Divorce, need to serve papers in Russia

[austin49 0]

Hello,

My wife moved back to Russia and we are getting a divorce. My question is, how to serve papers? I have her address and we are still friendly, but sending the papers via mail is not good enough for the courts.

How can I overcome the logistics of this without physically going there, or paying a large chunk of money to a service in Russia that may not even do the work?

Does anyone have experience with this?

[broma25 2]

If your still friends have her serve you with papers.

[austin49 0]

If your still friends have her serve you with papers.

I guess I do not understand. Our marriage took place in the USA. What would filing in Russia do? Does it really work that way? Considering the bueracracy in Russia, I would like to hear if anyone has experience with this.

Thanks for the advice though, it may work.

[clueless55 18]

I don't know if she normally handles serving papers, but this lady has contacts with private detectives in Russia, and is reliable.

http://russian-detective.com/

[candelari 0]

she doesn't need to be served. She needs to sign and get it notorized by the U.S embassy. Or just sign a waiver and get it notorized by the U.S embassy. Your lawyer should have told you that. Purpose of serving papers is getting her recogniizing the divorce process. It dosent't have to be done third party. You need to serve her if she refuse to sign it her own. Notorizing will make it offical so in case if she change her heart and claims that it wasn't her, U.S embassy seal (notory) will cover that.

[austin49 0]

Thanks Candelari, I am trying to do this without a lawyer. Everything is very strait forward except for getting the 'reciept' for her acknowledging the papers.

By the way, it is actually against how Russia interprets the Hague convention to serve someone papers. It has to be done through the courts in Russia, and there actually has to be a pending case to get them to do it. It is not as simple and strait forward as it seems.

The embassy option may work, thank you for the advice. However, it is another logistics problem

Anyway, thanks again.

[candelari 0]

Thanks Candelari, I am trying to do this without a lawyer. Everything is very strait forward except for getting the 'reciept' for her acknowledging the papers.

By the way, it is actually against how Russia interprets the Hague convention to serve someone papers. It has to be done through the courts in Russia, and there actually has to be a pending case to get them to do it. It is not as simple and strait forward as it seems.

The embassy option may work, thank you for the advice. However, it is another logistics problem

Anyway, thanks again.

Oh Got it.... Serving it quite difficult then. She just needs to sign the acknowledment or the waiver.

When I filed for child support and custody of my son that was my lawyer's advice. If you can get your ex' signature from him then you will save money by not saving the papers.

same with another friend of mine, she filed divorce last year and instead of serving him, she asked him to sign a waiver and get it notorize (she did it w/o lawyer too)

the only complication is to get it notorize which embassy seems the best options:)

good luck!

[Kathryn41 3,205]

Moved from Effects of Major Family Changes on Immigration Benefits to Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus Regional forum as a more likely location to get the necessary information

Edited March 13, 2010 by Kathryn41

[Satellite 1]

Depending on your state you can accomplish service by publication in your local newspaper when the person to be served cannot be located in your local jurisdiction:

Service by publication--When the whereabouts of a defendant are unknown, or personal service within the state is impossible, a court may allow the defendant to be served with notice of the lawsuit by publishing the notice in a newspaper of general circulation. As a general matter, this type of service is only allowed in cases involving property and status (personal relationships affected by the law). Thus divorces and certain adoptions (status) and partition suits (property) may be allowed to proceed after service by publication. But issues such as child custody and support cannot be decided until and unless personal service occurs.

http://www.lectlaw.com/def2/s034.htm

[slim 1,530]

Yeah, what Satellite said. (Welcome back, dude! Good to see you!)

When we were "browsing" the divorce stuff here in Cincinnati there was something to the effect of "public notice" and then if there's no response by a certain time then you're automatically qualified to get divorced without her acknowledgement. It seems the court understands that if there's no contact from the other party's side within a certain time period then the marriage probably isn't all that serious anyway and they'll grant you a divorce.

I wanna say here in Ohio it's only something like six months. Basically, if she were to go back home and not come back for at least six months, a divorce would be possible just on one side.

If you're doing this all by yourself (without an attorney) it probably wouldn't hurt to try that angle instead of trying the "traditional" route.

[TBoneTX 45,659]

Thread from 2010 is now closed to further comment.