Response to a petition

My stbx received my Petition for divorce at least 3 weeks ago but I have not yet heard anything regarding her response.

Is it still too early to expect a response? How long does she and her solicitor have to respond?

has a copy been sent to the court yet?

Yes, I sent my Petition to the court, they sent it to my stbx within 10 days.

I dont know if she has responded. How much time does she have?

The respondent has 8 days to return it or 28 days if they wish to defend, after that you can have your ex served with the paperwork and have service deemed, but, it costs more money of course, can you not just contact your ex and ask when they will return it?.

It is quite common for a respondent to take a month or more to return the acknowledgement. The 8 days thing is just to scare small children really. After all if she wanted to get a solicitor it might take a week for an initial appointment, another few days to decide and think, a week for the solicitor to review the paperwork, another week of them communicating and sending draft replies, etc. It is quite unusual to return the AoS within the 8 days except in the most simple of cases.

I know she already had a solicitor, and the strange thing she has been bugging me for a divorce for a long time but never took steps to Petition for it herself (probably because she had no grounds for divorce).

I would be quite surprised if she contests the divorce seeing that she has been making my life a misery for a very long time and bugging me for a divorce.

I would give her one month to return the AoS. If she does not do it by then, you can take further steps (process server etc).

Nothing wrong with sending a (POLITE) reminder or two before the month is up, too.