winterpast Posted December 4, 2014 Posted December 4, 2014 When a spouse is served divorce papers through their lawyer who accepts service, are the papers delivered to them sealed? I will ask my lawyer personally tomorrow but wanted to see if I could get an answer tonight. My STBX had his parents pick up his papers while he was at work today. He father got hostile towards me without warning and the only reason I can think of is because of what was in the papers. When my STBX got the papers a couple of hours ago he said they were not sealed. So now I'm trying to determine if his family opened it. Any thoughts?
d0nnivain Posted December 4, 2014 Posted December 4, 2014 Court papers are rarely served sealed. They are usually handed out as is, no envelope. Remember these are public records. You can actually have thought that your STBX's family was going to be on your side through this.
Author winterpast Posted December 4, 2014 Author Posted December 4, 2014 I'm not expecting them to be on my side but this is what THEIR son wanted all along. And he has told them so. But the main issue is if they want to be around my son then they need to be civil.
EverySunset Posted December 4, 2014 Posted December 4, 2014 When people are hurt, disappointed or sad they can lash out. At anyone connected to it, and sometimes someone close by while they are feeling it. Sometimes it's even just the cat. It wasn't sealed. His son is "losing" his family. He's hurt. It doesn't give him the right to be violent or threatening though, so make sure you makes safety boundaries clear. Unfortunately, if it's not as bad as all that, there's no law against being a jerk. Or my ex would be in jail right now
carhill Posted December 4, 2014 Posted December 4, 2014 In my jurisdiction, process servers hand the documents to the recipient after determining the identity of the recipient and file a document to that effect with the court. In my case, the divorce filing came in a plain manila envelope which was not sealed in any way. The sheriff simply identified me from my driver's license picture he had on his tablet, handed me the docs, checked off his clipboard as served and we had a few pleasantries and he moved on to the next service. Divorce is a public lawsuit, hence public record. People surrounding the lawsuit are bound to have their own perspectives. That's human. It'll get better in time.
oldshirt Posted December 4, 2014 Posted December 4, 2014 But the main issue is if they want to be around my son then they need to be civil. Discuss this with your attorney as well. In many jurisdictions grandparents have visitation rights and they cannot be denied access just because the son/daughter in law is mad at them. 1
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