Are you sure? I did a quick google and found this which says Ohio allows certified or express mail with the return receipt as evidence that they were served. It’s not on an Ohio government webpage so it could be out of date.
I wasn’t thinking about avoiding the service so much as moving away.
Or if the guy dies and doens’t live there anymore.
I was thinking if the server can’t serve it, there must be a way. It seems like as long as you can prove you tried that’s enough.
And since you didn’t show up in court you would lose by default
Do they actually say that?
Ugh…Civ Pro 1L year…horrible horrible memories. Service of process and attachment of property took up a good chunk of my first semester of law school.
About the “you got served”, I don’t think it has to be those exact words, but I seem to recall that the process server had to inform the party what exactly they were handing them. But my memory could be faulty on that.
As others have mentioned, it depends on what the local jurisdiction requires. Herre is a California sampling of the festivities: When a case is filed, the lawyer delivers the papers to a professional process server who then tries to find the person and personally deliver the papers. If unable, they may try certified mail, if that fails, they can stake the person out, or they can try serving a adult at the home or place of business. Barring that, we try to get the court to order service by publication in a newspaper. Special legal newspapers are a lot cheaper. A copy is usually also mailed per these orders for service by publication.
From my days as an admin asst. at a collection agency, I recall the term Constructive Service. Is that term still in use?
Not a lawsuit but my son recently had his last name changed. I sent his mother a certified letter informing her of the hearing but it was pretty close to the court date and the judge seemed apprehensive about whether she had been given sufficient notice. So the judge postponed the hearing two weeks and told me to mail the new documents and that I could do so via first class mail. I asked if I needed some sort of confirmation receipt and she said no, that my word under oath to have sent them would be valid for “proving” that I had done so.
I believe you but reading this makes me shake my head.
I live in Chicago so there is almost no way in hell I would ever see such a notice in the paper. First there are two major newspapers and second, in a city this size, a section with such notices would be huge. Who they hell would read hundreds of such notices daily to see if one mentioned them?
I also live in an apartment building and short of the police getting past security no one else would get to my door without my say so.
Depending on jurisdiction, a doorman can be given the notice if he refuses the process server access to a defendant’s apartment. He becomes the person “of suitable age and discretion” mentioned above (even though he likely doesn’t reside there).
I see a market for ‘fire in the hole’ service of processs videos.
I was peripherally involved in a situation where a legally-important document was refused certified delivery, presumably because the recipient knew from the return address it was bad news. This was NOT a formal service of a legal notice, so it wasn’t governed by any court rules, rather it was governed by lawyers saying “If this comes to a lawsuit, we’ll need to prove that the recipient did get this. Certified mail is the best evidence.” I think the lawyers then sent it by FedEx to the recipient’s office, where someone (receptionist I assume) signed for it, thereby allowing the sender to establish it was received. As I recall there was some discussion of whether to hire a process server if the FedEx trick didn’t work.
Of course, I was always wondering how you prove exactly what was in the certified letter envelope, but I decided the lawyers wouldn’t appreciate me bringing that up…
Some years ago there was a court case here to determine whether papers served by faxing them were legally valid. The court held that they were, providing both parties agreed that they had been received - no way to prove whether a fax had been legibly received or not. Telex, on the other hand, was a valid way of doing it.
The Small Claims Court here comments:-
*It can be difficult for parties to litigation to understand that, in legal terms, service is not the same as delivery or receipt. A claim form is deemed to have been served on a defendant even if it has been returned to the court marked undelivered – provided that it was sent to the last known or usual address of the defendant. The claim form is even deemed to have been served if the claimant knows that the defendant has left that address – unless they know the defendant’s new address.
This rule is so strict that there is nothing the defendant can do to rebut it even if they have conclusive proof that they never received the document. There is even case law that says that service was still good where a document was sent to a property which had previously been destroyed.*
Testimony, the same way as you would prove that the document has been put into the post, or sent by FedEx.
Normally, you can’t just file a document with the court. It has to be introduced by someone testifying to it. The system I’m familiar with, the process server or legal secretary will swear an affidavit, with copies of the document and the copies of the post/FedEx tracking information as exhibits. The person swearing the affidavit swears that the copy of the document is a true copy; that he/she arranged for it to be sent by post/FedEx; that the tracking documents are those received from post/FedEx; that the affiant verily believes that the document is a true record of the attempts by post/FedEx to deliver it; and so on. Absent a statutory provision authorising a document to be entered on its own authority (and those types of provisions are rare in general litigation), all documents are tendered to the court via a witness, either in person or by affidavit.
Yes and no. It depends on the jurisdiction, and on the nature of the claim in issue. For example, here in Canada, there is case-law that says when a constitutional right is at stake (life, liberty, or security of the person, for example), then personal service of the documents on the respondent is required as a general rule. There are exceptions (e.g. - attempts to evade service), but personal service is the general rule.
Fair enough except I do not have a doorman. “Security” in my case are a locked gate and locked entryway.
Hmmm… If she shows up in court to claim she was never served, isn’t her very appearance proof that she WAS served? How else would she know?
IIRC in most jurisdictions before substituted service can be ordered process server has to report to that service has been attempted and failed.
This happens in my court a few times a year. I will usually find that service was satisfactory if the defendant found out somehow, and came to court. The whole rationale for requiring service of process is so that the person being sued is made aware of it.
If the person doesn’t show up, and the paperwork appears correct, then it is assumed the person was served, and the other guy gets a default judgment.
It the person DOES show up,then it is assumed the person was served.
What’s the downside of not serving papers?
If you can’t perfect service, one way or another, then the case can’t go forward. If it sits on the docket for too long without perfecting service (and the length of time varies under state law and/or local rule), it will be dismissed.