• The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure are the official guidelines for handling civil lawsuits in federal court. They cover the proper procedures for everything from initiating a lawsuit to enforcing a judge's decision. Rule 4 covers the process of serving a defendant with a summons, which is an order to appear in court. Section 4(d) discusses how to seek a waiver of the requirement that the defendant be served in person.
  
  

Requesting Waiver

• Federal courts don't look kindly on civil defendants who play cat-and-mouse games with those who are trying to serve them a summons. According to Rule 4(d), defendants have a duty to ensure that the summons can be served with the least amount of expense. One way to do that is for the defendant to "waive service of process"--that is, to acknowledge the lawsuit without being physically served. If the plaintiff chooses to request such a waiver, he must make the request in writing and send it to the defendant or the defendant's legal representative by mail or "other reliable means."
  
  

Elements of Request

• The waiver request must inform the defendant of where the lawsuit has been filed, and it must include a copy of the lawsuit, also known as the "complaint," a waiver form, and a prepaid envelope for returning the form. It must spell out what will happen if the defendant signs the waiver and what will happen if she doesn't. It must provide the date of the waiver request, and the defendant must have at least 30 days to return the waiver, 60 days if the defendant is outside the United States.
  
  

Consequences

• Unless a defendant has good cause for not signing and returning the waiver, he must pay the costs of serving the summons in person. The definition of "good cause" is up to the judge's discretion.
  
  

Time to Answer

• Ordinarily a defendant has 21 days to file a response to a lawsuit. If she waives service, however, she gets 60 days from the date of the waiver request. If she's outside the United States, she gets 90 days to respond.
  
  

Challenge to Venue

• By signing the waiver, the defendant is only waiving the right to be served the summons. He still has the right to argue that the court does not have jurisdiction over him or that the court where the lawsuit was filed is not the proper venue to hear it.