A default divorce judgment can be used when only one party is cooperating with the divorce process. They may file paperwork with the court asking for a specific child custody schedule, for example, or a certain division of assets. Under a default judgment, the court may then approve the terms they have asked for because their spouse is non-cooperative.
Often, this means that the spouse has not responded to the divorce petition at all. They have missed the deadlines and have not communicated with the court directly or contested any of the terms that were proposed. In other cases, it can happen if the court has set up a hearing and that spouse misses the hearing.
Why would this happen?
This can happen for a wide variety of reasons. In some cases, a person simply cannot locate their spouse and has trouble serving them with the divorce petition in the first place. This may be an issue in a case of abandonment. If that spouse cannot be located, the other person can use a default divorce judgment to get out of their marriage, rather than being trapped in the legal relationship until their spouse can be found.
In other cases, people will intentionally skip hearings or fail to respond to the divorce petition. It could simply be that they do not want to get divorced. They believe that not cooperating will stop the divorce from taking place. The reality is that their spouse can still get a default judgment, even without their participation.
This helps to show some of the complexities you may face when filing for divorce. If you find yourself in this position, it is important to know exactly what legal options you have.
