Avoiding Service: How Freeman Family Law Assisted A Client Seeking Divorce From A Partner Avoiding Service

The Facts In Brief:

Our client was seeking a divorce from her husband
The couple had already separated
Our client had initially taken the matter to a generalist lawyer, not a Family Law specialist
The other party was avoiding service
The first lawyer made an application for Substituted Service
Errors were made in the application and the Divorce was not granted
The client brought the matter to Freeman Family Law
Freeman Family Law relisted the matter and satisfied the requirements for Substituted Service
Divorce was granted

Case Summary:

Separation and divorce are hard enough.

When the other party avoids the issue, it makes everything more difficult and takes longer to accomplish.

In this case, the client originally approached a generalist lawyer to handle the divorce.

With the husband avoiding service and his new address not known to our client, her first lawyer attempted to apply for SUbstituted Service.

Substituted Service allows for alternatives to personal service, including for someone closely connected to the respondent to be served.

However, the first lawyer made several errors with the application and when the matter returned to Family Court, the Registrar would not grant the Divorce order.

It was at this point that the matter was brought to Freeman Family Law by our client.

What Freeman Family Law Did

Freeman Family Law’s speciality in these matters allowed us to quickly identify where the errors in the previous application had taken place and the process of relisting the matter was begun.

Once further directions from the Registrar was received, Freeman Family Law successfully applied for Substituted Service, filing the appropriate material to satisfy the requirements and successfully providing service on the respondent.

This allowed the Divorce order to be granted.

Lessons To Be Learned

Whilst Freeman Family Law did provide a satisfactory outcome for the client, this case was an example of the importance of working with a law firm that specialises in family law for all divorce and separation cases.

This process took much longer and cost much more than it otherwise would have had the client come straight to Freeman Family Law with the matter.

If the client had of consulted us in the first instance, we could have obtained the divorce order for her quickly and efficiently saving her time, money and stress.

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Freeman Family Law has been assisting clients in Melbourne CBD, Yarraville, Caroline Springs, Hillside, Keilor, Albert Park and Taylors Lakes areas for over 30 years.