If your ex-partner asks the Family Court for a divorce without you, you’ll be given the court documents in person.
You can decide to let the divorce go through, or you can ask the court not to grant the divorce.
You have a set time to ask the Family Court not to grant the divorce. This is called defending the application.
The set time is usually:
You may want to get legal advice to help you. You may be able to get:
If you don’t respond once you’ve been served, the court can make a Dissolution Order and approve the divorce without hearing what you think.
The court will send you copies of the Dissolution Order.
You can ask the court not to approve the divorce.
Note: When you print the forms it's important to print them single sided.
You or your lawyer will need to make sure your ex-partner gets a copy of your documents by sending the documents to your ex-partner or their lawyer. The address you need to send them to will be on the information sheet you received when you were served.
Find out more about serving documents
If you ask the court not to make the Dissolution Order, then there will be a defended hearing before a Family Court judge. The judge will hear from both of you and decide if there are grounds to make the Dissolution Order.
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