Send Via Email Legal Illinois Divorce Forms For Free

Can A Spouse Serve Their Own Spouse The Divorce Papers? There are two ways to effectuate service in Illinois: personal service and substitute service. Illinois law requires that service be performed by a sheriff.

Service of Process: The process of officially delivering the summons and petition to the other party is known as service of process. This provides legal notice of your divorce action to the other party. A party may be served by the Sheriff or by publication in a newspaper.

The documents filed, served and/or noticed must likewise have emails for counter-service. If there's not an attorney on the other side in an Illinois divorce but the party has filed their own appearance, they can also be served or noticed via email.

The rule change allows court officers to serve a summons electronically if the defendant or respondent has an active social media, telephone number or email address, and other service means are impractical.

Default Divorce in Illinois If a respondent does not respond to a divorce petition in time, the case may proceed without him or her. The judge will base any decision about asset division, parenting time, or other divorce issues on what the petitioner is asking for (with some exceptions). This is called a default.

In cases like these, who files first will likely not present a significant advantage or disadvantage. The party filing for divorce first will need to pay court fees; however, they can request that the court order that some or all of the fees be repaid to the petitioner by the respondent.