What does Pro Se mean?
Pro Se means that you are representing yourself.
What is a Legal Separation?
In Nebraska you can get divorced if you have lived in Nebraska for one-year. If you have been in Nebraska for less than a year, there is another alternative: you can file for a legal separation.
In a legal separation case a Court can:
- Divide up property between the parties;
- Divide up debt between the parties; and
- Award alimony
In a case involving children who have lived in Nebraska for 6 months, a Court also can:
- Decide the issues of custody and visitation; and
- Award child support
The complaints for legal separation and divorce are a little different. Instead of alleging that there is no way you can save your marriage, you allege that you and your spouse live apart. Also, the caption in your complaint will read “Complaint for Legal Separation” instead of Complaint for Divorce.” A legal separation is like a divorce. But you remain married with a legal separation.
You can change your complaint for legal separation to a divorce complaint if:
- You have lived in Nebraska for one year before the legal separation is final.
However, you may have to pay a filing fee when you change the complaint.
Once the court enters an order of legal separation, you cannot amend the complaint to ask for a divorce. Instead, you have to file a new complaint asking for a divorce. You cannot marry someone else after you get an order of separation. You need a divorce to get re-married. Even though a court can consider issues of custody and child support in a case for legal separation, special time rules apply.
Many of the documents you need for a divorce can be used for a separation. You can continue using this interview as if you are completing divorce proceedings. Just make sure that every reference to “divorce” is changed to “legal separation” before you file anything.
Neb.Rev.Stat. §42-347
Neb.Rev.Stat. §42-350
Neb.Rev.Stat. §42-351
Neb.Rev.Stat. §42-353
What’s the difference between Legal Separation and Divorce?
There are two differences between a Legal Separation and a Divorce. Nebraska law requires that at least one party to a divorce has lived in this state for one year immediately prior to the filing of a Petition for Divorce. There is no such requirement for a Legal Separation.
A Legal Separation decides custody, support, property/debt division, etc. just like a Divorce, but the parties still remain married to each other.
The complaints for legal separation and divorce are a little different. Instead of alleging that there is no way you can save your marriage, you allege that you and your spouse live apart. Also, the caption in your complaint will read “Complaint for Legal Separation” instead of Complaint for Divorce.”
A legal separation is like a divorce. But you remain married with a legal separation.
You can change your complaint for legal separation to a divorce complaint if you have lived in Nebraska for one year before the legal separation is final. However, you may have to pay a filing fee when you change the complaint.
Once the court enters an order of legal separation, you cannot amend the complaint to ask for a divorce. Instead, you have to file a new complaint asking for a divorce.
You cannot marry someone else after you get an order of separation. You need a divorce to get re-married.
Even though a court can consider issues of custody and child support in a case for legal separation, special time rules apply.
Many of the documents you need for a divorce can be used for a separation. You can continue using this interview as if you are completing divorce proceedings. Just make sure that every reference to “divorce” is changed to “legal separation” before you file anything.
Neb.Rev.Stat. §42-347
Neb.Rev.Stat. §42-350
Neb.Rev.Stat. §42-351
Neb.Rev.Stat. §42-353
Can I get an annulment since my spouse and I never lived together after our marriage?
No. Under Nebraska law, any one of the following five reasons will allow you to get an annulment: 1) the marriage between the parties is prohibited by law (for there to be a valid marriage, both parties must be at least 17 years of age and free from venereal disease); 2) either party is impotent at the time of the marriage; 3) either party had a spouse living at the time of the marriage, 4) either party was mentally ill or was mentally incapacitated at the time of the marriage; or 5) force or fraud.
The fact that you and your spouse never lived together and/or consummated your marriage does not give you a reason to ask for an annulment.
What if I don’t know where my spouse is?
The law requires that you must serve a copy of your Petition for Divorce upon your spouse. Service (notice that the divorce was filed) is generally obtained by having the sheriff give a copy of the petition to the other party either at home or at work.
