Make Sure You Properly Serve Defendants

If you have a lawsuit, there’s nothing that will derail your suit faster than not properly serving a Defendant. Serving a lawsuit is a specific process rooted in constitutional protections. The failure to properly serve someone can lead to the judgment you obtained being thrown out.

Why Service of Process Matters

As a rule, and under the constitutional protections of due process, you have a right to know when you’re being sued, what you’re being sued for, and to mount a defense to the suit. Someone cannot get a judgment against you “behind your back” when you have no knowledge of the lawsuit.

Using Process Servicers

This is most commonly done by using a process server—yes, the same process servers you see in the movies and TV who chase down people to physically hand them paperwork.

Usually process servers will find people at home or at work, and hand them the lawsuit paperwork, without any problems or issues. Gated communities must allow access to their communities, for licensed process servers.

Serving Others

There are times when you can serve the lawsuit paperwork on someone who isn’t the person being sued. This often happens when the process server goes to a home, and someone else who lives there, accepts the paperwork. The person who is being sued will often complain that they “had no idea they were being sued.”

However, a process server can leave paperwork with someone who is over the age of 15, who resides with the person being sued.

Evading Service and Constructive Service

In some cases, a Defendant cannot be sued because he or she is purposely avoiding the process server. The person may be living somewhere else, or not answering their door.

You can serve someone who may be evading service, but there are specific rules that must be followed. This is called constructive service.

The process server must show that he or she did a diligent search and still couldn’t find the person to be served, or else, that the address for the Defendant is not a valid address and nobody is living there. The court will eventually decide if the attempts and efforts made by the process server were sufficient to justify constructive service.

If justified, someone can be served by publishing notice of the lawsuit in a newspaper (or online source) that serves the county where the lawsuit was filed. The notice must be published repeatedly, over four weeks.

Service at Work

Of course, when process servers can’t find people in their homes, they look to try to serve the person where they work. The process server must tell the company or the employer, in advance, that it is coming to serve the employee.

If the Defendant is a business, there is a list of employees and officers who are legally authorized to accept service for the company, including the company’s registered agent. The process server must strictly abide by this list—serving the wrong employee or officer, will be considered invalid service.

Start your business lawsuit the right way, and without problems. Call our Fort Lauderdale business lawyers at Sweeney Law P.A. at 954-440-3993 today.

Sources:

flcourts.gov/content/download/862652/file/Everything%20Else%20-%20Constructive%20service%20benchbook.pdf

us.vlex.com/source/14779/chapter/chapter-49-constructive-service-of-process-400275377