What do you do if a parent is avoiding being served papers for custody.

[jstpmm]

They won't answer the door or their phone. I wanted to know how long do you have to try and if there was anything to do to move the case forward without having the parent served.

[luv-my-boys]

I think that it depends on your laws locally. i had a friend who's ex dodged being served but she was able to show good faith effort and was able to get a hearing anyways as it was obvious he was intentionally avoiding. So definatley look into it.

[zebra15]

I ended up doing 'alternative' service which just meant they mailed it to him or left it on his door - I dont remember which it was.

If your STBX has a job they can try to serve him there. Its harder to avoid service at work, ya know?

[SilverLace]

In my case my attorney told me I could get someone I know to serve him (unexpectedly). Which I did... he came to pick up DD and I had a relative serve him.

I could have also hired someone to get it down (like sit outside his house until he leaves for work).

My exBF was incredibly angry (the papers were mostly about child support since he refused to pay any for years) and I think it fed into how he fought back at me and DD.

Good luck.... I remember hating it when I was in that place.

[TnMsMama]

My ex was avoiding service for child support (different animal) and had warrants for traffic stuff and criminal non-support so finally I called him, talked calmly to him aobut our son (general "he's so cute" talk) and then called the service people and told them that he definitely was home, and they knocked down his door, arrested him on the warrants and kind of "oh, btw, you're served".

(I'm a terrible person but it was AWESOME)