The respondent is not responding - what happens next?
The respondent has 14 calendar days from receipt of the application to complete and return the acknowledgement of service to the court. The court will send you/your advocate a certified copy of the respondent’s acknowledgement of service within 5 working days of it being received, together with the forms for the next stage. If, however, you do not receive a response, please wait until at least 21 calendar days have elapsed since you received notification that the court sent the divorce application to the respondent. You can contact us by email or phone (01624 686163) to confirm that no acknowledgement of service has been received.
Please note, if the respondent resides in a different country, there may be a significant delay in post going out and coming back to us. If this is the case, you may wish to allow more time.
What can I do if the respondent does not return the acknowledgement of service?
NB - if the grounds for the divorce are 2 years separation with the respondent’s consent, they must acknowledge service and answer ‘yes’ to the question “Do you consent to a divorce order being made?”. If the respondent will not do so, you may wish to consider filing an application under amended grounds. There will be an additional fee for doing so.
Once the court confirms that no acknowledgement of service has been received, you can request a duplicate set of papers be posted to you for no extra fee. It will then be up to you or your advocate to arrange personal service of the papers on the respondent. If the respondent is in the Isle of Man, this will need to be via the Coroner in the area that the respondent lives -see here. If the respondent is in the United Kingdom, this can be via a process server. The court will require a Certificate of Personal Service for the case to proceed.
Proof of Service
Once you have proof of service, you may wish to consider making an application for what is known as ‘deemed service’. An affidavit should be filed in accordance with Rule 12(6) of the Rules of the High Court (Matrimonial Proceedings) 2004 – see here. This will need to be accompanied by a covering letter, which will be considered as your application, or a prescribed general application notice HC8A.
This type of application will be subject to a fee, the current Fees Order can be found here. Usually, the court would make an order that the respondent should pay these additional costs. Please ensure that you or your advocate have made this clear either at section 11 of your initial application or within your application for deemed service.
The application will need to set out the circumstances; for example if the respondent has been trying to purposely evade service or that the Coroner or process server was unable to locate the Respondent and posted the papers through their letterbox. Evidence such as Certificates of Service and a statement from the Coroner or process server will need to be attached to the affidavit required in support of your application for deemed service. The affidavit must be sworn or declared before a Commissioner for Oaths or Notary Public. This can be done at the court office for a small fee. If your application for deemed service has not been successful, Courts staff will inform you of the reason.
When an Order that the respondent has been deemed to have been served with the divorce application has been issued, court staff will send you a copy of this order together with the papers to progress to the next stage of the divorce, which is applying for the provisional order.