What does this mean will happen?
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What does this mean will happen?
| Wed, 07-13-2005 - 3:13pm |
A friend of mine filed for divorce thru an attorney on July 8. Soon to be ex is scheduled to be served this week. Friend of mine receives letter in the mail yesterday from soon to be ex's attorney claiming that they filed June 29. Friend was never served. Technically who filed first? Is it by date filed or date served? Is there a time limit on being served from the date filed?

If
They have 120 days from the date of filing to serve her. On the 121st day, the case is closed. If he filed on June 28th, he still has ample time to serve her.
And by the way, what difference does it make who filed first? I don't understand why that would matter.
Lacie
The courts actually stamp the documents as received and filed when they get them. Regardless of when someone is actually given the papers, whoever filed the documents with the court first, is considered to have filed first and will be the petitioner. The other person will be the respondant.
It can sometimes take a while for the other party to receive the papers. And people don't always have to be "served." In fact, my attorney told me that only very rarely are people actually served anymore. She said that really the only time it's necessary to "serve" someone is when it is dangerous to tell them any other way or if you think the person will try to pretend that they never received notice that they were being divorced. In my case my ex and I had already discussed the divorced and that I had filed so my attorney simply sent him and his attorney a copy of the paperwork when she got it back from the court. Very often having someone served publicly ends up embarrassing them and making them mad - not such a good thing when you are about to have to negotiate about so many things.