Can a Polish woman get divorce from another country?

Hello,
I am from the united states. My girlfriend lives in Poland with her son. She has been legally separated from her husband for around five years. The husband will not give her a divorce or give up legal rights for his son to leave Poland, but he has no interest in his son and has been in a relationship with other people. He has not seen his son for around five years. In the past, he has beaten my girlfriend and continues to threaten her and the son. He also suffers from schizophrenia and can be very dangerous. My question is, how can she get a divorce so we can move on with our lives? can she get a divorce in another country? we do not plan to live in Poland, but may live somewhere else in the EU, or the United States

thank you for any help

He doesn't actually have any choice in whether they get divorced. He can make it difficult for them to get a divorce (for example by constantly delaying hearing by claiming to be ill, appealing every single decision of the court, applying for a change of court and/or judge, etc, etc) and he can string the process out for years, but he cannot make it impossible for them to get a divorce.


In theory she might, but a Polish family court will have jurisdiction over the child custody case. And that is an entirely different matter. While it is in theory possible to have parental rights very limited (or even entirely taken away), in practice it's almost impossible. Just him having been violent in the past won't be enough. If she tries to use the fact that he has had no contact with their son as grounds to having his rights removed, he can just claim that he wants to have contact but she refuses to let him have any contact.


Probably just living in Poland until the kid is 15 is going to be easiest (at that age the kid himself can petition the court for permission to move outside Poland).

Hi Harry,
thank you for all the advice.
Just wondering, are you a lawyer? If so, could I get an appointment?
Thanks again,
Matthew

Can you recommend a good divorce lawyer? My girlfriend was Married in Lublin Poland. she lives in Warsaw Poland now, and her husband still lives in Lublin.

thank you

For a divorce with no assets to argue over, you don't really need a lawyer, just file the papers and wait for the court to write back.

My grandmother was living in Germany when she went through the divorce process in 1949. Whether there was a divorce lawyer involved I am not sure since the older family members are keeping it a secret. What copies of documents I have, suggested she went through the church in order to get granted a divorce. There were children involved as well. One was 21, 1 at 11 and the 3rd at 7. If there was a settlement nothing was mentioned or written down.