Unco-operative husband & time delays! HELP PLEASE!

Hi. I hope this is in the right place!

I am in the process of divorcing my husband for unreasonable behaviour. The papers have been sent to him but he is being awkward and not signing and returning them so I have sent in a D89 Request for Court Bailiff which goes to the judge today apparently.

Could anybody advise me on what actually happens now please? I cannot get an answer from the Court staff...they won't give me approximate timescales and they are not being very helpful. How hard do the bailiffs try to serve the papers? I realise this could differ from Court to Court but I am now getting anxious as I am moving abroad in the middle of October and I must get this divorce done and dusted by then. It is straightforward; no children, no financial issues..just a divorce.

The Court have already delayed things by almost a month as they lost my first set of papers!

Even though it is 5 months until I move I am getting VERY worried as it's all sooooo slow. Can anybody advise me, I would be extremely grateful.

Thank you

Nikki,

The court baliffs should have no great problem to serve the papers as long as you give them a good idea of where he works/lives.

If you are in a hurry be aware that you can either serve the papers yourself or pay a private agency to serve them.

Once the petition has been served then if he does not return the acknowledgement you can eventually apply to the court for the case to proceed without his consent.

Hi, why not ring the Courts and ask to speak to the Court Baliff, ask him if and when he will be serving the papers.
We rang the court baliff, and lol he said he didnt know what we were talking about, he hadnt had any paperwork! So we rang the family court who said they couldnt find the papers they were in the basement somewhere!!!! Anyway because we wouldnt give up they finally located the papers and faxed them through to the baliff. We rang the baliff back to make sure he had received them and he said yes and because of the delay he would make sure they got served that day. He even rang us back to say he'd been round to the property to serve them but noone was in, but he would go back later that night. Which he did and he even rang us at 8pm to say he served them! He was so sweet.
It seems to me if we hadnt done that and chased it up ourselves, i think they may of still been in the bowels of the court!!! lol
Anyway good luck
kind regards
debzz

Thanks Debzz. Good news! Papers served today and I know he got them as he emailed the court to say he will return them after speaking to Citizens Advice (god only knows what for) and will return them signed early next week. So not only where they served but the court have his email saying he has them, will sign them and return them. GOTCHA!!! Heehee

Hopefully the CAB will just tell him to sign them and return them. Can't imagine what on earth he is going to see them for seeing as there are no financial things or kids involved - its just a straightforward divorce.

Fingers crossed I can get it all kicked off properly next week!