divorce after 9 years separated, no idea where husband is.

[wanderingcloud]

My husband and I married in 2004 and separated later that year. Initially I couldn't afford to start divorce proceedings so things stayed as they were. In 2006 I filed for divorce filing everything in myself. My husband didn't respond and I couldn't afford a bailiff to serve him the papers. I basically forgot about being married. Now I have met someone and we have a baby. I want to get divorced but I no longer have a marriage certificate or any idea where my husband is. I haven't seen or heard of him in 7 years. I'm pretty broke so getting a solicitor is pretty much out of the question. Can anyone advise is there a simple way to divorce now that we have been separated for so long? Can I do this without my husband as I don't know where he is? TIA if you can help.

you definitely need a marriage certificate, so you will need to get a copy.

but what happened to your previous petition? If it wasn't dismissed, it is still valid and you might be able to use that one rather than pay a whole new fee. The court office might be able to advise you about that.

To divorce a missing spouse, you have to show the efforts you've made to trace him - ie contact all family and friends, former employers, Facebook, Friends Reunited, letter to his last known address in case he has a post forwarding arrangement in place, anything else you can think of. Then you can ask the court to dispense with service.

You could also contact the DWP - they used to agree to forward a divorce petition to the current address if they can trace an adult through their National Insurance number, or failing that full details of name and date of birth.