Art. 3957.Waiver of Service of Petition and Rule to Show Cause and Accompanying Notices

Article 3957 recognizes two separate waivers a party can make in an Article 102 divorce, and treats them as distinct acts rather than one blanket waiver covering the whole case. Paragraphs A and B address waiver of service of the original petition and its accompanying notice; Paragraph C separately addresses waiver of service of the rule to show cause and its accompanying notice. Each waiver has to be in writing, executed after the pleading it relates to has already been filed, and made part of the record.

Waiving service of the petition changes how the timelines in the surrounding articles run. Paragraph B specifies that once that waiver occurs, the periods set out in Civil Code Article 102 and in Code of Civil Procedure Articles 3953 and 3954 run from the date the waiver was executed rather than from the date of service. That connects directly to the nullity risk under Article 3953 and the abandonment clock under Article 3954, both of which key off a service-or-waiver date.

In practice, these waivers see the most use in amicable Article 102 divorces, where both spouses cooperate to move the case forward without the delay and expense of serving each other, while still preserving the written record this article requires for each waiver.