We regularly receive instructions to serve individuals with Divorce Petitions. This is usually where the Respondent has failed to file an acknowledgement of service, confirming that they have received the Divorce Petition sent to them by the Court.
As the petition can’t progress without this being filed, we can assist by personally serving the Respondent with the Petition.
This allows Petitioners to proceed with the Divorce application regardless of whether the Respondent co-operates or not.
How do I instruct you?
That part is simple. Click on the Instruct Us button and this will take you through to our secure instruction form. If you want to discuss the instruction first, you can call us up and have a chat.
What documents do we need to serve?
Divorce Petition
This is the document that sets out the application and grounds for divorce. It will also confirm whether the application wants to apply for a financial order as well as the divorce.
It will be two pages long and will confirm the details of the marriage and the parties correspondence details.
It will also have the case reference number juse underneath the issue date.
Notice of Proceedings
This will look like a letter to the Respondent, but will be marked ‘Notice of divorce proceedings’ at the top.
It will contain the details of all parties and the case number.
This document confirms that proceedings have been issued and what the Respondent needs to do next.
The Respondent can log in online to respond or can complete the Acknowledgement of Service form. If they want to use the online service, they will need their reference number and access code which is contained in this document.
Acknowledgment of Service
This is a form which the Respondent needs to complete and return to the Court if they don’t want to respond online.
It sets out whether the Respondent agrees to the content of the Divorce Petition.
If they choose to complete this, they will also need to enclose the Unique Reference Number.
Unique Reference Number
This is a cover sheet that the Respondent sends back to the Court with the Acknowledgement of Service.
It allows the Court to assign any documents to the case.
It is also the reference number that the Respondent can use if they want to respond online at https://www.apply-divorce.service.gov.uk/respondent.
They will also need an access code which is on the Notice of Proceedings.
How do I get all of these documents?
You will need to contact the Court and confirm that you wish to instruct a process server to serve the documents. You can contact the Court by email (contactdivorce@justice.gov.uk) or telephone (0300 303 0642). You will need to provide your case reference number when you contact the Court.
You can then ask the Court to provide you with these documents.
These documents will usually be emailed to you.
Its best to do this before your instruct us, as this keeps any delays to a minimum.
What happens when you’ve served the Respondent?
Once we have completed service, we will prepare a Statement which is an official document that confirms the details.
We will file a copy of this Statement with the Court and send a copy to you.
Filing a copy of the Statement involves sending it to the Court by post. This means that it sometimes takes a bit of time for it to be received by the Court and then assigned to your case.
We are Lincs Process Servers
We serve legal documents all over Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and Nottinghamshire for a fixed fee. We assist clients and their professional advisors by serving Divorce Petitions upon Respondents.
If you, or your legal advisors, would benefit from our service, get in touch.