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Serving Court Documents
How are Papers Served?
Papers may be served in one of the
following
ways, depending on the circumstances
or type
of papers to be served:
- Personal Service requires the papers to be hand delivered
to the person.
The papers may be hand delivered to the attorney
for that person, or the attorney's
secretary,
during business hours, if that attorney
has
already appeared" in the case.
Usually an attorney has "appeared"
if he/she has gone into court on the
case
or filed papers in the case.
Personal Service is the required way
to serve
certain papers.
Personal service is required for all
papers
which start a case.
A person is served as soon as the person
is handed the papers.
- Substituted Service may be used if personal service has not
been successful after several attempts
to
serve the person.
For Substituted Service copies of the papers
are left at the place of residence
(home),
or normal place of business of the
person
to be served.
The papers must be left with a person
who
is at least 18 years old. The person
given
the papers must live in the same home
or
be the person in charge at the place
of business.
The person given the papers must be
told
what the papers are about and who they
are
for.
Do not leave the papers yourself.
After leaving the papers, the person
serving
the papers must also mail a copy of
them
to the party to be served, at the same
address
where the papers were left.
Do not mail the papers yourself.
The copies must be sent by first-class
mail,
with enough postage (stamps) to get
the envelope
delivered.
The party is considered served ten
days after
the copies are mailed.
The person who made the efforts to
serve
the party in person must write a Declaration
of Due Diligence (under oath) to file
with
the Court.
The Declaration of Due Diligence must
tell,
in detail, what efforts he/she made
to serve
the party in person.
This Declaration must be filed along
with
the Proof of Service also signed by
the person
who served the papers.
- Service by Mail is used in some cases. Papers may be served
by mailing them to the person to be
served.
There are special requirements for
this kind
of service.
The person serving the papers puts
the documents
to be served into an envelope, addressed
to the party to be served and sends
them
by first-class mail.
Do not mail the papers yourself.
The person mailing the papers also
includes
a copy of the Proof of Service form.
The
Proof of Service form will be complete
except
for the signature.
Service by mail is permitted for all
papers
if the party to be served lives outside
California.
In these circumstances the mailing
must be
by Registered or Certified Mail and
must
have the Return Receipt Requested form
attached
and filled out.
The signed Return Receipt Requested
form
must be filed with the court along
with the
form which states how the papers were
served
(Proof of Service).
If the party to be served is not in
California,
the party is served by mail ten days
after
the papers are mailed.
Note: In practice it is better to have
the
person personally served even outside
California.
If the party to be served by mail does
not
sign the Return Receipt Requested form,
you
do not have good service.
- Notice and Acknowledgement of Receipt is another form of service by mail acceptable
for original papers.
Two copies of a form called Notice
and Acknowledgment
of Receipt must be included with all
of the
papers sent to the other party.
The person sending the papers must
also include
a self-addressed, stamped envelope.
The "Notice and Acknowledgment
of Receipt."
must name the person who is being served:
TO: ......................................
It must be dated and signed by the
sender:
Dated: ...........................
(Signature of Sender)
Do not send the Notice and Acknowledgment of Receipt
yourself.
The sender must list the papers which
are
being served. For example:
ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF RECEIPT
This acknowledges receipt of: (To be
completed
by sender before mailing)
A copy of the summons and of the complaint
A copy of the summons and of the Petition
(Marriage) and:
Blank Confidential Counseling Statement
(Marriage)
Order to Show Cause (Marriage)
Blank Responsive Declaration
Blank Financial Declaration
Other (specify) Blank Response (Marriage);
completed Income and Expense Declaration.
If the person being served signs,
dates and
returns the form, the papers have
been officially
served.
Notice that there are two lines to
be dated,
one line to be signed and one line
to print
or type the name of the party signing
and
the name of person served (if different):
(To be completed by recipient)
Date of Receipt ................................................
(Signature of person acknowledging
receipt
etc.)
Date this form is signed: ........................................
(Type or print your name and name of
entity,
if any, on behalf, etc.)
If the form is returned to the sender
the
party is served on the date the "Notice
and Acknowledgment of Receipt"
form
was signed.
If the party to be served does not
return
the requested "Notice and Receipt7
form,
or does not sign the form, the service
is
not complete and some other way of
serving
that party will be necessary.
Service by mail is also permitted for
most
papers to be served on a party if that
party
has already filed papers in the action.
The address for service by mail is
the address
that party put at the top of the papers
he/she
filed.
If an attorney for a party has already
"appeared"
in a case, the papers should be sent
to that
attorney.
If you are not certain that the attorney
is involved in the case it would be
best
to serve both the other person AND
"their
attorney."
After a Judgment in the case, Personal
Service
on the party is usually required again.
A person is served by mail five days
after
the papers are mailed and both the
person
sending the papers and to person to
receive
the papers are in California.
A person is served by mail ten days
after
the papers are mailed if either the
person
mailing or the person receiving the
papers
is outside California.
- Service by Publication is a process of putting an official notice
in a newspaper. This is a very unusual
method
of serving papers and is only permitted
after
the court gives an order permitting
service
in this way.
Before using this form of service,
the person
who wants the papers served must have
tried,
in all other reasonable ways, to locate
the
person and give them the papers.
To get the Order For Publication the
person
wishing to use this method must file
an Application
For Order For Publication of Summons
along
with a statement Declaration of Due
Diligence.
A Declaration of Due Diligence is a statement
of the efforts that have already
been made
to get the other party served.
You should also tell the judge all
that you
know about where the other party might
be.
The Court will usually order service
by publication
if you can show that the party cannot
be
found despite very strong efforts to
find
them.
Even if you know where the other party
is
living, the court will sometimes order
service
by publication if you show that the
other
party is actively avoiding being served.
The court will consider the matter
and IF
the judge believes uService By Publication'
should be permitted, the judge will
order
the notice to be published in a newspaper
the judge names in the order.
The newspaper named will be one the
judge
thinks uthe one most likely to give
actual
notice to the party to be served!
After the papers have been published
in that
newspaper for the number of days or
weeks
ordered by the judge, the party is
considered
to be legally served.
The court will require a sworn statement
from the newspaper that the "publication'
has been made according to the judge's
order.
The sworn statement will be on the
form for
Proof of Service and should be provided
by
the newspaper.
- Appearance, Stipulation and Waiver is a way a party can tell the court they
know about a law case even if they
did not
receive any other official notice
(service).
This form is usually used if the
parties
have reached a complete agreement.
If this
form is filed, there is no need to
prove
the service of a Summons and Petition
nor
with any other previously filed papers.
- The Filing of a Response (or Answer) by the other party makes it unnecessary
to prove that you have formally served
the
Summons and Petition (or Complaint).
By filing
the Response (or Answer) the other
party
shows that he/she knows about the
legal action
and agrees to the Court hearing the
case.
- A General Appearance acts like the service of process because
the other party, or his or her attorney,
comes into court or files papers
with the
court in a way that shows consent
to the
court hearing the matters in the
law case.
In this situation the other party
waives
his or her right to object to the way
they
were told about the case or the court
that
will hear the case. (Note: if the person
makes a "Special Appearance"
to
object to the court hearing the case,
the
person is not waiving their right to
proper
service of papers.)
The other person does not waive his
or her
right to object to the orders you request.
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