September 5, 2024 • 9 mins
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to the Robin and Kid podcast. All right,
The Kiss ninety seventy three is Learah, Hey.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Amy, hi Robin, are you going good?
Speaker 3 (00:16):
We've been told that this is quite the story.
Speaker 4 (00:20):
Okay, why do you what question do you want to
ask a lawyer?
Speaker 2 (00:25):
How did my partner get dwarfed? If he can't find
his wife?
Speaker 1 (00:30):
How long have they been separed for?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
She left about twelve years ago and left him with
a five and a six year old and my last
he heard from child support was actually left the country. Wow.
So yeah, just moving forward with him and we're very
in love and we want to buy a property. And
my concern is if she was to turn up, does
she have any claim on anything? How do we go
(00:55):
about him getting dwarfed? Mister can't find the wife?
Speaker 4 (00:58):
So she had nothing to do with her children from
the moment she left.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
No, so she was paying child support?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
No, he just I went for child support. They just
came back and said that she had left the country
and there wasn't anything that they could do.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Was she from another country.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Nor country Victoria?
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Originally, why did she leave?
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Had they had a separation back in the day, And
I feel like she may have really struggled with the
parenting side of things, and so she had asked him
to look after the kids full time, and that was
the last anyone had heard from her. So his poor
children really really struggle with not knowing where mum is
and everything as well.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
What about her family?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Nobody's had contact with her at all in twelve years.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
So does he have contact with her family?
Speaker 2 (01:52):
He does message her brother occasionally and no one no
one's heard anything and they all know to come tacked
in if she does pop up one day, but that's
never happened.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
So no grandparents supporting the kids or being a part
of their lives.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
No, no, there are the grandmother is in country Victoria.
There's just been no contact with any friends or family
whatsoever in twelve years.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
So how do you divorce someone if you don't know
where they are or even if they're alive, you don't know.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Yeah, that's right, that's another thing. So we don't even
know if she's alive.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Does he want any contact with her because of the kids.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
No, that's done now. I think I think that sort
of time has definitely passed. But the seventeen year old
girl at the moment, she struggles day to day with
white in mum leave and what did I do? And
you know where is she? And happy to leave your children?
She struggles daily.
Speaker 4 (02:48):
With that, so finding their mum? Would would you want contact?
Speaker 5 (02:55):
Then?
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Would she want contact?
Speaker 2 (02:57):
I feel that everybody thinks that yes, but you don't.
We don't also know what the answer could entail, and
it might be more hurtful when they're not knowing.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Yeah, have you tried to find her?
Speaker 4 (03:07):
If you tried to use like a private investigator or
anything like that, it.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Just wasn't financially able to do that.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Okay, you know we do have access to a private investigator.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yes, I know.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
If we were to employee p I Dave to try
and locate her.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
And this is completely separate from the lawyer, and we
will get to that, I promise. Okay, would you want
to know?
Speaker 2 (03:31):
I would? I would for the seventeen year old girl.
I would have to run that past her though, and
make sure she had informed making an informed decision, But
that would definitely be something that I think she would
want to go ahead with. As far as my partner,
we're just so in love and everything, so she doesn't
(03:53):
really matter in our lives anymore. Apart from the fact
that we want to move on and maybe one day
we might want to get married as well.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
Yeah, so let's put p I David that to one
side and by all may maybe ask the seventeen year
old and let's have that conversation in a week or two.
But right now, your question about how do you get
a divorce if the other person is nowhere to be found?
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Is it really good one?
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Yes, So one of the best from RMO Law, Brett Trafford,
is going to come in and let us know what
you can do. So we'll do that next. So, Amy,
we have Brett Trafford from RMO Law in the studio
with us now to listen to your question. So just briefly,
if you could tell Brett your story again.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Yeah. So, I've got a partner that I've been with
for two years and he's still currently married. The question
is how does he get divorced if you can't find
your wife she disappeared twelve years ago.
Speaker 5 (04:45):
Well, ordinarily, when anybody wants to get divorced, they can
file an application at court, a divorce application. The court
will then set it down for a date that's typically
six or eight weeks into the future and then you
have to serve that application on the person you want
to get divorced from, because the court wants to know that.
