Q: My wife left back in August of 2020, after stealing $4,500 from me. She has not been seen since nor heard from.

A: You do not have to know her location. An experienced matrimonial attorney can obtain a divorce for you. There is are extra steps in this situation, but it could very well result in an uncontested divorce. You need to retain an experienced matrimonial attorney right away so you can put an end to your nightmare. The sooner you retain counsel, the sooner this will be over and you can start healing. Many attorneys provide secure video conferencing and are able to handle everything online and/or through the mail.

A: 1. You can file a complaint for divorce immediately.

2. After you get the filed complaint back from the court (with the docket number), you need to undertake a good faith effort to locate your spouse and arrange for a process server to serve the complaint for divorce upon her.

3. Presuming that you have no clue where she currently lives and despite a good faith effort to locate her, you cannot find her. As a result, you then need to file an application with the court for "substituted service of process" upon her - meaning the court can then authorize you to send a copy of the complaint for divorce to her through her email address, by text message to her phone, by posting to her Facebook page and by publication through the newspaper. Presuming that the court agrees with you, you will then get an order from the court permitting those actions.

4. After attempting service through these methods, you will then file for default, telling the court that you undertook the substituted service of process, and she did not file a responsive pleading and now you want the court to enter a default.

5. After the court permits you to enter default, then you will prepare a comprehensive proposal for settlement and serve it on your ex through each of those methods and provide it to the court and then ask the court to schedule a date for a default judgment hearing date.

A: Thank you for your question. I am sorry to hear about your marital difficulties. At this point, as long as you have been a New Jersey resident for at least one year, you would simply file a Complaint for Divorce seeking a dissolution of your marriage in the county in which you reside. If your wife cannot be found to be served with the Complaint, you can still proceed with the divorce process as long as you demonstrate to the court that you engaged in due diligence to find her but were unsuccessful in doing so. At that point, the court would allow service to be completed by some other means (e.g., publication in a newspaper) and allow you to proceed by “default,” where your wife’s participation would not be necessary for you to obtain a judgment of divorce.