4 Things You Need To Do To Locate A Missing Spouse Before You Divorce

If your spouse is missing, you might be wondering if you can get a divorce. In order to get a divorce from a missing spouse, you will have to go before a judge and let them know that you have done everything you could to locate your spouse. Here are some things that you must do to be able to tell your judge that you are ready for a divorce.

1. Talk To Family and Friends

Even if you have an estranged relationship with your in-laws or your spouse's friends, you have to go through every channel to locate them. You should be contacting these people to see if they have any information about where they could be. You can even tell them you need to see them for legal reasons. Many times the family and friends of the person know at least the last location and can get you closer to finding them.

2. Talk To Employers

Employers and past employers generally keep good information about their employees and their whereabouts. This is because in order to pay the person they have to have valid information for tax reasons of where they will send the checks and so forth. For this reason, their current employer or past employer will have some sort of address on file that will allow you to at least get closer to finding them.

3. Check Social Media

Social media has completely changed the way that people find each other. It is much harder for people to fall completely off the grid. This is why you go through friends of your spouse on social media and see if your spouse has been active on any of those channels. Even though you may not be able to locate them, you could at least message them through social media and let them know that you are filing for a divorce and if they want to dispute it they need to come back.

4. Check Government Offices

Lastly, government offices have the ability to locate people as well. They have information from employers, mail services, and so forth so that they may be better at finding a missing person. Additionally, you should always publish it in the newspaper so that your spouse has one last chance to see that you are trying to locate them.

If after doing all of these things you still don't locate your spouse, you should be able to file for an undisputed divorce. Contact a law firm like McKone & Unruh to learn more about the legalities surrounding potential divorce proceedings.