What happens if I don't respond to my wife's alimony petition and?
It likely depends on the jurisdiction. I can only competently answer for California. The other lesser states may or may not be similar. It is generally a bad idea not to respond to any court action. In California, if you fail to respond, the court can enter your default, which means you have waived your right to participate in the proceeding. The court will only hear from the other side and only consider the evidence the other side puts forward. The court does have some obligation to try and ensure an equitable resolution even though the other side is not participating, but there is a fairly good chance it will actually not be equitable simply because the court has only obtained its information from the participating party. It can be a somewhat humiliating ordeal to request that the court set aside the default, and ask that one be allowed to participate after all. The court generally will want to know why you failed to respond and what is the nature of your malfunction. The courts generally have discretion to refuse to set aside the default, which means youre just out of luck. Better to timely file a response and let the court know that youre here and participating.