Question about small claims?

Question

What can I do if defendant refuses to accept court papers, for example my friend goes to the defendants house but he pretend he isn't home?

Answer 1

found this:

What if the person cannot be found or is evasive?

If the named party in the documents cannot be found, the court may allow service by publication in a newspaper. Before this can happen, you may be asked to prove to the court that a reasonable attempt was made to actually serve the defendant or the person named. This is where the hiring of a professional process server comes into play.

In some states a “Substitute Service” is acceptable. This is when someone other than the defendant is served. This should be done only as the last resort and shown as part of the Due Diligence process. Please refer to the rules of civil procedure in your state.

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Answer 2

You may have to have him served by a court officer.  But that costs money.

Go see a legal clinic, or go to the courthouse.  If he is unreasonably avoiding being served... they may be able to help, or simply have him declared a "no defense" case... he'd lose automatically.

Answer 3

Send it certified mail or notify the judge, who can authorize you to leave it on the front door given that the defendant is dodging service--i.e. "substituted service"  

Answer 4

You need to provide much more information in order for anyone to give you an answer of any value. For instance, this is what I'd need to know:

a) What jurisdiction are you in?

b) What type of proceedings are you involved in (ie. motor vehicle, family, civil litigation, criminal, other - specify)?

c) What court is this proceeding taking place in?

d) What is the precise name of the "court paper" that you are trying to serve?

Indeed, some rules of procedure allow for substituted service orders, but not generally for proceedings where there is a liberty interest at stake, and not at all in certain types of proceedings.

Therefore, please clarify the four questions above, and I will return back tomorrow to see whether I can help you.

ADDITIONAL

You won't get - and indeed CANNOT get - substituted service orders for certain types of documents. It's impossible for the judge to order substituted service when the rules of civil procedure for instance very explicitely state that the person must be served "personally".

Just provide the details as I've requested, and I will give you your answer. Point blank, just as you need it.