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My Canadian lawyer has advised that the only way I can get divorced from my "missing for 7 years" Cambodian wife is that I have to serve a notice of divorce to someone in her family (or someone who knows her). Her mother is in Phnom Penh so I can serve the papers to her. The mother does not speak any English. Need to find out if there is a service or someone who can serve these papers to the mother. Once the notice has been served then the person who served the papers needs to get an affidavit signed, by a Notary confirming that they have completed the service of the notice.
My lawyer will prepare all of the papers and the affidavit.

Question: Anyone know someone or an organization who can serve this notice for me please?

Surely if you are in Canadia you can just lie and say you have never heard of that woman? If she's been missing for seven years then nobody is going to cry "Bigamy!" at your wedding when they ask for objections

MadeItInCambodia wrote: ↑Wed Nov 20, 2019 5:39 am My Canadian lawyer has advised that the only way I can get divorced from my "missing for 7 years" Cambodian wife is that I have to serve a notice of divorce to someone in her family (or someone who knows her). Her mother is in Phnom Penh so I can serve the papers to her. The mother does not speak any English. Need to find out if there is a service or someone who can serve these papers to the mother. Once the notice has been served then the person who served the papers needs to get an affidavit signed, by a Notary confirming that they have completed the service of the notice.
My lawyer will prepare all of the papers and the affidavit.

Question: Anyone know someone or an organization who can serve this notice for me please?

I can recommend Minsum Solidar at Phnom Penh Notary Public. She speaks fluent English and French (trained at Sorbonne) and they have done a lot of stuff for me regarding custodianship and emigration issues. Most likely the Canadian court will require a witnessed document with a notary stamp AND a stamp from ministry of Foreign Affairs, which they can do. Be wary of notaries and lawyers you do not know. Only a handful are recognised by the ministries and authorised to do translations and prices vary enormously. http://www.ppnp.com.kh/

MadeItInCambodia wrote: ↑Wed Nov 20, 2019 5:39 am Her mother is in Phnom Penh so I can serve the papers to her.

Does this work with all civil cases or divorce only? If the court can’t find somebody do they just serve the papers to the closest identifiable relative?

fax wrote: ↑Wed Nov 20, 2019 12:45 pm

MadeItInCambodia wrote: ↑Wed Nov 20, 2019 5:39 am Her mother is in Phnom Penh so I can serve the papers to her.

Does this work with all civil cases or divorce only? If the court can’t find somebody do they just serve the papers to the closest identifiable relative?

As far as i am aware if the person is on a family book, someone else on the same family book can sign quite a lot of papers on their behalf, and the top person on the list can signs pretty much anything as the family unit is a legal entity and they are the head of the family. I am sure its a bit more compicated for some things but thats the geenral principle. There si also a residence book which shows all the people living at the address, family or not. If they are on that book then that is an official address that can be used for serving papers.
If it was me i would ask mum if she knows where the daughter is and try and get an address to serve the papers on. Howeber in this case the Op only needs to satisy the Canadian court so following their requirements is the main thing. The divorce may not be valid in Cambodia if Cambodia law is not folloed, but the OP does not seem concerned about that. Most weddings with foreigners invole ministry of the Interior and Ministry of Foreign affairs, so it would be wise to get the papers stamped by them, just so the Candians knw it been done proerly. Best ask the Canadian court exactly what it will accept and do the least possible to meet the reuuirement. In Theory the governemtn knows wehre everyone is because all khmer have to register at their new address but ti doesn't happen regularly

pczz wrote: ↑Wed Nov 20, 2019 10:45 am

MadeItInCambodia wrote: ↑Wed Nov 20, 2019 5:39 am My Canadian lawyer has advised that the only way I can get divorced from my "missing for 7 years" Cambodian wife is that I have to serve a notice of divorce to someone in her family (or someone who knows her). Her mother is in Phnom Penh so I can serve the papers to her. The mother does not speak any English. Need to find out if there is a service or someone who can serve these papers to the mother. Once the notice has been served then the person who served the papers needs to get an affidavit signed, by a Notary confirming that they have completed the service of the notice.
My lawyer will prepare all of the papers and the affidavit.

Question: Anyone know someone or an organization who can serve this notice for me please?

I can recommend Minsum Solidar at Phnom Penh Notary Public. She speaks fluent English and French (trained at Sorbonne) and they have done a lot of stuff for me regarding custodianship and emigration issues. Most likely the Canadian court will require a witnessed document with a notary stamp AND a stamp from ministry of Foreign Affairs, which they can do. Be wary of notaries and lawyers you do not know. Only a handful are recognised by the ministries and authorised to do translations and prices vary enormously. http://www.ppnp.com.kh/

Ms. Solidar won't serve papers unfortunately. Nor will anybody at the Phnom Penh Notary Public. I've been emailing with them and they said they can only do it if she goes in to see them at their office. Unfortunately I'm in the same boat as the original poster.

maybe put a notice in khmer times that she won money- Or something to that effect. I remember some crime show documentary looking for criminals on the run or who haven't paid some sort of fine. They got some notification they won money,

random thought...

MadeItInCambodia, Looks like you are ''married '' forever and it's a good reason to say you cannot get married again. Best insurance policy ever, gonna save you millions of $$

MadeItInCambodia wrote: ↑Wed Nov 20, 2019 5:39 am My Canadian lawyer has advised that the only way I can get divorced from my "missing for 7 years" Cambodian wife is that I have to serve a notice of divorce to someone in her family (or someone who knows her). Her mother is in Phnom Penh so I can serve the papers to her. The mother does not speak any English. Need to find out if there is a service or someone who can serve these papers to the mother. Once the notice has been served then the person who served the papers needs to get an affidavit signed, by a Notary confirming that they have completed the service of the notice.
My lawyer will prepare all of the papers and the affidavit.

Question: Anyone know someone or an organization who can serve this notice for me please?

This is possible, I was in a similar situation and had to serve divorce papers to my ex-wife's mother's house. I used CSP Law Firm (www.cspalawfirm.com) who got the whole thing wrapped up in about 6 months end to end. If the spouse doesn't turn up, the court will still proceed with the case, albeit a little longer whilst they make efforts to find the other partner. Similar to other countries you will get what is called a 'Decree Nisi' after one "court" appearance (think brown shirt police dude behind a desk & an army of secretaries), then your spouse will have one month to appeal any decision, after which you will get the 'Decree Absolute' after another "are you really sure?" court appearance. Amazingly easy versus western divorce.

There's a lesson to be learned here folks; don't marry your wives