The email I got today from a fellow reads; “Good day Barr. Stanley Alieke, My name is Mr********. I read your articles on divorce on Tekedia.com and I want to ask you some questions relating to that.
Please, I want you to advise me and enlighten me on my case. I got married to my estranged wife in Dec 2016, we had some issues in 2020-2021, we got separated and lived separately for those years till around last year when a friend of mine chatted her up and during the chitchat, she told my friend that she has divorced me a long time ago. I had to call her for proof, and to my surprise she sent me a divorce certificate granted to her by a court in 2021.
Please I want to know how authentic the certificate is because I did not get any notification about the divorce proceedings or served with any process by her or by the court it was conducted and all this while the impression I had is that we are just separated and not legally divorced yet”.
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Here is my response to this:
Divorce proceedings can be conducted in the absence of one partner. The partner seeking the divorce just needs to show that she or he has tried to reach out and inform the other partner of the ongoing process or inform the court that the other party is aware or has been properly notified of the ongoing divorce but he or she does not want to participate in the process.
Take note that a partner’s unwillingness to participate in the divorce process cannot force the other party to remain in the marriage; the party seeking divorce only need to show the court that the marriage has broken down irredeemable; whether the other party like it or not, a party that his or her mind is made up concerning the winding up of the marriage and has shown cause that the marriage can no longer work can go ahead with the divorce proceedings in the absence of the other partner especially when there is no jointly owned property to be shared or children involved or custody of the children involved and there is no contestable fact in issue.
The certificate that the ex-wife has shown to this fellow could be authentic. Maybe the court tried to inform him about the divorce proceedings and served him with the notice of the dissolution of marriage and requested him to appear when the case was going on but he was incommunicado.
If this fellow is in doubt of the authenticity of the divorce certificate or having second thoughts of the possibility that the certificate was forged, he can go to the court and verify the document or request for the certified true copy (CTC) of the certificate from the court registry.
If he confirms that the certificate is genuine and he is certain that he was never informed about the divorce process when it was ongoing (which I highly doubt), he can go on appeal and contest the decision of the court on the ground that he was never notified or served any motion regarding the divorce proceedings.
