Once you file your divorce papers, you are required to serve your husband. If you do not know where he is living, then the court may allow you to serve him by publication which means that you run an ad in the paper where he was last known to reside. The court will require you to prove by affidavit that you have made a diligent search for your husband prior to filing your motion for publication. Unfortunately, the Court will not provide any assistance with locating your husband or helping you find him.

I usually suggest that my clients begin searching in the phone book, county tax records, other court records to see if there are any civil or criminal actions pending, the local jails, power and water companies to see if there are any accounts in your husband’s name, etc. You can also check online in places like Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc. to see if you can locate any information about your husband’s whereabouts. I think all of that will be necessary to do before you file your motion for publication. The other thing you can do is hire a private investigator to assist in locating your husband. They seem to have many tools that help track people down.

I wrote a general post about this a while back about service of process by publication:

The cost for a divorce case varies depending on the number and complexity of the issues involved in the case and the desired relief your sister is looking for. Costs can range from less than one thousand dollars to many thousands. I would encourage your sister to call and set up an appointment to discuss her case. At that time I can learn more about the facts/issues and can quote her a fee.

Thanks,

Tripp

Unfortunately, I have some bad news for you. Short of having a fault-based divorce ground (Adultery, Physical Abuse, Desertion, Habitual Drunkenness) the only way to get divorced in South Carolina is to have been separated and living in different residences for more than one year.

Tripp