How to Get a Divorce in Nevada When You Cannot Find Your Spouse
You do not necessarily have to remain married simply because you do not know where your spouse lives.
Nevada has procedures that may allow a divorce case to move forward when a spouse cannot be located. Before using alternative methods of service, however, you generally must demonstrate reasonable efforts to find and personally serve your spouse.
If those efforts are unsuccessful, the court may authorize another method of service, including service by publication when appropriate. Best Family Lawyers Las Vegas can help you navigate the process, document your efforts to locate your spouse, and request permission from the court to proceed with an authorized method of service.
Cannot locate your spouse? There may still be a legal path forward with your Nevada divorce.
What Happens If You Cannot Find Your Spouse for a Nevada Divorce?
Not knowing where your spouse lives does not necessarily prevent you from filing for divorce in Nevada. It does, however, create an important service-of-process issue that must be handled correctly before the case can move forward.
You May Be Able to Divorce a Missing Spouse — But You Cannot Simply Skip Service
A spouse can file an individual Nevada divorce case even when the other spouse is unwilling to participate or cannot immediately be located. After filing, however, the plaintiff remains responsible for arranging legally sufficient service of the summons and divorce complaint.
Nevada generally expects reasonable efforts to locate and personally serve the defendant first. When ordinary service is impracticable, the court can be asked to authorize another method of service.
Alternative service is not something a plaintiff simply chooses. Court authorization is generally required, and the papers must be delivered using every method identified in the judge’s order.
No Address Is Different From No Contact at All
If you can communicate with your spouse but cannot determine a physical address, alternate service may be the appropriate procedure. If you cannot locate or reliably contact the spouse after a diligent search, publication may become an option.
In either situation, filing for divorce does not eliminate the service requirement. The correct procedure should be completed before asking the court to proceed without the spouse’s participation.
What Is a Due Diligence Search Before Service by Publication?
If you cannot locate your spouse for personal service, Nevada courts generally expect you to make meaningful efforts to find them before asking for permission to serve by publication. Those efforts should be specific, documented, and capable of showing the court that ordinary service could not reasonably be completed.
The Court Wants to See What You Actually Did to Find Your Spouse
A request for publication should do more than state that your spouse cannot be found. Nevada Rule of Civil Procedure 4.4 requires affidavits, declarations, or other evidence setting out specific facts showing the efforts made to locate and serve the defendant.
If publication is requested because the defendant cannot be found, the request should also address the spouse’s last-known address and other information required by the rule.
Review Nevada Rule of Civil Procedure 4.4Last-Known Address
Investigate whether your spouse still lives at the last address you have, whether anyone there knows where they moved, and whether forwarding information or another current address may be available.
Friends and Family
Contact relatives, friends, former roommates, or other people who may reasonably know where your spouse is currently living or how they can be reached.
Employment Information
Follow known employment leads, including current or former employers, coworkers, business contacts, or other information that could reasonably lead to a current location.
Online and Social Media Searches
Search available social networking sites, email information, public-facing profiles, and other online sources that may identify a current city, employer, address, or way to contact your spouse.
Mail and Forwarding Information
When appropriate, investigate whether postal forwarding information or other mail-related records may provide a lead to a newer address.
Other Available Leads
Follow any additional information that could reasonably produce a current address or method of contact instead of stopping after one or two unsuccessful attempts.
“I Don’t Know Where My Spouse Lives” May Not Be Enough
The court may want detailed information showing where you searched, who you contacted, what addresses or leads you investigated, and what happened when those efforts were made. Nevada’s Self-Help Center also warns that some judges may require a neutral person to perform the due diligence search and complete the supporting affidavit.
Due Diligence Comes Before Asking the Judge for Publication
If reasonable efforts still do not locate your spouse, you can ask the court to authorize service by publication. The judge—not the filing spouse—decides whether publication is appropriate and what additional notice may be required.
How Do You Serve Divorce Papers by Publication in Nevada?
Service by publication is generally used only after reasonable efforts to locate and personally serve a spouse have been unsuccessful. Nevada courts require the requesting party to document those efforts and obtain court authorization before publication is used.
Review Nevada Rule of Civil Procedure 4.4File Your Nevada Divorce Case
The divorce action must first be opened with the court. Once the complaint and summons are filed, the filing spouse becomes responsible for completing legally sufficient service on the other spouse.
Try to Locate and Personally Serve Your Spouse
Publication is not ordinarily the first option. Reasonable efforts should be made to identify the spouse’s current address or another location where personal service can be completed.
Depending on the circumstances, those efforts may include known addresses, employers, relatives, public records, online information, and attempts by a process server.
Document the Search for Your Spouse
The court will want to know what was actually done to locate the defendant. Nevada’s publication procedure requires evidence showing the efforts made before the court authorizes service by publication.
Keep records of addresses checked, searches performed, people contacted, process-server attempts, returned mail, and other efforts that demonstrate a genuine attempt to locate the spouse.
Request Permission to Serve by Publication
After unsuccessful efforts to locate or serve the spouse, the filing party can ask the court for authorization to use publication.
Nevada court materials identify documents such as an Ex Parte Motion for Publication, an Affidavit of Due Diligence, and a Request for Submission as part of this process.
Receive the Judge’s Order for Publication
Publication should not begin until the judge authorizes it. If the request is approved, the court’s written order will specify the permitted method and any requirements that must be followed.
The order may identify where publication must occur, how notice must be provided, and whether additional forms of service or mailing are required.
Publish the Summons as Directed by the Court
Once the order is entered, the summons must be published exactly as required by NRCP 4.4 and the judge’s order. The newspaper or other authorized publication must follow the court-approved schedule.
Do not alter the publication method or schedule without further court authorization.
File Proof of Publication and Complete Any Other Ordered Service
After publication is complete, the publisher generally provides an Affidavit of Publication showing when notice was published. That documentation should be filed with the court.
If the judge also required mailing or another form of notice, any applicable Certificate of Mailing or other proof should also be completed and filed.
Proceed With the Nevada Divorce
Once service has been completed in accordance with the court’s order and the required response period has expired, the divorce case can move to its next procedural stage.
If the spouse never responds, additional default procedures may be available, but the court still determines what relief can properly be granted based on the pleadings, evidence, and jurisdiction.
You May Still Be Able to Get Divorced
Best Family Lawyers Las Vegas can help determine the appropriate method of service, document efforts to locate your spouse, request court authorization when necessary, and move your Nevada divorce case forward.