Legal Question in Family Law in North Carolina
I filed for divorce from my wife using absolute divorce in NC. She would not provide me with a correct address to serve her. She gave me a PO Box. I had my commander send her a notification that she would no longer receive military benefits. The letter came back as invalid address. Then try to serve her at her job. They stated she no longer worked there. I tried to contact her by email/phone and have her meet me at the lawyer office so we could proceed with the divorce. She made excuses and never showed. I ended up using the last know address where we both use to live, so that it would get forwarded to where she currently live.
We have no children together and no property. The absolute divorce does not require a signature. We have been legally separated for about 2 years. My divorce was granted and I have since remarried.
My ex-wife recently filed a motion to have the absolute divorce dismiss. She is claiming that she never received the certified letter and made a false claim that I had someone
sign the certified letter. That is simply not true. She continues to send harassing emails and phone calls from blocked number to my family stating we are going to jail. At the time of the divorce she claimed I owed her 800.00. She continue to make fault claims to my commander that i owe her for child support. However we never had any children together. She cant have kids. I was giving her 200.00 per month just to keep her from harassing me for money. I was advise by my commander and JAG that I did not have to pay spouse support due to only being married for a total of about 2 1/2 years and we don't have children or property together. Since we separated I had be living in the barracks or with friends. She wants the divorce overturned so that she can sue me for 800.00, get her medical benefits reinstated, sue me for her lawyer fees and then she states that she will file for divorce from me in the state where she lives.
I have tried to settled this matter out of court because the divorce is valid. But she refuses to corporate.
My question is will my divorce get overturned? What are my legal rights to get this matter resolved?
1 Answer from Attorneys
I do not know what you did and it was a mistake to do this pro se (on your own). If she can prove that she was not dismissed, then perhaps the marriage will be invalid. You would not ask your car mechanic for dental assistance and I would not be getting legal advice from your commander or a JAG officer if he is not licensed to practice law in NC. The length of a marriage is only one factor in deciding whether spousal support is proper, but it is not the only factor. In order to get it, she has to demonstrate need.
You cannot serve someone at an address where they no longer live. There are investigator/people finder services out there and you can locate someone. Failing that, an attorney has to seek permission from the court to serve them by publication in the newspaper.
You need to respond to the motion to dismiss. My advice would be to get your own civilian family law attorney regardless of wheteher your ex-wife has a lawyer or not. You do not tell me when the divorce was entered or when the motion to strike/vacate or open the judgment was filed and it may be that it is too late to challenge the judgment. This should not be all that expensive given that their are no children and no joint marital property or debts.
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