Legal Question in Family Law in California

You don't need to contact or even locate the other spouse to start the divorce. The filing process is the same either way. Once you have your initial papers filed, you must demonstrate to the court that you have made all reasonable efforts to locate the other spouse and serve them with the summons and other initial papers. If you really have exhausted all reasonable efforts to find the other spouse and cannot, you can then request permission from the court to serve them by publishing notice in the newspaper. You need to make very sure to follow all the rules for service by publication, but once you do that, it will be the same as if you had found them and served them in person, and you can proceed with a default divorce.