Judges are extraordinarily busy. As such, it is curious, to say the least,
that your husband would be requested to go to the Judge's chambers to sign divorce
papers.
You need to protect yourself. First, you need to go to the Superior Court
Clerk of the county in which his divorce was allegedly filed. (Documents filed with the Clerk are public
record, and you can obtain a copy without your husband's assistance.) Check to see if there was even a Complaint (or
Petition) for Divorce that was filed.
If no Complaint/Petition was filed, and/or there was no
Order entered, your husband is still married and has committed bigamy.
Per Georgia law (OCGA §19-3-2), to be able to enter a valid
marriage, a person must have no living spouse of a previous unresolved marriage.
Further, the dissolution of a previous
marriage in divorce proceedings must be affirmatively established and will not
be presumed. Knowingly entering into a
bigamous marriage is a legal ground for divorce, and any marriage that violates
this bigamy provision is void in Georgia (OCGA §19-3-5).
In addition to the possibility of your marriage being void
under Georgia law, your husband may have to face a criminal charge of
bigamy. According to the criminal code (OCGA
§16-6-20), "[a] person commits the offense of bigamy when he, being married and
knowing that his lawful spouse is living, marries another person or carries on
a bigamous cohabitation with another person."
If he is convicted of the offense of bigamy, the law says he "shall be
punished by imprisonment for not less than one nor more than ten years."
Answered on Nov 28th, 2011 at 9:43 AM