The New Jersey family court will make a final judgment on your divorce case that will seriously affect your life from this point on. This is because you will have to live indefinitely with their set provisions on alimony, child custody, child support, and property division. So you will want to do everything possible to defend yourself throughout your case proceedings. This all starts with receiving and responding to your served divorce papers properly. That is, the last thing you will want is for a default judgment to be made and to fight to vacate it after the fact. Read on to discover whether you can petition the court to vacate a default judgment in your divorce case and how a seasoned Morris County divorce lawyer at Graves Andrews, LLC can help you successfully execute this.
Why did the court make a default judgment on my divorce case?
Well, once your spouse served you divorce papers, you had 35 days to respond to the court. Your response may have contested what your spouse wrote in the Divorce Complaint, set a counterclaim against your spouse, or requested to be heard by the court on your divorce-related issues. Whatever it may be, this response must have been submitted within this deadline. Otherwise, the court may have no choice but to make a default judgment on your divorce case. This means that the court may rule in favor of your spouse’s preferred divorce-related terms written within the Divorce Complaint by default.
Can I petition the court to vacate a default judgment for my divorce case?
There may be an understandable, valid reason you did not respond to the court regarding your divorce papers on time. If so, you may file a motion to vacate a default judgment. With this, you must back up your word that your failure to respond was due to excusable neglect and that you have a meritorious defense. That is, you must be able to prove one of the following circumstances as true:
- You may be able to prove that your spouse ordered your divorce papers to be served at a residential address where you no longer live.
- You may be able to prove that your spouse did not undergo the unique steps to serve you with divorce papers while you were incarcerated.
- You may be able to prove that your spouse timed to serve you with divorce papers when you were traveling for work for an extended period.
At any rate, you must file this motion within one year of the default judgment. And if the court grants this motion, your divorce case may essentially start over from the beginning. So whenever you are ready, please get a hold of a competent Morristown family law attorney. Someone at Graves Andrews, LLC will be patiently awaiting your phone call.