How to Serve Legal Documents
- 1). Start by filing a lawsuit or other legal proceeding either by yourself or representation by a licensed attorney.
- 2). Determine the acceptable methods of serving the entity or persons. These can include mail and acknowledgment of receipt, personal or constructive service, substituted service or service by publication. Proceedings involving possession and/or ownership of real property such as evictions, foreclosures or actions for adverse possession may require that you post a conspicuous notice on the property and thereafter mailing a certified mail notice to all occupants of the real property.
- 3). Contact your state’s secretary of state to determine who the proper agent for service of process is. All corporations must designate a person or company that can accept service of legal process for their corporation. Generally, you must either serve the agent for service of process or serve a person apparently in charge of the office and send a copy of the documents to the company’s main office.
- 4). Serve individuals and sole proprietorships by personal service, if possible. If your process server has unsuccessfully attempted to serve documents personally, you may usually effectuate service by leaving copies of the documents with any person age 18 or older who resides at the party’s residence and sending a copy of the documents to that party via certified mail.If you have diligently and unsuccessfully attempted to locate a party, you can usually get the court’s approval to serve the party by publishing a notice in a “newspaper of general circulation.”
- 5). Serve a governmental entity by whatever method required by your state or required by the specific federal agency. In some cases, you may be required to serve the state’s attorney general or the head of the agency you are suing.
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