It is common for one spouse to want to get a divorce, while the other does not. You may find yourself in a situation where your spouse refuses to talk about divorce, will not cooperate with the process, and even refuses to respond to the divorce petition itself.
They think that they can just ignore the situation and that you won’t be able to get a divorce without their cooperation, so they will stay married. But is this actually true?
Getting a default divorce
This is not true, and the reason is that the spouse in the example above would be in default when they didn’t respond to the divorce petition. They are given a set amount of time to respond, so you have to wait until that deadline arrives. But if they fail to meet it because they are refusing to cooperate, then the court hearing can happen anyway.
In fact, if your spouse is in default, you can benefit you in some ways. Perhaps you wanted to seek more parenting time with your child, but you felt like your spouse was going to disagree and make the process difficult. But if they have not even come to the court hearing, they don’t have a chance to state their position, and it’s more likely that the court will rule in your favor.
In other words, your spouse cannot prevent the divorce by ignoring it, and they may actually make their own situation much worse if they do this. Rest assured that you do still have options, a divorce is possible, and you just need to know exactly what legal steps to take.
