Divorce
and the spouse who is overseas
“Edictal Citation” is a procedure according to which a legal document such as a divorce summons is served by a sheriff (in some countries known as a “service processor”) in a different country.
In today’s society people move all over the world for various reasons and very often the country in which a person gets married is not necessarily the country in which they get divorced. Sometimes a newly married couple will get married in South Africa and move overseas, only to discover that their marriage relationship is not working out anymore, and one of them moves back to South Africa.
The attorney who wishes to have the divorce summons served overseas will first have to convince the court by means of an affidavit signed by his client that there is no other way to have the divorce summons served, and in that affidavit annex full details of the sheriff who he intends to use to serve the summons.
The attorney will then appear a second time in court after service of the summons to move for a final divorce order. This procedure is one of the most expensive ways to get divorced, as instead of paying R100 to R200 to the sheriff in South Africa, a party may have to pay R2000 to a sheriff in London (±£200). It is also a very lengthy procedure as it involves communicating with people in another country, as well as the posting of documents overseas.
The ideal situation would be for parties to sort out all aspects of their divorce before having to follow the procedure of “edictal citation”.
written by Peter M Baker, a Cape Town divorce lawyer.