Legal Question in Family Law in New York

Re: Divorce

[1] Divorce papers Must Be Personally Served Upon the Person of the Defendant.

This means that the papers must, in fact, be delivered to the defendant by the person who will swear to having done so in the affidavit of service. Put otherwise, Joe cannot give it to Tom to give it to Ted. The papers cannot be mailed.

[2] Anyone over the age of 18, *who is NOT a Party to the action* can serve the papers.

The information above is predicated on the assumption that the defendant is neither in the armed forces, nor in jail, nor in a mental institution.

Regards, etc.,

J. M. Hayes

>>--> The foregoing amounts to musings and observations based on some years familiarity with the 'day-to-day' operation of the law with regard to the issues involved In The Most General sense; my remarks should not be thought of as "legal advice and counsel" in the formal sense of that phrase, since there is, in fact, no 'attorney / client' relationship existing between us. <-<<

Re: Divorce

The shortest answer to your question is:

Yes.

No elaborate rituals are required for serving papers, except that the person doing the service must either know the party, in fact, or ask to ascertain the person's identity; the person doing the service is also required to either know, in fact, that the party is not in the armed forces, or make specific inquiry.

Re: Divorce

Anyone who is over the age of 18, and not a part of the action (ie not the Plaintiff or Defendant) can serve papers in your divorce action. Or you can hire a process server. Either way, you will need an affidavit of service, stating time and date of service on the Defendant.