You and your spouse may have been separated for quite some time now and may have sadly concluded that there is no coming together once again. This may lead you to make the heartbreaking yet necessary step of officially filing for a divorce. Please continue reading to learn how to file a Complaint for Divorce and how an experienced Morris County divorce lawyer at Graves Andrews, LLC can take you through these procedures.
How do I file a Complaint for Divorce in the state of New Jersey?
To initiate your divorce proceedings, you must file a Complaint for Divorce with a New Jersey Superior Court. Of note, you must submit it to the court in the county where you have lived since you and your spouse separated. Or, if you have not lived in New Jersey since your separation, you must submit it to the court in the county where your spouse currently resides. Below is the specific information you must fill this complaint with:
- You must identify your and your spouse’s legal names, residential addresses, and contact information.
- You must disclose the locations where you and your spouse spent your marriage and the dates you were considered married.
- You must explain the grounds for your divorce (i.e., adultery, desertion, extreme cruelty, etc). and cite laws and facts that support it.
- You must state the types of arrangements you wish to seek (i.e., spousal support, child support, child custody, property division, etc).
How do I serve my spouse with a copy of the Complaint for Divorce?
Soon after you file a Complaint for Divorce with the court, you must serve your spouse with a copy of it. This must be served alongside a copy of the Summons and Notice of Initial Hearing. Importantly, you cannot personally hand deliver this paperwork to your spouse. Rather, you can recruit a third party to work on your behalf, which may be any one of the following individuals:
- Any individual who is 18 years old or older, who is not a family member or significant other of either party, and who is of sound mind.
- The sheriff of the county in which your spouse currently resides.
- Any individual appointed by the New Jersey court to do so.
- An agent or representative of your hired divorce lawyer.
- Any private, professional process server, for a fee.
Of note, your spouse may only have 35 days to respond to your serving of divorce papers. If they fail to meet this deadline, then the court may make a default judgment on your case. Specifically, the court may grant you what you initially requested in your Complaint for Divorce, so long as it aligns with the state’s family laws.
Now that you have this background knowledge, your next step should be to employ a skilled Morristown family law attorney to represent you. So contact us at Graves Andrews, LLC today.
