unsure of the process.
Once the Court are satisfied the respondent has been served with the paperwork, your divorce can continue, even if they fail to respond to it.
I've still got questions
Call us on 01543 888218 to discuss it with a member of the team. We are happy to help where we can, even if you are not ready to instruct a process server yet.
To confirm a quote, or discuss your requirements, call us on 01543 888218 or complete our Quote Form.