My wife left me and my son. I have verbal contact with me but she wants to drag this out so she won't tell me where she is I have an ex parte order by the judge to have full twmp custody. I would like to get this doen asap so I really need to get the papers served. Please help. I am in CA I think she might be in Illinois but not sure.:mad:

Your lawyer will know how to handle the divorce when contact is not possible. It varies from court to court so a local lawyer is best qualified.

But its possible and happens all the time. She cannot hide from the inevitable.

My wife left me and my son. I have verbal contact with me but she wants to drag this out so she wont tell me where she is I have an ex parte order by the judge to have full twmp custody. I would like to get this doen asap so i really need to get the papers served. Please help. I am in CA I think she might be in Illinois but not sure.:mad:


Your Attorney will hire an investigator. If all else fails she can be served by publication following a Court order.

As Judy said, you need to hire a private investigator to try to locate your wife. Most of these guys are retired police officers with friends on the force who can do a good thorough search for you and try to locate her. If your investigator fails, he will simply write up a declaration showing what efforts he made to find your wife that you can submit to the court with an ex parte application for order for publication of summons. When you get your order you can publish the summons in a local newspaper (in Illinois, probably in the county where she was last known to reside). Publication can be really expensive, sorry to say. Your investigator might charge $400 or so (say $50/hr and he might need 8 hours to do his search). But a client of mine paid $1,600 just to publish the summons in an El Paso paper a few years ago. It can be pretty pricey. After service is complete, you'll have to wait 30 days and then can proceed by default.

Also if you have "verbal" contact a court order can trace the phone records

As Judy said, you need to hire a private investigator to try to locate your wife. Most of these guys are retired police officers with friends on the force who can do a good thorough search for you and try to locate her. If your investigator fails, he will simply write up a declaration showing what efforts he made to find your wife that you can submit to the court with an ex parte application for order for publication of summons. When you get your order you can publish the summons in a local newspaper (in Illinois, probably in the county where she was last known to reside). Publication can be really expensive, sorry to say. Your investigator might charge $400 or so (say $50/hr and he might need 8 hours to do his search). But a client of mine paid $1,600 just to publish the summons in an El Paso paper a few years ago. It can be pretty pricey. After service is complete, you'll have to wait 30 days and then can proceed by default.


In NY you can get the info with a Private Investigator's License, no need to use sources.