How To Serve A Divorce Petition

If you need help with how to serve a Divorce Petition in England or Wales, PB Process Servers UK can assist you.

There is a formal process to serving Divorce Petitions. If you are unsure what to do, you should always seek legal advice. The procedure is designed to ensure the Court has evidence that your spouse has received the divorce papers. If they fail to acknowledge to the Court they have received the papers then the options for service are usually service by the Court Bailiff or by a Process Server.

One of the quickest ways you can get a Divorce Petition served, is to instruct a Process Server. A Process Server is a person who delivers ("serves") court papers, like Divorce Petitions, for a living. Once they have served the divorce petition for you, they will provide you with proof of when, and how, the petition was served on the Respondent so you can file this at Court.

PB Process Servers UK have helped the legal service sector, serve Divorce Petitions, since 2002.  We provide a competitive fixed fee service.  We have a very high success rate, even on cases where the Court Bailiff has not been able to serve the Petition. We can assist you almost immediately, anywhere in England and Wales.

How can our Process Servers Help Serve the Divorce Petition ?

Our team of experienced, local Process Servers will attend the address to serve the Divorce Petition for you. Your Process Server will make evening or weekend visits to the address where a subject works during the day. Once served we will send you proof of service. Proof of service is in a court compliant format and will confirm the date and time and how the Petition was served.

• We serve Divorce Petitions Nationwide
• Very High Success Rate
• Competitive, Fixed Fee Service
• Affidavits and Statements Included

What if you cannot Serve the Divorce Petition on the Respondent?

The Petition needs to be handed to or left with the Respondent. Sometimes it is not possible for the Court Bailiff to serve the Divorce Petition or the Process Server to do this, for various reasons such as your spouse is evasive. However, it is possible to demonstrate to the court the reasonable efforts made to serve the Petition. Our part is done through a statement of attempted service signed by the Process Server which confirms all the efforts made to try and personally serve the papers. Depending on the circumstances, you could then use this as evidence to apply for deemed service, to dispense with service altogether or to make an application for substituted service which is service by an alternative method. If permission is granted by the court, you can hopefully move forward with your Divorce. Your Solicitor will be able to advise you on the options you have available. 

How do I instruct a Process Server to serve my Divorce Petition?

To instruct a Process Server to serve your Divorce Petition you will need to post or email us the Divorce papers for service together with a further copy so we can exhibit this to our Affidavit or Statement of Service. A photograph or description of the Respondent is also useful to help identify the person we are serving the papers on. We are normally sent the Divorce Petition, Notice of Proceedings and Acknowledgment of Service or more recently, the Application for Divorce and Invitation to file acknowledgement. If you do not have copies of these you can ask the court where you issued the proceedings to send them to you or the Process Server.

Choose PB Process Servers UK and you are choosing an established and experienced process serving firm you may rely on. This s why we are used regularly by many top UK law firms.

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The timescales can vary for serving a Divorce Petition. You should be wary of the so called Quickie Divorce.  On average it may take around 6 moths or more to get divorced. Initially the Court will post the Petition to the respondent. The respondent should file an acknowledgment of service. This can can take several weeks and they may decide not to file one at all. If the Respondent does not return the acknowledgment of  service, then you will need to consider instructing the Court Bailiff or a Private Process Server to serve the Petition for you. This is so the  Court has evidence the Petition has been served. The Court Bailiff can take several weeks or months to serve the Petition whereas a Private Process Server will normally make a first visit to the address within 2-3 working days or sooner.  

The Court will normally post the Petition to the respondent to begin with, along with the acknowledgement of service form for them to complete. 

The respondent is given time to file the acknowledgment of service and this may take several weeks or they may choose to not file an acknowledgment of  service. You will need to prove to the Court the respondent has received the Petition. If this is the case, then you will need to consider instructing the Court Bailiff or a Private Process Server to serve the Petition. The Court Bailiff can take several weeks or months to serve the Petition due to backlogs at Court whereas a Private Process Server will normally attend the address within 2-3 working days or sooner.  Once served, a Process Server will provide you with a court compliant statement of service to confirm the date and time the Petition was served on the Respondent.

Excluding the cost of issuing the Petition in the first place and your Solicitors fees, if you need to instruct a Court Bailiff or a Private Process Server then then typically fees for service of the Petition will be around £105.00 including a statement of service. The Process Server will make several visits to the Respondents address for the fixed fee and will provide you with a statement of service to file at court as evidence the Petition has been served. Same day or urgent service when required will be more than regular service fees.