Serving Divorce Papers on your Spouse

When you file for divorce (or child custody, etc.) in South Carolina you must serve a Summons and Complaint on your spouse before the Family Court will have personal jurisdiction over them and be able to grant you a divorce.  So, how can your spouse be served?  There are several ways all of which are governed by the South Carolina Rules of Civil Procedure and South Carolina Family Court Rules.

Acceptance of Service

First, in many no-fault or uncontested divorce matters, the defendant spouse will come to your lawyer's office and pick up the papers voluntarily and sign a document called an Acceptance of Service which is an affidavit to the Court stating that your spouse has freely and willfully accepted the divorce papers.

Service by Certified Mail

The second option is for your spouse to be served by Certified Mail.  If you are serving your spouse by Certified Mail it must be sent Return Receipt Requested and Restricted Delivery.  The return receipt will allow you to prove to the Court that your spouse received the documents and the restricted delivery means that only your spouse can sign for the papers and not their roommate or someone else at the home.

Personal Service

The third option is to serve your spouse personally.  That means a process server will take the divorce papers and hand them to your spouse.  This is done at their home, work, or other place and is proven by the process server filing an Affidavit of Personal Service stating the date, time and location of the personal service.  Sometimes this is the only way to serve someone because they are intentionally trying to avoid being served papers and they will not accept the certified mail.  When serving your spouse in this manner neither you, any other person who is a party to this action or your lawyer can act as the process server.

Service by Publication

Finally, if you are unable to locate your spouse and you have made a good faith effort to find them, you can petition the Court for permission to serve your spouse by publication.  This means you will run a Summons and Notice of the hearing in a newspaper of general circulation in the place where your spouse was last known to reside.  This notice will run one time per week for three weeks.Now that your spouse has been served the case has officially begun...

What Do You Do When You are Served Divorce Papers in South Carolina

So you have been served with divorce papers by your spouse?  First, let's define what "being served" really means.  When you are served, your spouse has had someone deliver the papers to you.  South Carolina laws prevent your spouse or his/her attorney from being the people that actually serve you and Rule 4 of the Rules of Civil Procedure govern and determine what proper service is and how service can be made on a defendant.So, now that you have been delivered your divorce papers, you don't know what to do.  Well, the first thing you should do is make a note of when you were served the papers.  The date and time will be very important in your divorce case because of strict time lines that apply to both you and your spouse.The next thing you should do is read the paperwork that is served on you.  Many times in a divorce case the plaintiff's attorney will request a hearing at the very beginning of the case called a temporary hearing where they will request some specific relief such as child custody, child support an alimony.  The rules only require you to get five days notice of this hearing so you may need to act quickly to schedule a consultation with a divorce lawyer in order to have them represent you at the temporary hearing.The next time line that applies is 30 days.  You have thirty days from the date you are served to file an answer to your spouse's complaint.  If you are later than 30 days you may be in default and can forfeit some of your rights provided by the law.  Therefore, it is extremely important that you formally respond to the allegations in your spouse's complaint by filing an "Answer" with the family court and serving that on your spouse and his/her attorney.I do not recommend that you go it alone in your divorce case.  As soon as your are served with divorce papers, I recommend that you immediately consult with an attorney to learn your rights and to get a game plan.  You may not like the attorney you meet with initially and may want to consult with several attorneys.  If you wait too long and do not leave yourself and your future attorney any time to respond you will lose the opportunity to shop and find the right attorney for you.