Art. 3955.Service of Petition

Article 3955 sets a deadline that operates earlier in the case than the waiting-period and rule-to-show-cause timelines governed by Articles 3952 through 3954. When a petition for divorce is filed under Civil Code Article 102, the plaintiff must request service of that petition on the defendant within ninety days of filing.

Paragraph B addresses a defendant who cannot be located: if the defendant is an absentee, requesting the appointment of an attorney to represent that absentee defendant within the same ninety days satisfies the article's requirement, standing in for a request to serve someone who cannot be served.

Paragraph C lets a defendant waive the ninety-day requirement expressly, in any written waiver, and also builds in a default waiver: unless the defendant files a declinatory exception of insufficiency of service of process under Article 928, specifically alleging the failure to timely request service, the requirement is treated as waived. A defendant who does not raise the issue promptly loses the ability to raise it later. Paragraph D then makes clear that what matters is the timeliness of the request itself, not whether the resulting service turned out to be error-free; a timely request satisfies the article notwithstanding insufficient or erroneous service.

An amendment effective August 1, 2026 adds a further condition to what counts as a timely request. Beyond requesting service within the ninety-day period, the amendment requires that all fees the clerk of court specifies for service of citation be paid within the time periods the article provides, and it adds a procedure for the clerk to confirm receipt of the request and notify the filing party of the fees owed, with an extended window to pay any additional fees the clerk later identifies. Litigants permitted to proceed without paying costs are exempt from this fee-payment condition.