Divorce With Missing Spouse

• Petitioner: Mr. Yi
• Applying for: Divorce
• Length of separation: 12 years
• Length of marriage: 15 years
• Challenges:
  • Missing Spouse
  • Mr. Yi and his wife had already been separated for 13 years
  • Mr. Yi failed twice to file for divorce

BACKGROUND

Mr. Yi came to Tsang and Associates in hopes that we could help him obtain a divorce from his wife even though he had already tried two times and was rejected both times. Mr. Yi and his wife had been separated for 13 years but not legally divorced. Without a legal separation, complications could arise, as they would still be legally and financially inexplicably intertwined. Moreover in cases of death or any other unforeseen tragedies, difficult developments may come about in regards to expenses or inheritance. As such, Mr. Yi after trying extremely hard to gain approval for divorce, reached out to Tsang and Associates where we assisted him in the entire divorce process. We helped Mr. Yi file his petition for divorce on April 7, 2015 and the divorce was approved on February 11, 2016.

KEYS TO SUCCESS

When Mr. Yi came to us, we believed that we could help despite him failing twice on his own to have a divorce. Making matters much more complicated however, was the fact that Mr. Yi’s wife could not be found. Mr. Yi and his wife were married in 2000, but separated in 2003. Ever since, they were considered married but separated; however with Mr. Yi wanting a legal dissolution of marriage, he could not find his wife. This created challenges as according to law, the divorce papers must be served to the spouse in order to file for a divorce. Mr. Yi was extremely distressed with the situation, as he had tried for years and years to find his wife to serve her the papers but to no avail.

In order to tackle this challenge, we decided to apply for a Motion to Serve by Publication. We were confident in our ability to have this approved, as we had done many motions to serve by publication in the past and have been continuously successful. We helped Mr. Yi form a personal statement which described the extent during these 12 years of separation to which Mr. Yi tried to locate his wife. These attempts included through various websites, through family members and friends, the United States Postal Service, and previous addresses, among others. However nothing resulted in any progress. Moreover, his wife did not have a cellphone or a job, shutting down those methods to find her. Thus, we helped Mr. Yi, whose English is very limited, to explain his attempts to find his wife to serve her the divorce papers. The judge granted the motion and we were able to serve the wife through a publication.

Once the papers were served by publication, the divorce process could continue to move forward towards legal dissolution.

OUTCOME

Mr. Yi’s divorce was approved on February 11, 2016. Our client was extremely grateful as he would no longer be tied down to his wife, affording him a degree of freedom he never had in 12 years. Nevermore would Mr. Yi have to be bogged down by this legal issue.