Service of process

In the U.S. legal system, service of process is the procedure by which a party to a lawsuit gives an appropriate notice of initial legal action to another party (such as a defendant), court, or administrative body in an effort to exercise jurisdiction over that person so as to force that person to respond to the proceeding in a court, body, or other tribunal.

Notice is furnished by delivering a set of court documents (called "process") to the person to be served.

[2] California, New York,[3] Illinois, and many other United States jurisdictions require that in addition to substituted service, the documents be mailed to the recipient.

[4] Service by publication is commonly used in a divorce action to serve a spouse who has disappeared without leaving a forwarding address.

Service by publication usually involves placing the petition for divorce and the summons to a missing spouse in a local newspaper.

[5] In addition, in some jurisdictions, substituted service may be effected through motion and public notice, followed by sending the documents by certified mail.

[7][8] In 2018, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice allowed service via Instagram and LinkedIn's built-in messaging systems.

It means that the served party agrees to voluntarily acknowledge receipt of the complaint or petition without the need to engage a process server.

[citation needed] In the US, personal service of process has been the hallmark for initiating litigation for nearly 100 years, primarily because it guarantees actual notice to the defendant of a legal action.

Most jurisdictions require or permit process to be served by a court official, such as a sheriff, marshal, constable, or bailiff.

There may be licensing requirements for private process servers, as is the case in New York City, Alaska, Arizona, California, Georgia, Illinois, Montana, Nevada, and Oklahoma.

Arizona process servers are required to apply for certification with the clerk of the Superior Court in the county in which they reside.

In New York State, personal process is required in divorce and similar matrimonial law actions, absent court permission.

[12] Specific practice is that: The defendant must be personally served with the divorce papers, unless the court grants some other means of service.

[14] In civil law jurisdictions, which include all of Continental Europe and most Asian, African, and South American countries, service of process is generally performed by the court.

Prior to the enactment of the Hague Service Convention, service of process in civil cases was generally effected by a letter rogatory, a formal request from the court in the country where proceedings were initiated or underway to a court in another country where the defendant resided.

The registered agent is a person or company authorized in advance to accept service on behalf of the served party.

Each court has specific rules, forms, guidelines and procedures which must be followed in order to successfully effect service of process.

Not surprisingly, this defense tends to be effective in many cases because service of process upon defendant did not follow legal procedure.

Thus a process server certified under the authority of the state (i.e. Arizona) cannot serve a party to a case while that person is on the reservation unless the tribal council consents to permit service.

Marshals Service, a county sheriff's department, or other law enforcement agency having responsibility to serve documents.

This allows servers to enter a private property for a reasonable period of time to attempt service of process.

(a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any person shall be granted access to a gated community ... for the purpose of performing lawful service of process, upon identifying to the guard the person or persons to be served, and upon displaying a current driver's license or other identification, and one of the follow: (1) a badge [applies to sheriffs and marshals] (2) evidence of current registration as a process server... (b)This section shall only apply to a gated community which is staffed, at the time service of process is attempted, by a guard or other ... personnel assigned to control access .. .it does not apply to a private residence that has posted no trespassing signs'In Washington, "Registered Process Servers" are granted a limited exemption or affirmative defense against trespassing: The actor was attempting to serve legal process which includes any document required or allowed to be served upon persons or property, by any statute, rule, ordinance, regulation, or court order, excluding delivery by the mails of the United States.

[21] Some states prohibit the delivery or serving of documents on Sundays, holidays or election days (dies non juridicum).

According to various laws,[citation needed] service of process cannot be performed on Sundays in Florida (unless with a court order), Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee (unless with a court order), Texas, Virginia, or West Virginia.

In 2011, New York's City Council enacted a regulation requiring process servers to use GPS to prove that they attempted to locate someone.