Serving your spouse an application for divorce at Hawke’s Bay must be done by another person other than the applicant because the person or applicant who files for divorce is not permitted by law to serve the papers. The applicant can therefore seek the assistance of a friend or family member to serve the spouse if they know the spouse. But if they do not, then you can employ the services of a process server or bailiff to serve the documents. The person who serves the divorce papers to the spouse is known as the Sever and servers must not be below 18.
Divorce papers cannot be served on festive days like on Christmas and New Year and can’t be served on Sunday and Anzac day. Visit Divorcenz.com for more information and legal services. In proving that the divorce papers have been served, the server must fill an affidavit of service listing the documents that were served and the day it was served. If the sever knows the spouse that was served the divorce papers, the server will add the details about how he (the server) knows the spouse to the affidavit.
However, if the sever of the divorce papers doesn’t know the spouse, the server will have to prove that the divorce papers was served to the intended spouse by attaching the following to the affidavit;
1) Authentication that the handwriting written on the acknowledgement is that of the applicants spouse, or
2) A lucid picture in form of a photograph of the applicant’s spouse. The sworn affidavit of service should be returned to the court after the copies of the divorce papers have been served.
There are also instances where the applicant may not have knowledge about the whereabouts of the spouse; you will have to make an application for Substituted Service or an Application to Dispense Service. The court will therefore look for another way of serving the divorce papers to the spouse. The court in finding an alternative method to serving the divorce papers may consider that it is efficient if the divorce papers are served to some with close relations to the spouse such as the spouse’s parents or siblings and in instances where there are no siblings or parents, then any member of the family may be served the divorce papers and if there are no family members, it will be advertised in newspapers.
