I Want To Divorce My Husband

by Clara from Nashville, Tennessee

I Want To Divorce My Husband:

I've been separated from my husband for the past 5 years and I don't know where he is at.

I now live in Tennessee for the past year and desperately want to get divorced.

We have no kids and no property together.

What do I need to do and what is the cheapest way to do it fast and easy.

Answer to Florida Divorce Question

Dear Clara,

The good news for you is that you can most likely divorce your husband fairly fast and easily!

Under the Tennessee Code, you can divorce your husband based on irreconcilable differences or under a two year separation, without cohabitation, when no children are involved.

Yes, since your state of residence is Tennessee, you will need to follow Tennessee filing guidelines.

For legal resources in Tennessee, you can visit the Tennessee Bar Association's website or have a look at this Divorce in Tennessee website.

Since you do not know where he is, you will be asking for a divorce by default. A default divorce is one in which the other spouse does not sign the divorce forms. Whether you are in Florida or Tennessee the process is almost identical. You begin by filing for divorce as you normally would.

But, instead of serving your husband or having a process server effectively serve him the divorce papers, you will need to notify you spouse by placing an ad in a local publication or other periodical that satisfies the court.

This is called service by publication, also commonly called "constructive service". As part of this process, you will have to submit a sworn statement that you diligently searched to discover the name and residence of your missing spouse.

At which point, at least in Florida, you would run the ad for four weeks in the county where the divorce is being filed. In Tennessee, the time to run the ad may be different, but the process and idea is still the same.

If your husband does not respond to the ad, you will have to fill out an affidavit proving that you attempted service by publication.

The Clerk of Court should be able to help you with this.

You can then file a Motion for Default and a Default Order.

As long as all of the requirements are met, you may receive a default judgment and you will get to keep whatever is requested in the divorce petition.

Why not have all of your divorce documents professionally prepared with our Petition Preparer service. Florida Divorce Documents packages start at just $95.00 complete. Just ask us for a free quote.

Notice: We provide these answers to the general public and our website visitors as a means to further their online legal research. These answers are merely suggestions and should not be regarded as legal advice.

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Florida Court Forms Divorce Forms Packet

Fully Interactive & Complete Forms Packet for Divorce with No Children or Property. All forms are interactive and properly formatted in PDF and includes resources and filing procedures with easy to follow checklists, and much more.
Divorce No Children

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Comments for
I Want To Divorce My Husband

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As The Respondent, How Do I Move The Case Forward?
by: Anonymous

My controlling ex filed for divorce after we separated only because he knew I was going out of state to visit family (he added the non-removal of children part). It's been sitting there for a year and 3 months exactly. I responded and everything. How do I move it along?

I was told that the Petitioner had to. I'm starting to think that he did this so I could never get rid of him. The petition for non-removal of children was denied shortly after, does this mean I can leave the state now? He hasn't paid child support or tried to cotact us, and I have no idea where he is. I want this over.

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If you've filed all the paperwork for yourself, I don't see why you, as the respondent, can't ask for a trial. You can call the case manager and the judge's assistant in your case and ask that a final hearing date be set. Once you get a final divorce hearing date, you will need to use the Notice For Trial Form 12.924.

If there are still issues to resolve, you can ask for a hearing instead using a Motion for Hearing. See the following page for more information on Setting a Hearing. --Staff

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