OP isn’t being sued. You don’t “opt out” of being a defendant.
The paperwork is probably an attempt to form a class plaintiff in a lawsuit against the land developer. It wouldn’t surprise me if the lawyer is a bit aggressive looking to put together the biggest possible plaintiff class. “Assholish”, even.
Then why was he served by a sheriff? And required to file an answer?
No, but in many types of litigation you can file an assent and waiver.
To the first question, they might have to give personal service to all the residents within 1000 feet. The sheriff can be used for service in many jurisdictions.
To the second question, it may be he was served a copy of the complaint and summons that were served on the actual defendant and misunderstood.
Sure, all of that is possible. I’ve never heard of a jurisdiction that requires personal service by a sheriff for a notice, as opposed to a certified letter, but I guess anything is possible.
And it’s possible that the OP, 1. is just totally wrong in what s/he wrote, 2. was told incredibly incorrect information by the lawyer s/he contacted, 3. keeps getting legal notices that would be very strange for a developer to send him/her if s/he weren’t a defendant (I.e. request for extension and certificates of compliance with service requirements).
I can’t say any of that is impossible. It just doesn’t appear to be the most likely scenario to me though.
Dopers, how can I get back at this b*tthole law firm?
First thing you’ll need to do is find yourself an attorney that specializes in b*tthole law.
I’m pissed because this wasn’t a fact they made apparent in their lawsuit. Instead, they led with “You are being sued.” I would have been much more understanding if they had been more up front.
My actual thought – before the neighborhood law firm letter made things clearer – was that “If they want my approval, why aren’t they trying to get me on their side? Involving me in a lawsuit was not the way to do it. They could have invited me to a steak dinner and I would have said sure, build those extra two stories.”
The lot was already destined to be a 3-story apartment, and it’s in an area that’s been increasing in development for the past 5 years or so. The plaintiff wants to add two more floors. That’s hardly a notch in how problematic that area is going to be anyway.
This probably will give you some background on what’s probably going on:
IANAL, but I was in commercial real estate for a fair number of years and was involved in a few of these.
And it really is quite possible that you are named, but not as a Defendant in the lawsuit to get this Variance rammed through.
The 1,000’ radius thing isn’t particularly unusual for this kind of process either.
Here’s an 8pp PDF from some part of Kansas that lays out their process. Much of it is, I suspect, fairly generic:
HMS: just let it go, man. You don’t need the aggravation or the problems if it goes sideways. Deep breaths, no damage to you, no reason for retaliation.
I took his comment to be a joke.
And – JFTR – I laughed 
They tried to serve him by mail. There was probably a request for him to accept service, which would have allowed them to not have to send a deputy out to personally serve him.
If you aren’t going to read the papers or listen to lawyers’ advice, I don’t get why you’re mad at the firm representing whoever is suing you. Nothing you’ve said is even remotely outrageous. There are ~250 names because the plaintiff is suing everyone in the neighborhood. It’s probably just the extremely long case caption and the certificate of service listing who all it was sent to. Because you don’t have a lawyer, everything they file has to be sent to you.
If you did nothing, there would likely be a default judgment against you eventually. When you wrote the letter, where did you send it?
Being sued isn’t fun, but alternately ignoring it, taking half measures, and plotting revenge on the plaintiff’s lawyers isn’t going to help.
I am not your lawyer, and I’m not giving legal advice.
It’s entirely possible they are being sued.
There are types of lawsuits where you have to include anyone who could have an interest in the judgment.
I very seriously doubt that is what’s going on.
Sure, I get that now. In my defense, that type of legal maneuvering isn’t exactly common knowledge. As to where I sent the letter, one copy went to the plaintiff’s law firm, and another to the city, as instructed in the lawsuit. A “written response” was called for. I gave one without knowing the above information, because it wasn’t spelled out in the plaintiff’s lawsuit.
This is where American justice just blows my mind. They’re suing you? What the hell for!
on a tengent:
I am very confused by the fact that a SHERIFF would be used as postman to deliver correspondence in what seems to be a civil case (or administrative errand).
Is this a thing in the USA?
… supposedly there was a long list of people served the same information … probably many of those not at home (necesitating a second or third trip) … would a sheriff really have to spend many hours/possibly days to deliver - say - 50 sets of documents to 50 houses?
shouldn’t he be fighting crime? … and isn’t that a rather “expensive” way to move legal paper (for society)
How does the logistics of that work…??? The lawfirm sending 50 sets of those documents to the police station with a distribution list (get those out before friday!!!) … what will the be charged for by the police?
cant wrap my head around that
Yes, in the USA, sheriff departments serve civil paperwork all the time. Larger sheriff departments may have a section and deputies dedicated to civil paperwork service. They charge for this service.
IME experience as a homeowner who has been through this (on both sides), it’s unlikely he’s being sued. As others have said, there’s a procedure for seeking a variance that requires the property owner to notify all surrounding property owners, including the changes being sought, the times & places of meetings, etc so the homeowners can put their own 2 cents in. Since the OP didn’t respond to the first one (which is totally his right), they were probably required to send it again via a sheriff to prove that he had received the papers, so he couldn’t show up halfway through the construction and shut it down because he claimed he was never notified.
And in many parts of the USA, sheriffs don’t fight crime, in the sense of investigating crimes and catching criminals. They transport prisoners around and serve warrants or civil paperwork. And as KMS94 said, they definitely charge to serve papers in civil cases, so it’s not like taxpayer dollars are being spent on this developer sending out a sheriff.
A friend wanted to build a 4 car garage with a workshop on one end. He discovered that he would be unable to do this (zoning) unless he had 5 neighbors agree to a variance.
He did not need a lawyer for this. He approached the neighbors one at a time with a packet of material showing what the garage would look like, how long construction would take, etc. He gave each neighbor a small gift for considering his proposal (bottle of good bourbon type gifts).
Four neighbors agreed right away. They accompanied him to a notary and signed the papers. The fifth neighbor told him he was concerned about noise, which ordinarily wouldn’t be a problem, because he usually spent the summer boating. However, his boat needed $3,000.00 in repairs. My friend wrote him a check for the 3k.
Yes. In many US jurisdictions, the Sherriff’s Office no long play an active role in law enforcement and, instead, handle courthouse security, staff the jail, and do civil process (while there is a “police department” that handles more common policing). But even where is a full-service Sherriff’s office, civil process is a standard duty. I’m not sure what the history of that is, except that people are probably more likely to open their door for a sheriff’s deputy.
In my jurisdiction, the Sherriff’s office will serve a newly-file civil complaint for $12 per defendant. So it’s also likely cheaper than a private process server.