Who Can Serve Your Legal Documents In CA?

Who Can Serve Your Legal Documents In CA?:

When pro pers and attorneys need to get court papers served, there are many types of professional service providers who can help, but not all of them are legally qualified to serve *all* kinds of papers. In California, a private investigator, attorney and their employees, and anybody who makes less than ten services in a year, are exempt from registering as process servers. But that doesn’t mean they’re qualified to serve any kind of court papers.

Taken straight from the California Business and Professions Code §§ 22350-22360, California service of process law specifically states:

“22350. (a) Any natural person who makes more than 10 services of process within this state during one calendar year, for specific compensation or in expectation of specific compensation, where such compensation is directly attributable to the service of process, shall file and maintain a verified certificate of registration as a process server with the county clerk of the county in which he or she resides or has his or her principal place of business. Any corporation or partnership that derives or expects to derive compensation from service of process within this state shall also file and maintain a verified certificate of registration as a process server with the county clerk of the county in which the corporation or partnership has its principal place of business.

(b) This chapter shall not apply to any of the following:

(1) Any sheriff, marshal, or government employee who is acting
within the course and scope of his or her employment.
(2) An attorney or his or her employees.
(3) Any person who is specially appointed by a court to serve its
process.
(4) A licensed private investigator or his or her employees.
(5) A professional photocopier registered under Section 22450, or
an employee thereof, whose only service of process relates to
subpoenas for the production of records, which subpoenas specify that the records be copied by that registered professional photocopier.”

That means when it comes to serving some legal papers in the state of California, like, for example, a summons and complaint, almost anybody can handle the job. Legally, that is. How professionally and efficiently they effect the service might be another story. But for the point of this article, we’re explaining who is qualified by law to serve which kinds of legal documents in the state of California.

As outlined in the law mentioned above, a private investigator, attorney and their employees, or anybody who make less than ten serves per year (a neighbor doing a favor, let’s say), are exempt from getting registered with their county clerk as “registered” process servers. But that does not mean they are qualified to serve all kinds of documents.

There are several documents that only ministerial officers (sheriffs) and “registered” process severs are legally allowed to serve in California. The following legal papers must be served by registered process servers, not those who are simply “exempt” from registration:

*Writ of Attachment
*Writ of Execution
*Earnings Withholding Order
*Order of Examination
*Pre-Judgement Claim of Right to Possession

Many licensed private investigators, who are exempt from registration, may be unaware of this, and agree to serve legal papers for clients without knowing the service would ultimately be invalid. For this reason, many professional investigators also get registered as process servers. It’s something to think about when looking for somebody qualified to serve certain documents legally.

Another bonus to pro pers and attorneys working with a registered process server, is that registration gives them special status in other areas of law when it comes to serving court papers, such as:

*Limited exemption from trespass
*Proof of service has rebuttable presumption status
*Must be provided access to a gated community when performing a service

So depending on the nature of the documents you need served, as well as how difficult effecting the service might be (say, getting past a security gate legally), a bonded and registered process server is the best choice.

See the latest news about process service laws.

Tags: california when attorney can serve documents, can a private investigator serve legal papers, service of legal documents in california
Who Can Serve Your Legal Documents In CA? By law | September 20, 2010

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