Rule 100.Divorce and annulment; acquiring jurisdiction

After the petition for divorce or annulment is filed, jurisdiction over the respondent may be acquired by any of the methods now or hereafter provided by the divorce statute the rule cites.

Two things are worth noticing in one sentence. The first is the deferral: divorce jurisdiction over a respondent — who may live in another state or another country — is a matter the General Assembly has legislated in detail, and a procedural rule that restated it would only create a second version to fall out of date.

The second is now or hereafter. The rule points at the statute as it stands from time to time, so an amendment to the statute takes effect here without anyone having to amend this rule. Rule 4 governs process generally; this rule tells you that in a divorce the statute is where the answer lives.