Yes. It takes longer and costs more, and here is exactly why.
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The Short Answer
Tennessee allows a divorce to proceed against a spouse who cannot be located. It is called service by publication, and it exists precisely for this situation. Someone left, changed numbers, moved out of state, or simply stopped being findable, and the marriage is still on paper.
What it is not is a simple uncontested divorce with an extra step. It is a different process with its own filings, its own approvals, and three separate court appearances. Plan on six to nine months.
Why the Court Makes This Difficult
This is the part most people do not anticipate, and it explains everything else about the process.
In a missing spouse divorce, the court is deciding the whole case by default. Custody. Child support. The marital home. Retirement accounts. Debt. Every one of those is being divided on one side’s word, with no one present to disagree, question a number, or ask for something different.
Judges know that, and they respond to it by scrutinizing the notice requirements closely. Every attempt at service, every mailing, every day of publication has to be documented and correct. The court is not being difficult for its own sake. It is protecting an absent person from a judgment entered against them without their knowledge.
The Process
A private process server has to try. This is not a formality that can be skipped because you already know your spouse moved. The failed attempt is what makes everything after it possible.
Once service fails, a motion is filed asking the judge for permission to serve by publication instead. The judge has to grant it. This is a court appearance.
The motion has to include an affidavit, sworn by you, stating that you conducted a diligent search for your spouse. That word does real work, and it is covered in detail below.
Notice of the divorce runs in two newspapers for thirty days. This is the step everyone has heard of and the only one that runs on a fixed clock.
After publication, a motion for default is filed. The judge has to approve that too. Second court appearance.
The divorce is heard and the decree is entered. Third court appearance. The decree is not final until thirty days after that hearing.
At each motion hearing, the court calls out for the absent spouse to see whether notice reached them. And throughout, notice of every setting has to be mailed to the last known address, even when everyone involved knows the spouse is not there. That requirement does not go away because it seems pointless.
The Diligent Search
Before the court will allow service by publication, you have to swear an affidavit that you conducted a diligent search for your spouse. Not that you could not find them. That you looked.
At a minimum that means going to the last known address, calling the last known phone number, and calling relatives. In practice it goes further. Searches of MLGW records and Shelby County property records are common, and anywhere else a person leaves a trace is fair territory.
This is the part people do not expect. The referee conducts an independent search before signing off, and they are good at it. If they find your spouse and you did not, the motion fails and you are standing in front of the judge explaining why.
One of these fell apart because the referee found the spouse on Facebook. The client was not in any legal trouble, because they had not lied about what they did. They simply had not looked hard enough, and it cost them the motion.
A servicemember is harder still to call missing. Courts here are cautious about it, reasonably so, since someone on active duty is rarely difficult to locate. That situation usually belongs on a different path, which is covered on the military divorce page.
What It Costs
Three court appearances, two motions that each require a judge’s approval, and a notice record that has to survive scrutiny.
$370 without minor children. $450 with minor children.
Two papers, thirty days.
For the initial attempt at the last known address.
Payment plans are available on the attorney fee. Financing is also available.
If You Have Children
A missing spouse divorce can be done with minor children. Court costs go to $450, and the notice requirements get more attention rather than less, because custody and child support are being set with one parent absent from the courtroom.
That is not a reason to avoid filing. It is a reason to have the record right the first time.
Your Attorney
Sam Jaber · Divorce & Family Law
Attorney Sam Jaber has practiced divorce and family law in Memphis for over a decade and finalized more than 100 divorces in 2025. Missing spouse cases are a small part of that volume and a disproportionate share of the work, because the process leaves no room for a filing that is almost right.
Uncontested divorce → · Contested divorce → · Alimony → · About Sam Jaber →
Common Questions
Yes. If your spouse cannot be located and cannot be served, Tennessee allows service by publication. It is a different process from an ordinary uncontested divorce, it requires three separate court appearances, and it takes six to nine months. But you are not stuck married to someone who disappeared.
Five steps. First, a process server attempts service at the last known address. Second, once that fails, a motion asking the judge for permission to serve by publication, which the judge must grant. Third, notice runs in two newspapers for thirty days. Fourth, a motion for default, which the judge must also approve. Fifth, the final hearing. Three of those five require a court appearance.
Because everything is decided by default with nobody present to object. Child support, custody, the marital home, retirement accounts, debt. The court is being asked to divide it all on one side's word alone, so judges scrutinize the notice requirements closely. Miss one and the case does not move. Three court appearances and a filing that has to be right the first time is what the fee reflects.
Before the court allows service by publication, you have to swear an affidavit that you conducted a diligent search for your spouse. At a minimum that means going to the last known address, calling the last known phone number, and calling relatives. In practice it often includes searches of MLGW records and Shelby County property records. The divorce referee conducts an independent search before signing off, so a search that was not thorough tends to surface in front of the judge.
The motion for service by publication fails and you start that part over. You are not in legal trouble as long as you did not misstate what you actually did, but it is an avoidable problem. One of these cases fell apart because the divorce referee found the spouse on Facebook. Document your search as you go, including dates, numbers called, and who you contacted.
The attorney fee at BBJW LAW is $2,500. Court costs are $370 without minor children or $450 with minor children. Newspaper publication runs about $140. A private process server is typically $50 to $75. Those are separate line items, not a package.
Six to nine months. The publication period alone is thirty days, the final decree is not final until thirty days after the hearing, and the rest is court scheduling across three separate settings.
Service by publication means running legal notice of the divorce in two newspapers for thirty days, after an attempt at personal service has failed. It is how Tennessee lets a case proceed against someone who cannot be found. A judge has to grant permission before publication can start.
Yes. Court costs are higher, $450 instead of $370, and the court will scrutinize the notice requirements even more closely, because custody and child support are being decided with one parent absent.
At each motion hearing the court calls out for the absent spouse to see whether notice reached them. If they appear, the case stops being a default matter and becomes a normal divorce, contested or uncontested depending on whether you agree. That is not a bad outcome. It is usually faster.
Yes. Notice of every setting must be mailed to the last known address, even when you are certain your spouse no longer lives there. It is a requirement of the process, not a formality anyone expects to work, and skipping it is one of the fastest ways to have a case stall.
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