If you’re ready to leave your marriage but can’t locate your spouse to serve the divorce papers, the court will require that you do a serious search of relevant databases to look for them.
Our staff can help with the search and with documenting the search – a very important piece of the process that the court needs to see.
If we are unable to locate your spouse through the DMV, online searches, military records, prison records, and other common sources, you can still get a divorce.
New York allows what is known as a “publication divorce.”
For a publication divorce, you’ll show the court the record of your search for your spouse, and if the court agrees they are not findable, you must then publish a notice in a newspaper telling the public – and possibly your missing spouse, or someone who knows them – that you intend to divorce them.
This must run once a week for three weeks, and then your spouse has 30 days to respond.
If they remain out of the picture, you may then schedule a hearing to finalize the divorce.
Need help tracking down a missing or hiding spouse? Call the Rochester divorce attorneys at Friedman & Ranzenhofer at 585-484-7432 for a legal consultation.