Legal Question in Family Law in California
My husband did not respond to the petition and it's been over 6 months since I served him. I want to ammend the original petition to establish there are no issues of dividion of community property, the petition does not request money, property, cost or attorney fees to be determined by the court and there are no issues of chold, spousal or attorney fees and costs subject to determination by the court. I did attache a form to 5b detailing he division of community property. I want to ammend this form and document we have no community property to be divided by the court. IF I AMMEND THE PETITION, do I HAVE TO SERVE MY SPOUSE AGAIN, even though he did not respond to the initial petition or has he already lost his right to respond from the first petitioin?
2 Answers from Attorneys
You do have to have him served with the amended petition. (I used that tense of the verb because you cannot serve documents, because you are a party to the dissolution action.)
Serving him with an amended petition opens up his default, and the clerks will want you to bring in a summons on the amended petition, which will also have to be served on him. He will then have the ability to timely respond to the amended petition, or default again.
If the amended petition alleges that there is no community property you will also need to explain any contradiction between the original papers and the amended petition and attachments, even if he fails to respond after being served with the amended petition..
Related Questions & Answers
Looking for something else?
10,200 active attorneys ready to answer your legal questions today.
Featured Attorneys
Earn additional revenue and grow your business.
