Make Sure You Send Correct Papers For Service

As a Process Server and having received many instructions from various clients over the years to serve divorce petitions I thought a little advice on what to send us might be appropriate.

Divorce Proceedings can be costly. No surprise there then but one way of limiting costs is to ensure when the time comes to instruct a Process Server you send us the correct documents to be served.

Failure to send the correct papers for service could result in you incurring further costs to re-instruct the Process Server again to serve the additional papers. This may sound obvious but you''d be surprised how often incomplete papers are sent to us for service!

Usually we are sent the Divorce Petition, Acknowledgement of Service as well as the Notice of Proceedings to be served together with the Statement of Arrangement for Children when this is applicable.

The onus is on you to send the correct papers for service so if you are unsure ask the Court or your Legal Advisor what needs to be sent for service. In addition to the above a photograph or description should be provided so the Process Server can ensure they are serving the correct person.

Whilst the Process Server will be more than happy to help where he or she can we will generally just serve the papers that are sent by the Petitioner assuming these to be correct.

Bear in mind when trying to contact the Court that their phones lines are now usually only open between 10am and 2pm due to recent changes.

Finally, remember the Process Server will need two sets of the papers from you. One set to serve on the Respondent and the other set to exhibit to a Statement of Service saying these are the papers we served on such and such a date.

I hope the above helps!