Legal Question in Family Law in Montana

Re: Divorce?

Yes, you can get a dissolution of marriage and, in fact, you must dissolve your current marriage before you remarry.

Because you don't have children or any marital property, you can ask the clerk of the district court in your county for a summary dissolution packet. [The summary dissolution was designed for couples whose marital estate is small enough that it would be consumed by attorney fees, and so it is designed for the parties to be joint petitioners and to file without attorneys.] You can't find your spouse, so you will file as Petitioner rather than filing jointly with spouse.

Even though you don't know where your spouse is, make a good-faith effort to find him/her. Then file a motion for leave to serve by publication. Inform the court that your efforts have failed, you don't know where s/he is, and request permission to serve by publication.

Call your local newspaper, talk to "legals" in the classified department, and ask them how much it will cost. Publish the notice once a week for three weeks. If you get no response from your spouse, ask the court clerk to enter a default, request a hearing date, and ask the court to enter a decree of dissolution.

Take the decree to the clerk of court, pay a $45 fee to enter the decree, file a Notice of Entry of Decree. Send a copy of the notice and the decree to spouse at his/her last known address.