Date of Service

This is the date a Petition is actually served on the Responding party. The date of service is significant in three respects legally: (1) for all petitions, it is the date from which the time for the Responding Party to file an Answer begins to run. (2) For divorce, legal separation, or annulment actions, it is the date the marital community ends–so long as the divorce is eventually finalized on that Petition. (3) For dissolution or legal separation where spousal maintenance is an issue, it is the date the marriage ends for purposes of calculating the length of the marriage as part of the Spousal Maintenance Calculation.