Service by Email in an Arizona Divorce | Hildebrand Law, PC

Tue 20th Mar, 2018 Arizona Child Support Laws

The Short Answer

What happens when you cannot get divorce papers served on your spouse. The short answer is the court can issue an order allowing you to serve your spouse in any way calculated to ensure he or she is aware of the family law case.

As you will see below, a judge may give the authority to allow you to serve your spouse by, you guessed it, emailing the documents to your spouse. Read below about the Arizona Court of Appeals’ logic in the memorandum decision in the Greenham v. Hope case.

The Long Answer

Getting your spouse served with divorce papers can be difficult if that spouse’s whereabouts are unknown or they are dogging being served. The question is whether an Arizona divorce court may allow service of divorce papers by email.

The Arizona Court of Appeals in a memorandum decision in the case of Greenham vs. Hope had to address, among other things, whether a motion or petition served on the other parent by email provided the court with personal jurisdiction over a party who subsequently participated in the proceedings. The following is the Arizona Court of Appeals ruling on that issue.

Father, who had custody of the parties children, filed a petition to modify child support.

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The court allowed Father to serve his petition to modify on Mother by emails sent to her email address and the email address of her new husband. The court then set an evidentiary hearing, which it later continued, over Mother’s objection, to November 5, 2012.

Mother moved for leave to appear at the hearing by telephone, acknowledging in her motion that the court would consider the parties’ child support obligations at that hearing. The record does not disclose whether the court ruled on Mother’s motion, but she failed to attend the hearing, without explanation.

After the hearing, the court adopted Father’s child support proposal, which eliminated Father’s responsibility to pay child support, required Mother to pay Father-child support of $124.43 per month beginning May 1, 2012, and required Mother to pay back child support of $204.00 per month for the months between November 2011 and April 2012.

Mother challenged the court’s entry of a child support order requiring her to pay child support after she failed to attend the scheduled child support hearing.

The court found Mother had notice and an opportunity to be heard on the matter of child support modification, and accordingly adopted the child support arrangements Father had presented in 2012 when Other failed to appear at that hearing.

On January 25, 2017, Mother moved the superior court to vacate a ruling issue on June 9, 2015, arguing the superior court lacked subject matter jurisdiction to modify child support because Father had not properly served her with his April 19, 2012 petition to modify child support.

The superior court denied the motion, and Mother timely appealed.

The Court of Appeals stated that Mother argued the superior court did not have jurisdiction to modify the child support order. Specifically, Mother claims Father failed to properly serve her with his April 19, 2012 petition to modify child support, which she contends divested the superior court of jurisdiction and rendered its subsequent ruling void.

She further argues she was deprived of due process because she was not given proper notice that the court was going to consider child support modifications at the hearing on November 5, 2012.

Can an Arizona Divorce Court Allow Service by Email

Mother’s argument that she was not properly served with the child support petition amounts, at most, to a challenge to personal jurisdiction, not subject-matter jurisdiction.

But Mother waived any challenge to personal jurisdiction by repeatedly appearing in court and making court filings in the child support proceeding.

Indeed, we already have held that “Mother has waived any challenge to personal jurisdiction because she appeared in the matter and litigated it on the merits.”

If you have questions about service by email in an Arizona divorce case, you should seriously consider contacting the attorneys at Hildebrand Law, PC. Our Arizona child support and family law attorneys have decades of combined experience successfully representing clients in child support and family law cases.

Our family law firm has earned numerous awards such as US News and World Reports Best Arizona Family Law Firm, US News and World Report Best Divorce Attorneys, “Best of the Valley” by Arizona Foothills readers, and “Best Arizona Divorce Law Firms” by North Scottsdale Magazine.

Call us today at (480)305-8300 or reach out to us through our appointment scheduling form to schedule your personalized consultation and turn your Arizona child support or family law case around today.

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