I filed for divorce in '98 served party and they never responded, now after all this years I get divorce papers don't they have to answer my petitio

In Georgia, the losses that you filed stood dismissed by operation of law five years after you filed it, because no court order was ever entered. If any court order was entered, then your case stood automatically dismissed by operation of law five years after the entry of that order.

This is odd, since the progress of these cases is usually driven by one side or the other. However, there is no legal requirement that the other spouse file an Answer. If s/he does not file, then you can determine (most of) the terms of the final divorce decree.

Apparently you did not complete the divorce process. If you did, you could use the divorce decree from your original filing as a defense.

After 1 year of no activity its likely the Court dismissed your original petition. You may respond to the current one and seek the relief that you desire.

If you failed to apply for default back in 1998, and did not obtain a Default Decree of Dissolution at that time, your case was likely dismissed for failing to prosecute it. At this point, I would file an answer to the papers you recently received to make sure that you are not the one defaulted.

You probably never finished the first divorce - you could have done it by defaulting them. That case would have been dismissed years ago as it was never finished. You need to respond and ask for child support and child custody.

If you filed your divorce 15 years ago, and never did anything to settle the case, take it to trial, or obtain a Default Judgment because he never answered, the case was likely dismissed. In California, the court will only give you 1-2 years before they will send a letter to your last known address stating that if you don't move forward with your case it will be dismissed. It sounds as if he opened up a new case, and that will be the case to go forward as yours was most likely dismissed many years ago (although you should check the case number with the clerk and make sure). If you still have a minor child of the marriage, you need to make sure the court knows about the child and ask for orders to be made regarding custody, visitation and child support.