Whether they respond to it or not, or whether they
even whether they rip it up or refuse to read it,
(05:08):
doesn't matter. What's important is that you can prove that
they are aware of it, that they've been served with
the application. Of course, if you can't find somebody, you've
no idea where they are, then what you need to
do is two options you've got basically. Number one is
that you can affect what's called substituted service. So you
can say, for instance, look, we don't know where this
(05:29):
person is, but maybe we know that they have contact
with their mother from time to time, and so you
can serve a family member or somebody like that.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
That's not possible on that side of things.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
But yeah.
Speaker 5 (05:42):
The other option is you can ask for service to
be dispensed with. We say that, look, for obviously, we
can't find this person, so we can't serve them. But
then what the court we'll want to know is that
you've made all reasonable efforts to try and serve them.
Now that sounds like a simple sort of a thing,
but I do know I was involved in a very
(06:02):
similar matter like this a few years ago, and in
that case, the court asked us to file an affidavit,
which is a statement setting out all the efforts that
we've made to try and locate this person. Now, I
did a little bit of research on this recently, and
there is no actual list of everything that you have
(06:23):
to do. The law, the rules of court state that
you've got to make all reasonable efforts, but it seems
to me that a lot of court officers might have
a different interpretation is what that means in this particular case. Obviously,
what you would probably need to do is state that
we've contacted their last known address, we've contacted their last
known place of work. It sounds like overkell, and maybe
(06:46):
maybe it is. But you could also contact the Department
of Corrections in every state in Australia, just in case
they're in jail somewhere. You could also contact, to be
honest with you, I'm not exactly sure who you'd contact
to see if there is a death reported.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
In any deaths and marriages marriages, yes.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah, yes, yeah, see Brett. She we had our information
that she left the country round about sort of ten
years ago, right, maybe in contacting Centerlink again, possibly they
would know if she's entered the country. Again, I suppose.
Speaker 5 (07:26):
Social media is a good one, yep, But of course
it can be difficult to try and serve somebody with
a document, even if you find a social a social
media address, a page or something like that.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
You've tried that, Amy, there's no Facebook or Instagram or anything.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
No, no, and we don't know if she's using a
different name now either. So yes, it.
Speaker 5 (07:45):
Can be intricate. There'll be lots of little parts. So
the more parts you can do yourself, Amy, the less
fees you will have to pay. So if you can
again get evidence by emails and good, then you can
prove that. Look, here's an email are sent on this date.
Here's the apply I got to prepare an Affidavit shouldn't
take more than two or three or four hours. So
it might cost you two to three thousand dollars maybe
(08:07):
a little bit more. Okay, Again, it's hard to know
exactly what sort of hurdles you'll come up against.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Yeah, now do you take the free PI mate?
Speaker 6 (08:17):
I'm thinking that I would like to say yes straight away,
but I do have a seventeen year old feelings as
well to consider, although I have a feeling that she's
going to jump all over it, but I just want
to make an informed decision because we don't know what
the outcome is going to be and how yeah, and
what the answer is going to be of y and
all that as well.
Speaker 5 (08:34):
Yeah, a free PI would be great because a good
PI would probably do all of those things on your behalf.
That's going to save you a lot of a lot
of legwork. And if you explain to the PI, listen,
we're going to have to convince the court that we've
done everything reasonable to try and find this person. The
PI would go okay, and they would probably produce the
affidavit for you, and that's probably the best way to
(08:55):
go about it.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
The trail PI, David is the best.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Yes, yeah, I've been listening to the all p I Dave.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Well, yes, we'll check it with with the kids, Amy
and and hopefully that's that's enough to get your started day.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Yeah, that's fantastic. Thanks so much Bretton, Robin and Kip
for the advice and h yeah, I'll send an email
through it with the decision about the.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
P A okay sounds good.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Thank you so amazing. Thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Cheers bye.
Speaker 5 (09:24):
You're listening to the Robin and Kid podcast.
