Serving Divorce Papers in Delaware

After you file your divorce petition with the Delaware Family Court and receive a case number, your spouse must be formally served with the summons and petition, unless they waive formal service through Form 406. You cannot hand the papers to them yourself — Delaware law requires service through an approved method to establish personal jurisdiction.

The service method you choose affects your timeline, cost, and whether your spouse needs to cooperate.

Option 1: Sheriff Service

This is the default. When you file your petition and Request for Notice (Form 400), the court clerk sends the service packet directly to the county sheriff. A sheriff or deputy personally delivers the summons and petition to your spouse's home or workplace.

Cost: Sheriff service is court-administered; verify with the court whether any assessed service cost applies. An approved fee waiver covers court-administered service costs.

Timeline: Timing varies, and the service packet may not be immediately available; confirm current timing with the county.

Limitation: If the sheriff can't locate your spouse after multiple attempts, you'll need to switch to another service method.

Option 2: Special Process Server

If sheriff service is slow or your spouse is actively avoiding the sheriff, you can hire a private process server approved by the Family Court's Chief Judge.

Steps:

1. File Form 593 (Notice of Special Process Server) with the court
2. Select a server from the court's official approved list
3. The server personally delivers the papers to your spouse
4. Within 3 days of successful service, the server emails a signed Affidavit of Service to the county mailbox (e.g., [email protected] for New Castle County)

Cost: Private process server fees vary. This is not covered by a fee waiver.

When to use it: Your spouse has a non-standard schedule, lives in a gated community, or the sheriff has been unsuccessful.

Option 3: Affidavit of Appearance (Form 406)

The fastest and cheapest option — but it requires your spouse's cooperation. Instead of formal service, your spouse picks up a copy of the petition from the court and signs Form 406 (Affidavit of Appearance) in front of a notary public or court clerk.

Filing this form waives formal service and speeds up the case timeline.

Cost: Free (notary fees may apply if not signed at the courthouse).

When to use it: You and your spouse are on speaking terms and agree the divorce is happening. This is common in uncontested cases.

Option 4: Service by Publication

If your spouse genuinely cannot be found after a diligent search, you can request service by publication.

Steps:

1. File Form 241D (Affidavit That a Party Address is Unknown), documenting your search efforts
2. The court clerk publishes a legal notice on the Family Court Legal Notices website at no cost
3. Alternatively, the notice can be published in a local newspaper of general circulation (newspaper costs apply)

When to use it: Your spouse has moved without leaving a forwarding address, isn't responding to any known contact methods, and the sheriff was unable to locate them.

Important: A divorce granted after service by publication is valid, but the court will not award assets or other relief not explicitly requested in the initial petition.

After Service: The 20-Day Window

Once your spouse receives the summons and petition, they have exactly 20 days to file an Answer (Form 448). If they don't respond, you can pursue an uncontested default path, but default is not automatic. If they agree, the case moves forward as uncontested.

Common Service Problems

Spouse is evading: Start with sheriff service. If that fails after multiple attempts, switch to a special process server — they're often more persistent and creative about locating people. Document every attempt.

Spouse lives out of state: Confirm the proper service method with the Family Court before proceeding. The court still has jurisdiction if either spouse meets Delaware's residency requirement.

Spouse is in the military: Military personnel have special protections under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. Service still must be completed, and you should confirm the response and hearing requirements with the Family Court. Form 405 (Affidavit of Non-Military Service) is for an uncontested hearing when the respondent has not answered and is not in the military.

Tracking Service and Deadlines

The Delaware Divorce Filing Process Guide includes a service of process decision tree that matches your situation to the right method, plus a deadline tracker that calculates your 20-day response window from the date your spouse receives the summons and petition.

See more Delaware guides →