Serving Your Spouse
Serving Your Spouse

It’s an unfortunate fact that, in England and Wales, the average overall divorce rate is 33.3%. One in three marriages will fail eventually and lead to a divorce. But that is the reality, and for many people they will be facing up to that as they prepare to serve their spouse with the necessary legal papers to initiate divorce proceedings.

But what do you do when your partner refuses to co-operate? When they won’t acknowledge the papers and want to try to pretend that you aren’t going through a divorce? You have a couple of options, one of which is to use a process server. And as a North West private investigation agency we offer these services. Whether you need process serving in Wigan or any part of Lancashire, Greater Manchester or the surrounding areas, we may be able to help.

Why is process serving needed?

Depending on your reasons for filing for divorce, you may need your partner to co-operate with the whole proceedings for things to go smoothly. But for some cases, you just need to prove to the courts that your partner has received the divorce papers – they don’t even need to acknowledge them.

But even that can be tricky if your partner doesn’t want to get divorced. They may become evasive. They may deny all knowledge of the papers ever arriving at their home, and if you turn up with them then they may refuse to speak to you. You might even try posting them through the door, but they could argue that you didn’t.

There are then two options you have to get your papers served so that you can proceed without your spouse returning their Acknowledgement of Service. You can either pay for a Bailiff Service through the courts, or you can use a process server.

Admittedly a process server might cost a little more than the Bailiff Service fee, but there’s a benefit to that. A process server will go to greater lengths to serve your papers. They won’t follow a simple few steps, but will instead utilise a range of skills and resources to get your papers into the hands of your spouse, with documentation to prove it.

And that’s why a private investigator makes for a great process server – they have all the experience in finding and tracking people, and are experts in what they can legally do to get the papers served in the most efficient way, and in a way that is admissible in courts to allow the divorce case to proceed.

Plus, if you opt for the Bailiff Service, your petition needs to be re-issued. Not so with a Process Server, who can be hired to make sure the initial papers are served for you.

Need help?

If you’re looking for Wigan process serving help to get your divorce papers legally in the hands of your spouse, or you’re based anywhere in the North West, give us a call at EJM Investigations on 01772 334700.