In a divorce the respondent will be the party who is served with divorce papers. The respondent will be required to respond to a divorce within a certain number of days. The opposing party that has filed for divorce will be known as the petitioner throughout the divorce process.
If you would like to be the first person to file for divorce you will want to fill out the proper paperwork as soon as possible and have the opposing party served. If you are not sure about how to have them served you may want to converse with a divorce attorney in your area. If you decide to have an attorney help you with your divorce matter they may have a company that they use as process servers if you cannot find someone to serve the other party.
The names petitioners and respondents are used to refer to the parties more easily. These names will remain throughout the entirety of the matter. If you decide to have legal representation the attorney you hire will be communicating directly with the other party. Until the opposing party hires and attorney they will be know as in proper. In proper simply means that they will representing themselves in court. This is often difficult for those not familiar with the law because of the terminology and process.
I you are in need of a divorce attorney, contact the divorce lawyers for Orange County.