Precautions To Take When Serving Divorce Papers By Mail
Posted on: 23 February 2019
While a lot of people opt to serve divorce papers in person via a third party, another option that you can consider is serving them by mail. This method may be advantageous if your spouse lives in a different state than you. Once your divorce attorney draws up the paperwork that you'll send to your spouse, it's important for you to take a number of precautions to make this process go as smoothly as possible. Your attorney can guide you through what you need to do, but here are three specific steps that you'll definitely want to implement.
Confirm The Recipient's Address
Confirming the address of your spouse before you send the divorce papers in the mail might seem like common sense, but it's impossible to understate how important this step will be. If you happen to send the paperwork to the wrong address, it will unnecessarily delay the process. Additionally, if you send the paperwork to the residence of someone who knows your spouse — perhaps a parent or another family member — but your spouse doesn't live there any longer, this person may tell your spouse that an official-looking letter came addressed to him or her. If your spouse doesn't want to be agreeable, he or she could further attempt to hide his or her location from you.
Send Via Registered Mail
Don't simply put the divorce papers in an envelope, apply a stamp to it, and send it off. You'll want to send this important paperwork by registered mail to ensure that it gets to the destination safely. Registered mail costs a little more, but this is money well spent. You should also require that the letter needs a delivery upon receipt. This way, the mail carrier won't just drop the envelope in the mailbox but will ring the doorbell and refuse to turn the mail over to anyone but the intended recipient. This saves the hassle of your spouse perhaps lying and saying that he or she didn't receive the mail.
Track The Mail
When you send your divorce papers via registered mail, you'll have the ability to track the envelope as it makes its way toward your spouse's location. Tracking it regularly is a good idea because you'll know when it arrives. You can then proceed accordingly. For example, if your spouse sometimes calls you with the hope of reconciling, and does so a day or two before the divorce papers are scheduled to reach him or her, you might prefer to not pick up the phone in order to save yourself a difficult conversation at an awkward time.
For more information and tips, work with a local divorce law attorney.
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