Serving the Divorce Papers: Your spouse must be notified that a divorce action has been started. This may done through one of three ways:

- Service by the Sheriff

- Personal Delivery by hand or through the mail. Make sure you include 2 copies of the "Acknowledgment of Receipt of Summons and Complaint" for your spouse to sign and return within 20 days.

- Service by Certified Mail. If your spouse is unable to be served using the two methods above, you can send the Complaint and Summons through certified mail. Be sure to request for "Restricted Delivery" to make sure it's only delivered to your spouse and "Return Receipt" to make sure you have proof that everything was delivered.

※ File Your Forms with the Court:

In addition to the initial forms, you will also need to include a Family Matter Summary Sheet and proof of service on your spouse. You will need to pay the filing fee at this time to file the papers with the court.

※ Scheduling Order:

Once your spouse responds to the initial Complaint, the court will send you a Scheduling order which gives deadlines for how your case will proceed. This may include dates for mediation and case management conferences, as well as deadlines for filing any requested documents.

- If your spouse doesn't respond to the divorce complaint, your case will be scheduled for an uncontested hearing, which will occur at least 60 days after the divorce complaint was served.

- If the two of you mutually agree on everything in the divorce complaint, you can request to be scheduled for an uncontested hearing.

※ Mediation in contested divorces: 

You and your spouse will need to go to mediation if you both can't mutually agree to everything in the divorce complaint. If the first mediation session doesn't resolve all the issues, you can agree to another session or go to a court hearing.

※ Pre-trial Conference: 

If mediation fails to resolve your issues, the court will schedule a pretrial conference to establish how long it will take to hear your case.

※ Court Hearing: 

If you and your spouse cannot reach an agreement through mediation and personal conferences, your case will go to trial and be heard by a judge, who will then decide the terms of your divorce.