Legal Question in Family Law in Washington

Re: Never got divorced

There is a concept under Washington law called a "stale marriage." Which effectively means divorce by operation of time, but how much time and what other factors are considered are largely discretionary, and it is risky to rely on "stale marriage" as the basis for dissolving your marriage. Better would be to make a diligent search (that you can document), e.g. use one of the pay search people search tools, generate a report, contact the relevant potential people, and if at that point you do locate your spouse, you can file and get them served personally. If you can't locate them, you can file your petition and file a motion to serve by publication (you can file and go down the elevator from the clerk's office to the third floor west end of the courthouse and get your motion handled immediately in ex parte). Publication then in the DJC should cost about $105.00. -Assuming the zipcode on your question is your residential zipcode. There are a lot of little details about what the court can address and how it addresses them under these circumstances and there are details about your spouse's residence that will affect what the court can make disposition on.

Re: Never got divorced

You must explain to the Court that you really cannot find your spouse. I would make another attempt to find out where she resides. I would determine her last known residence from some sort of nation-wide person search organization. Then you can get the petition of dissolution papers served upon her last know address.

If that attempt fails, follow the law:

RCW 26.09.030 which would allow dissolution of marriage if the other party does not deny that the marriage is irretrievably broken. If she does not respond, then the Court will determine the marriage is broken.