Legal Question in Family Law in California

First you have to file and get a summons issued. Then you have to exhaust reasonable efforts to locate him and document those efforts. If, after making a genuine serious search to find him, you cannot find and serve him, you file a motion for permission to serve him by publication. If granted, you take the order for publication and the summons to a newspaper approved by the court. They publish for you and provide you with an affidavit of publication after the publication process is completed, that you file back with the court. That affidavit takes the place of the process server's proof of service. You then wait 30 days, and if no answer is filed you file for default and proceed with the case as if he had been personally served and had defaulted.