You're listening to the Robin and Kid podcast. All right,
The Kiss ninety seventy three is Learah, Hey.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Amy, hi Robin, are you going good?
Speaker 3 (00:16):
We've been told that this is quite the story.
Speaker 4 (00:20):
Okay, why do you what question do you want to
ask a lawyer?
Speaker 2 (00:25):
How did my partner get dwarfed? If he can't find
his wife?
Speaker 1 (00:30):
How long have they been separed for?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
She left about twelve years ago and left him with
a five and a six year old and my last
he heard from child support was actually left the country. Wow.
So yeah, just moving forward with him and we're very
in love and we want to buy a property. And
my concern is if she was to turn up, does
she have any claim on anything? How do we go
(00:55):
about him getting dwarfed? Mister can't find the wife?
Speaker 4 (00:58):
So she had nothing to do with her children from
the moment she left.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
No, so she was paying child support?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
No, he just I went for child support. They just
came back and said that she had left the country
and there wasn't anything that they could do.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Was she from another country.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Nor country Victoria?
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Originally, why did she leave?
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Had they had a separation back in the day, And
I feel like she may have really struggled with the
parenting side of things, and so she had asked him
to look after the kids full time, and that was
the last anyone had heard from her. So his poor
children really really struggle with not knowing where mum is
and everything as well.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
What about her family?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Nobody's had contact with her at all in twelve years.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
So does he have contact with her family?
Speaker 2 (01:52):
He does message her brother occasionally and no one no
one's heard anything and they all know to come tacked
in if she does pop up one day, but that's
never happened.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
So no grandparents supporting the kids or being a part
of their lives.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
No, no, there are the grandmother is in country Victoria.
There's just been no contact with any friends or family
whatsoever in twelve years.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
So how do you divorce someone if you don't know
where they are or even if they're alive, you don't know.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Yeah, that's right, that's another thing. So we don't even
know if she's alive.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Does he want any contact with her because of the kids.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
No, that's done now. I think I think that sort
of time has definitely passed. But the seventeen year old
girl at the moment, she struggles day to day with
white in mum leave and what did I do? And
you know where is she? And happy to leave your children?
She struggles daily.
Speaker 4 (02:48):
With that, so finding their mum? Would would you want contact?
Speaker 5 (02:55):
Then?
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Would she want contact?
Speaker 2 (02:57):
I feel that everybody thinks that yes, but you don't.
We don't also know what the answer could entail, and
it might be more hurtful when they're not knowing.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Yeah, have you tried to find her?
Speaker 4 (03:07):
If you tried to use like a private investigator or
anything like that, it.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Just wasn't financially able to do that.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Okay, you know we do have access to a private investigator.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yes, I know.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
If we were to employee p I Dave to try
and locate her.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
And this is completely separate from the lawyer, and we
will get to that, I promise. Okay, would you want
to know?
Speaker 2 (03:31):
I would? I would for the seventeen year old girl.
I would have to run that past her though, and
make sure she had informed making an informed decision, But
that would definitely be something that I think she would
want to go ahead with. As far as my partner,
we're just so in love and everything, so she doesn't
(03:53):
really matter in our lives anymore. Apart from the fact
that we want to move on and maybe one day
we might want to get married as well.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
Yeah, so let's put p I David that to one
side and by all may maybe ask the seventeen year
old and let's have that conversation in a week or two.
But right now, your question about how do you get
a divorce if the other person is nowhere to be found?
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Is it really good one?
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Yes, So one of the best from RMO Law, Brett Trafford,
is going to come in and let us know what
you can do. So we'll do that next. So, Amy,
we have Brett Trafford from RMO Law in the studio
with us now to listen to your question. So just briefly,
if you could tell Brett your story again.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Yeah. So, I've got a partner that I've been with
for two years and he's still currently married. The question
is how does he get divorced if you can't find
your wife she disappeared twelve years ago.
Speaker 5 (04:45):
Well, ordinarily, when anybody wants to get divorced, they can
file an application at court, a divorce application. The court
will then set it down for a date that's typically
six or eight weeks into the future and then you
have to serve that application on the person you want
to get divorced from, because the court wants to know that.
