DIVORCING AN INCARCERATED PRISONER

DONALD F. CONVISER, a Divorce and Family Law Attorney, owner of Warner Center Law Offices in Woodland Hills in the San Fernando Valley, an effective and aggressive Certified Family Law Specialist serving clients in Los Angeles and Ventura County for over 35 years, offering a free confidential consultation regarding your family law or divorce issues, brings you another blog, responding to questions posed to him by members of the public in areas of Divorce and Family Law.

I frequently receive questions from people regarding their family law issues. The following is a question which the inquirer agreed may be publicly revealed, and my answer to the question:

QUESTION: Can I get divorced from my husband who is in a California prison? I have been married to my husband, who is in a California prison, for 6 years. I want to divorce him, but will this be like a normal divorce? Will an attorney help?

ANSWER: You can divorce an incarcerated prisoner. After you file your divorce case, you will need to have your husband served by the Sheriff or a registered process server. You should provide your husband's full name, date of birth and CDC number to the prison. Call the prison and ask their personnel for their procedures to get the inmate served with process, ask them what particular process servers have served inmates there, and call and select a process server (or the Sheriff of that county) to do the process service, and follow their instructions. Being a prisoner doesn't entitle your husband to "extra rights"; in fact, he will likely experience additional difficulty because he is imprisoned. It would be a good idea for you to hire a Family Law attorney to handle your divorce case.