Legal Question in Family Law in Georgia

Re: Abandonment of Family

Your question has several parts. I will try to answer each, although no necessarily in order:

1) You can divorce your husband on the basis of either abandonment or irreconcilable differnces.

2) It is possible to divorce your husband without him being present. The only necessity is to have him served with the divorce complaint and summons (which is issued by the Clerk of Court when you file the divorce complaint). As your husband is out of state you can either have him served in the state where he is currently living or you can serve him by publication (having notice of the divorce proceedings published in one of the designated newspapers for publishing legal notices in your county of residence). Another possibility is to have him sign a document ackowledging receipt of the divorce complaint and summons (called an "Acknowledgement of Service")and then having that acknowledgement filed with the clerk of court.

The method of serving him which you choose may have some impact on the question of division of poperty which I will address next.

3)It is theoretically possible to have the court award you sole use, ownership and/or possession of the marital residence. Whether this would happen in your situation depends on a number of factors, including: whose name appears on the deed for the property, who has been making the house payments, what has been the relative monetary (and non-monetary) contributions of both parties to the marriage in general and the house in particular. Without further, more specific information about your situation, it is impossibel to predict the likelihood of your being award the house in the divorce decree.

One other issue that you should consider is the how the issue of serving the divorce complaint and summons on your husband will effect the division of poperty. While it is true that you can get a divorce "by publication" (that is to say without serving the defendant personally with papers or having him acknowledge service and with the only "notice" to the defendant being a published notice in the newspaper) Georgia courts do not, generally speaking, have jurisidiction over issues such as division of property if service has been made solely by publication.

If you should have any further questions regarding this matter, please feel free to contact my office for a consultation.