Three Common Divorce ‘Delay’ Tactics (And How to Overcome Them)
You do not need your spouse’s permission to get a divorce. As explained by the Florida Bar Association, you have the right to file for divorce on the grounds that your marriage is irretrievably broken. While your partner cannot stop the divorce, they may be able to slow down progress and delay the process. This is obviously deeply frustrating. Here, our Clearwater divorce lawyer highlights three of the most common stalling tactics and we explain some of the steps you can take to overcome them.
Three Tactics to Slow Down the Divorce Process and What to Do
- Total Refusal to Negotiate or Cooperate
One of the most common divorce stalling tactics is also one of the most simple: A blatant refusal to cooperate with the process. Your former partner may decide not to communicate with you at all. Or, alternatively, they may make outrageous demands—to the point that talking just makes things worse.
Solution: You can file divorce papers without cooperation. That being said, it is usually a best practice to try to make a good faith effort to get them to the negotiating table. If that does not work, you always retain the option to petition for divorce on your own.
- Dodging Service of Process
If you file for divorce in Florida, you are required to ‘serve’ the petition on your spouse or provide documentation proving that your spouse is waiving their right to service of process. A non cooperative person may try to delay the divorce by dodging the papers. As frustrating as this can be, please know your former partner cannot prevent the divorce from moving forward by avoiding the divorce papers.
Solution: You have a duty to attempt to serve divorce papers on your spouse—if they make it all-but impossible, there may be alternative options available. If you prove to the court that you made a proactive, good faith attempt to serve papers, the notification requirement may be satisfied by publishing notice in a Florida newspaper in certain cases.
- Filing Frivolous Motions or Legal Requests
Although most people who try to delay divorce do so by hiding or refusing to cooperate, there are also some who try to bog down the process by filing a whole bunch of frivolous motions or legal requests. They may try to bury you with paperwork as a form of retribution or in an attempt to gain some form of legal advantage.
Solution: If you believe that your spouse is filing legal motions as a tactic to delay the process, you should call an experienced divorce attorney right away. There is always a way to respond to this strategy—the best approach will depend on the specific circumstances of your case.
Contact Our Florida Divorce Lawyer for Immediate Assistance
At the Law Office of Gale H. Moore P.A., our Largo divorce attorney is proud to provide solutions-focused advocacy to clients. If you have questions about overcoming your partner’s delay tactics, we can help. To request a confidential initial case evaluation, please contact our family law team today. With an office in Largo, we serve communities throughout the region.
Resource:
floridabar.org/public/consumer/pamphlet010/
