How To Serve A Personal Injury Lawsuit On The Defendant?

If you are ever involved in a personal injury accident and were the victim. The first thing you’ll do is hire a personal injury lawyer in Sudbury. This person will help you craft a personal injury lawsuit against the defendant. He or she will then tell you how to serve the lawsuit on the defendant. Your lawyer will tell you that you can bring the defendant into court only if you serve the lawsuit on him or her.

Do you know what the summons and complaint are?

The complaint contains all of your accusations against the defendant. This includes causes of action like negligence. You and your personal injury lawyer will also draft a summons. You must serve both against the defendant before you can file your lawsuit with the courts.

The rules that apply when serving defendants

You need to follow these rules when serving a defendant. You need to spend reasonable time and effort trying to locate the person. You can then give him or her the papers in person. While you can hire a serving company to do this if your local sheriff’s office will do the job for a few dollars.

Proof of service and the defendant’s response

Once you’ve served the papers in person. You have to draft a document called the proof of service with your lawyer and file it with your court. This is to keep the time, date, and location of the service on record. The defendant is legally required to answer the summons within the time period specified on it. If he or she fails to do so, you can seek a default judgment. You’ll have to prove to the courts that you served the defendant the way you were supposed to. The proof of service can serve as valid evidence of this.

Substituted service

If you are unable to give the defendant the papers in person, you can do the following with the court’s permission:

● Publish a notice of the lawsuit’s filings in a local newspaper or similar local publication.
● Go to the defendant’s house and put the papers in his or her mailbox
● Send the papers by certified mail to the defendant at his or her last known address
● Do all of the above.

Serving the defendant only looks easy

While it may not seem hard to serve the defendant in person especially if you know his or her address, this is generally far from true because defendants are people and people live busy lives and may not be home a lot. Your lawyer can help you serve the defendant in this instance.