Legal Question in Family Law in Connecticut
Terrible situation. CT judge refuses to take any action
I am looking for answers on how to properly serve court papers on my ex wife
who has sole custody of my child and has moved overseas and may not be
coming back. She refuses for my daughter to have any contact with me.
I filed several contempt motions and the judge was sympathetic by refuses to
take any action regarding my child or my contempt motions unless I can prove
that my ex has been properly served. Service through the Hague convention
is out of the question since the country where my ex now lives is not a
signatory to it. Basically I can not file for any kind of relief right now.
My ex was represented by an attorney who attended all hearings even though my ex and my child no longer live in the U.S.
I pay child support regularly through the state's child support enforcement
agency which forwards the funds to a bank account in Virginia.
Can I pay for a server to go overseas and serve my ex?
How about service by registered mail or courier?
What if I can no longer work for any reason, lay-off, disability or even death, does that mean I can no longer get any relief in CT or change any CT orders, because I can not serve the other side?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Terrible situation. CT judge refuses to take any action
I assume that in the country where she has moved, there are legal ways of serving papers. Usually, there is a sheriff or a marshal or a policeman or some designated personage who is authorized to serve legal papers. If you file a contempt motion in the Connecticut court, get a date for a hearing (preferably a long time out) and get the appropriate person in that country to serve her in hand with the papers and send back to you a certification that he has done so (with a time and place where she was served, a physical description of her to be sure it was she he served, etc.) then she either shows up at the hearing or she suffers whatever the court wants to do to her. The next problem is what if she ignores the contempt? Will the other country honor a ruling from a US court?
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