You can’t personally serve your spouse. You can either:
You should only serve your spouse by post if you are confident they will sign and return to you the Acknowledgment of Service (Divorce). If they don’t do this, you will need to serve them by hand.
If your spouse has a lawyer, you should call or write to their lawyer and ask if they are willing to accept service of your Application for Divorce. If they say no, you will need to serve your spouse personally.
If your spouse is overseas, there is a different process you must follow to serve them with your Application for Divorce. For more information about how to serve your spouse overseas, see Serving a legal document across international borders on the Attorney-General’s Department website.
If your spouse is in prison, there are different rules you must follow to serve them with your Application for Divorce.
You must serve your spouse or their lawyer with:
You don’t need to serve your spouse or their lawyer with:
To download sealed copies of your documents from the Commonwealth Courts Portal:
If you are serving your spouse or their lawyer by hand, you will need an:
If you are serving your spouse or their lawyer by post, you will need an:
You can download a Divorce Service Kit (do it yourself kit) on Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia’s website.
To serve your spouse or their lawyer by hand, the server must:
You may want to prepare the Affidavit of Service by Hand (Divorce) to give to the server when you ask them to serve your Application for Divorce and supporting documents.
You may want to give the server a photo of your spouse to make it easier for them to identify your spouse. If you do, you must make sure that a copy of this photo is attached to the Affidavit of Service by Hand (Divorce) when it is filed.
If you use a process server, you will have to pay a fee. These fees are not set by the court, so you can’t apply to reduce the fee. You will need to negotiate with the process server privately.
To serve your spouse or their lawyer by post, you must:
If your spouse or their lawyer does not sign and return the Acknowledgment of Service (Divorce), you will have to serve them by hand.
You can’t use a postal delivery receipt as proof of service.
To prove to the Court you have served your spouse or their lawyer, you must prepare and file an Affidavit of service and attach the supporting documents. If you don’t, the Court may adjourn your matter while you file these documents or dismiss your application altogether.
The person who served your spouse or their lawyer must prepare an Affidavit of service by hand (divorce), which includes:
The server must have their Affidavit witnessed by an authorised person (Justice of the Peace or lawyer) before returning it to you.
If your spouse signed the Acknowledgement of service (divorce), you will have to complete the Affidavit proving signature (divorce).
The annexure note on the Acknowledgement of service and the Affidavit proving signature will need to be witnessed by an authorised person (Justice of the Peace or lawyer).
If you were successful in serving your spouse or their lawyer by post, you must prepare:
an Affidavit of service by post (divorce) and attach to it the signed Acknowledgement of service (divorce).
You must include the following information in your Affidavit:
Don’t sign your Affidavit until you are ready to have it witnessed.
If your spouse signed the Acknowledgment of service (divorce) and you recognise their signature, you should complete the Affidavit proving signature (divorce). You will need to swear or affirm the Affidavit proving signature (divorce) before an authorised person (Justice of the Peace or lawyer). You need to attach a copy of the signed Acknowledgment of service (divorce) to the Affidavit proving signature (divorce).
When you sign your Affidavits, you must have them witnessed by an authorised person (Justice of the Peace or lawyer).
The authorised person must sign the following sections:
After your Affidavits have been signed and witnessed, you must file them with the court before the hearing. They are your proof that the documents have been served.
You can file your documents online via the Commonwealth Courts Portal or at a court registry.
After you have filed your Affidavit of service and supporting documents, you may need to prepare for the hearing.
For more information, see Preparing for the hearing.
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