What is Service of Process?

Service of Process might sound like confusing legal jargon, but it is actually fairly straightforward. Service of Process is the procedure by which a party to a lawsuit gives a notice of initial legal action to another party. While this other party is typically the defendant, they can also be the court or another administrative body. Service of Process is an effort to exercise jurisdiction over the other party to enable that party to respond to a proceeding before the court.

Where You Might Have Heard It Before!

Service of Process is not something everyone is familiar with, at least not when calling it by its official name! However, anyone who has ever seen a cop drama is probably familiar with Service of Process without even knowing it. Whenever you’ve seen a character announce “you’ve been served” and hand someone papers or an envelope, you have seen Service of Process take place!

Importance of Service of Process

The point of service of process is to ensure that all parties involved in a legal dispute are aware of all the charges. Essentially when someone is served with Service of Process, they are being informed of a complaint someone has against them. This way that person is given adequate time to respond to that complaint.

Who Serves the Service?

Who serves the Service of Process varies on a case to case basis. Most often that person is a process server. A process server is a registered agent with special training in all things related to service of process. Once upon a time, legal documents used to be served by a county’s local sheriff. However, over the years, that option became unfeasible. Process servers were created to carry out the necessary task of bringing legal documents to people.