Nebraska law provides that service may be obtained by “publication” with approval from the Court. This means that there will be a notice in your local newspaper that you have filed for divorce. Before the Court will let you publish your notice, you must have made a good effort to locate your spouse. You will have to complete an affidavit (a statement given under oath) describing the efforts you have made to locate an address where your spouse can be served. Unless you have tried all reasonable means to locate your spouse, the Court will not allow you to publish the notice.
Some examples of reasonable efforts are: contacting friends or family members to see if they can assist you in locating your spouse; internet searches; a letter sent to spouse’s last known address that is returned as undeliverable.
You should also know that if you get service by publication, the Court cannot enter any orders dealing with money issues (i.e. child support, alimony, debt division). If you are able to locate your spouse at some point in the future, you can go back to Court so that the judge can decide these issues.
Resources for Locating the Opposing Party
You need to let your spouse know that you have filed for divorce. This is called giving your spouse notice of the divorce case. You give your spouse notice by serving him or her with the Complaint for Dissolution. Service can be done personally or by publication.
- Personal service is completed by either having the Sheriff serve your spouse with the Complaint for Dissolution or by having your spouse sign a Voluntary Appearance. By signing a voluntary appearance the opposing party is affirming to the court that they have received a copy of the Compliant for Divorce, they waive service by Sheriff and understand that the Divorce is pending in Court.
- Service by publication is completed by following Nebraska law. You must ask the court for permission to serve your spouse by publication if you cannot locate your spouse to personally serve him or her with the Complaint. If the Court grants your request to serve your spouse by publication you must then run your publication in the newspaper. There are specific rules with respect to which newspaper you should run the publication in and how many times it must run. It is very important to follow these rules otherwise the Court may not recognize that your spouse has been served properly. Additionally, there is always a fee to run your publication in the paper and if you need to rerun your publication it could become very costly.
It is best to serve your spouse personally and not by publication. If you properly serve your spouse by publication, the court will be able to grant you a divorce and award custody. If you want the Court to award child support, spousal support, divide debts or make other property awards, the opposing party must have been “personally served.” This means that the person was handed the original Compliant for Divorce by the Sheriff, or that the opposing party signed a voluntary appearance. In order to ask the court for permission to serve your spouse by publication, you first need to make a good faith effort to locate your spouse. You need to check with friends, family and others to see if they know where your spouse is. If you do this and still cannot locate your spouse, you could try to find him or her through some resources that are available to the public. If you still cannot locate your spouse, you can request permission of the court to serve your spouse by publication.
In all court actions it is always better if you can personally serve the opposing party with the Compliant. If you don’t know where the opposing party is you might try to locate them with a little detective work. Some things you could do to try to locate your spouse include:
- Personal service is completed by either having the Sheriff serve your spouse with the Complaint for Dissolution or by having your spouse sign a Voluntary Appearance. By signing a voluntary appearance the opposing party is affirming to the court that they have received a copy of the Compliant for Divorce, they waive service by Sheriff and understand that the Divorce is pending in Court.
- Doing a Nebraska court records search on JUSTICE, which is Nebraska’s online court case database. If there is a court case involving your spouse, especially if it was filed more recently, it may contain their address. There is a fee charged for this search. You could see if the clerk of the district court or county court could help you with this as well. The JUSTICE database is located here
- Doing an online search to see if your spouse is incarcerated in a Nebraska jail or prison through VINE. The link is VINE. In Nebraska – anyone can access the VINE which tells if someone is in jail. It will also search other states that use VINE as well.
- Doing an online search to see if your spouse in incarcerated at a State of Nebraska facility run by searching the Nebraska Department of Corrections Website.
- Doing an online search to see if your spouse is incarcerated at a federal facility by searching the Federal Inmate Locator website.
- If your spouse is a registered sex offender, you could do an online search to see if his or her address is available through Nebraska Sex Offender Registry or another state’s registry.
- Requesting that the post office provide you with mailing address information for your spouse if you are requesting the information only for the purposes of serving your spouse with court documents, like your Complaint for Dissolution. The post office should release this information to you or tell you that they do not have mailing information for your spouse pursuant to 39 CFR 265.6(d)(5)(ii). The link to the regulation is here. You can contact the post office for more information.
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