You want to get divorced, but your spouse does not. You try to file, and they just ignore the paperwork. They won’t talk about it. They won’t respond. They act as if they can ignore the divorce indefinitely and prolong the marriage. What now?
Don’t worry that they can prevent a divorce with these tactics. They may make things a bit more complicated than they need to be, but that does not mean that you can’t end the marriage. You definitely can.
One tactic is to use an ex parte divorce. You do have to notify your spouse of your intentions, but you can move forward with the divorce alone. When granted, this is still a legal divorce. It does not take two people to end a marriage, but only one.
In many cases, you can also get a default divorce. The court will simply note that your spouse didn’t respond and grant you the divorce anyway.
In some senses, this could even be a less complicated divorce case. If your spouse did respond, they could argue with you over the terms or fight for things — time with the kids, asset division, etc. — that they wanted. If they ignore you and you get a default divorce, they just give up their chance to do so. You may wind up quickly getting divorce terms that you like since you are the only one actually taking part in this process.
You may feel frustrated with your spouse at a time like this, but rest assured that you can get through it if you know what legal options you have.