Pleadings and Motions
Pleadings
Service must comply with the applicable rules governing who may serve, permissible methods, and how each type of defendant is reached. Federal practice permits personal delivery, delivery at the dwelling, service on an agent, and methods permitted by state law.
A time limit applies for completing service.
Alternative Names:
Process Service, Effecting Service
Why it Matters?
Service on corporate entities is where defects concentrate, since serving a receptionist or a person not authorized to accept service is ineffective even where the entity received actual notice. Actual notice does not cure defective service in most jurisdictions. The ninety-day federal deadline is separately enforced, though courts frequently extend it, and dismissal for untimely service can be fatal where limitations have run.
Frequently Confused with
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
Does actual notice cure defective service?
Where do corporate service defects arise?
