Legal Question in Family Law in California

Re: signing divorce papers

Generally speaking, you do not need your spouse to sign anything in order to get divorced. Your spouse does not need to accept the divorce, or even participate. You do however need to serve your spouse with papers including a Summons and Petition for Dissolution. If you are talking about serving them by mail with a Notice of Acknowledgment and Receipt, then no, you cannot force them to sign and return the Acknowledgment. If they will not do this you need to serve them another way. You may want to find out if there is a family law self help center at your local courthouse, or contact an attorney.