If your partner is refusing to acknowledge the divorce papers this can be extremely frustrating, but there are options available to you to enable you to proceed with the divorce.

What is the divorce process?

Once you have completed the divorce application and submitted this to the court your partner will need to inform the court that they have received the documentation.

If your partner completes the Acknowledgement of Service, which can be as simple as logging online and completing the short form, this will be sufficient evidence for the court to enable the divorce to proceed.

You will then have to wait 20 weeks (the “cooling off period”) before you can apply for a Conditional Order. The Conditional Order (previously called a Decree Nisi) is an order where the court confirms that there is no reason why you cannot divorce.

After this, you can apply for the Final Order. The Final Order (previously called a Decree Absolute) is the legal document that formally ends your marriage. If you are going to make an application to the court in relation to the finances you may want to wait before applying for the Final Order.

Should I delay applying for a Final Order?

If you are considering a financial application or the financial matters of your divorce have not yet concluded, you may want to wait before applying for the Final Order. This is because once you are officially divorced, there may not be an incentive for the other party to then continue the financial negotiations with any haste.

The timing of the Final Order is also key regarding the death of the other party. If they were to pass away before the financial proceedings have concluded you might be left in the position where your financial interests have been prejudiced particularly regards pensions. This could lead to complications and result in litigation under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependents) Act 1975.

You should always seek legal advice prior to making your Final Order application to be fully informed of the implications.

My partner won’t complete the Acknowledgement of Service

If your partner is refusing to complete the Acknowledgement of Service the divorce will not be able to proceed – for now. You will have to attempt other methods of delivery to prove to the court that your spouse has in fact received the papers.

Options for Serving

If you have evidence that your spouse has received the papers you can apply for Deemed Service. Deemed Service is an order from the Court confirming that your spouse is deemed to have received the papers. The court will review the evidence you have provided and then determine whether they feel service is deemed.

An alternative method to use is personal service. This is where you instruct an authorised person to personally deliver the documents to your spouse. That person will then sign a statement confirming your spouse has received the documents, which will be sent to the court as evidence the papers have been received. This will incur a fee to you however it is possible to recover the fee from your spouse. We can instruct an authorised person to serve the documents on your behalf and assist with trying to reclaim the costs from your spouse.  

What happens if they still ignoring the papers?

Sometimes initiating service will convince the other party to complete the Acknowledgement of Service. If they are still refusing to inform the court they have received the papers, and you have applied for Deemed Service or have arranged for Personal Service of the documents, you will then have to apply to the court to proceed with the divorce application without the other party acknowledging the application. This will incur a court fee but again it is possible to reclaim this cost from the other party.

If you have found yourself in this situation we advise you to seek legal advice to help resolve matters in the quickest and most cost-effective way.

Contact us

George Green’s Specialist Family and Divorce lawyers give advice regularly on divorce and the financial aspects of divorce. If you wish to book in for an initial consultation to discuss your situation our family solicitors are based in both Wolverhampton and Cradley Heath. For all new enquiries, please call 01902 328 355 or complete our online enquiry form and a member of our team will respond.