Did my husband divorce me?

Dear Mrs Macaulay, 

I would like to know how I can confirm If I’m divorced or not. I cannot find my marriage certificate but I was married on the 02/06/2012 in Spanish Town. I received information that my husband divorced me and married again when he went back to Jamaica in October 2020. Obviously I have no knowledge of this and I never signed anything or received any paperwork so I’m confused. We are still together and are living together so I would be so grateful if you could help me.

First, let me tell you that the fact that you cannot find your original marriage certificate is neither here nor there because you can always apply for a certified copy (which for many years is the copy generally used for legal and proof purposes) from the Registrar General’s Department for a fee. There will surely be no problem for you to get a copy, or several.

Now let me deal with your main concern, which is that though you and your husband are living together, you are worried that he may have divorced you without you knowing about it. You say that you received information that he divorced you. I do not know why you seem to be giving credence to this information. Is it because you trust the source of it? If so, you must remember that the possibility exists that your trust may be misguided and the person or persons may have their own personal reasons to mislead you and have you act against your own best interests. Since you are trying to check the situation yourself, make sure this is the best course of action you could take.

So now I will deal with your main question, which is how you can confirm or discount the information that you are a divorced woman. It is not a simple question because if your husband did in fact purport to divorce you without you being served with his petition for dissolution of marriage and the affidavit accompanying the petition and the blank acknowledgement of service, if he got the decree it would be of questionable validity and you could apply for it to be declared a nullity.

Anyway, you should go to the Supreme Court Registry at the King and Barry Street intersection in Kingston and tell the security at the entrance that you are there to have a search done in the ‘family law section’, specifically the ‘divorce window’ to check on a divorce matter. You will be directed where to go and there you should be more open with the clerk at that window and say that you wish to have a search done in order to ascertain whether your husband had filed and completed a divorce petition which you knew nothing about. There is a small fee for the search to be done and if they find that your husband did file a petition for divorce which proceeded to the grant of a decree nisi and to the final decree absolute, you should request copies of all the documents found. If none was found after a diligent search, then you can confidently conclude that the information given to you that your husband had divorced you is completely incorrect. You see, all divorce proceedings are dealt with by only the Supreme Court of Judicature of Jamaica. No other court in Jamaica has the jurisdiction to deal with divorce. So if your search finds nothing, you can rely on such a result and go on with your life with your husband in peace and harmony.

Please therefore go as soon as you can to get the search done in the Supreme Court Registry, so that you can satisfy yourself what the true position is about the status of your marriage.

If the search does discover that your husband did file, then as I said, get copies of each document and find and retain a lawyer to act for you to apply for it to be declared null and void.

I trust that I have answered your question clearly enough so that you now know where to go and what to do to check on your marital status.

All the very best.

Margarette May Macaulay is an attorney-at-law, Supreme Court mediator, notary public, and women’s and children’s rights advocate. Send questions via e-mail to allwoman@jamaicaobserver.com; or write to All Woman, 40-42 1/2 Beechwood Avenue, Kingston 5. All responses are published. Mrs Macaulay cannot provide personal responses.

DISCLAIMER:

The contents of this article are for informational purposes only, and must not be relied upon as an alternative to legal advice from your own attorney.