Whether they respond to it or not, or whether they
even whether they rip it up or refuse to read it,
(05:08):
doesn't matter. What's important is that you can prove that
they are aware of it, that they've been served with
the application. Of course, if you can't find somebody, you've
no idea where they are, then what you need to
do is two options you've got basically. Number one is
that you can affect what's called substituted service. So you
can say, for instance, look, we don't know where this
(05:29):
person is, but maybe we know that they have contact
with their mother from time to time, and so you
can serve a family member or somebody like that.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
That's not possible on that side of things.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
But yeah.
Speaker 5 (05:42):
The other option is you can ask for service to
be dispensed with. We say that, look, for obviously, we
can't find this person, so we can't serve them. But
then what the court we'll want to know is that
you've made all reasonable efforts to try and serve them.
Now that sounds like a simple sort of a thing,
but I do know I was involved in a very
(06:02):
similar matter like this a few years ago, and in
that case, the court asked us to file an affidavit,
which is a statement setting out all the efforts that
we've made to try and locate this person. Now, I
did a little bit of research on this recently, and
there is no actual list of everything that you have
(06:23):
to do. The law, the rules of court state that
you've got to make all reasonable efforts, but it seems
to me that a lot of court officers might have
a different interpretation is what that means in this particular case. Obviously,
what you would probably need to do is state that
we've contacted their last known address, we've contacted their last
known place of work. It sounds like overkell, and maybe
(06:46):
maybe it is. But you could also contact the Department
of Corrections in every state in Australia, just in case
they're in jail somewhere. You could also contact, to be
honest with you, I'm not exactly sure who you'd contact
to see if there is a death reported.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
In any deaths and marriages marriages, yes.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah, yes, yeah, see Brett. She we had our information
that she left the country round about sort of ten
years ago, right, maybe in contacting Centerlink again, possibly they
would know if she's entered the country. Again, I suppose.
Speaker 5 (07:26):
Social media is a good one, yep, But of course
it can be difficult to try and serve somebody with
a document, even if you find a social a social
media address, a page or something like that.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
You've tried that, Amy, there's no Facebook or Instagram or anything.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
No, no, and we don't know if she's using a
different name now either. So yes, it.
Speaker 5 (07:45):
Can be intricate. There'll be lots of little parts. So
the more parts you can do yourself, Amy, the less
fees you will have to pay. So if you can
again get evidence by emails and good, then you can
prove that. Look, here's an email are sent on this date.
Here's the apply I got to prepare an Affidavit shouldn't
take more than two or three or four hours. So
it might cost you two to three thousand dollars maybe
(08:07):
a little bit more. Okay, Again, it's hard to know
exactly what sort of hurdles you'll come up against.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Yeah, now do you take the free PI mate?
Speaker 6 (08:17):
I'm thinking that I would like to say yes straight away,
but I do have a seventeen year old feelings as
well to consider, although I have a feeling that she's
going to jump all over it, but I just want
to make an informed decision because we don't know what
the outcome is going to be and how yeah, and
what the answer is going to be of y and
all that as well.
Speaker 5 (08:34):
Yeah, a free PI would be great because a good
PI would probably do all of those things on your behalf.
That's going to save you a lot of a lot
of legwork. And if you explain to the PI, listen,
we're going to have to convince the court that we've
done everything reasonable to try and find this person. The
PI would go okay, and they would probably produce the
affidavit for you, and that's probably the best way to
(08:55):
go about it.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
The trail PI, David is the best.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Yes, yeah, I've been listening to the all p I Dave.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Well, yes, we'll check it with with the kids, Amy
and and hopefully that's that's enough to get your started day.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Yeah, that's fantastic. Thanks so much Bretton, Robin and Kip
for the advice and h yeah, I'll send an email
through it with the decision about the.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
P A okay sounds good.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Thank you so amazing. Thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Cheers bye.
Speaker 5 (09:24):
You're listening to the Robin and Kid podcast.
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