What happens if the respondent can be located or evades service of process?
If your petition can’t be served, the law permits “service by publication” to the respondent. This process involves obtaining the court’s permission to publish an announcement about your petition for dissolution in a local newspaper. The respondent has forty-five (45) days from the last date of publication to file an answer to the petition. After the 45 days have passed, the court may also grant a default judgment, but the scope of that judgment is more limited. Because the respondent was not personally served, the court cannot enter a personal judgment against him/her for child support or maintenance, but it can grant the dissolution of marriage and, under proper circumstances, enter orders about the custody of the minor children. Once the respondent is located and can be properly served, the case can be reopened for the purpose of obtaining the additional relief which the petitioner was unable to obtain the first time.
