Have you found yourself ready to serve a defendant with a civil lawsuit in the state of Georgia? In this article, we’ll cover how to serve a defendant with a lawsuit and when to hire an attorney to support you in doing so. If you prefer an audio/visual version of this blog, click below.
What is Personal Service?
Georgia civil lawsuits generally require what’s called personal service. What that means is the person is handing the lawsuit to the defendant. Sometimes that can be a resident in the defendant’s home or a representative at the defendant’s business. Either way, you have a person serving a civil lawsuit. That can be the sheriff, it can be a marshal in a county, or it can be a private server. You have to be careful when using a private process server, however, because some jurisdictions require you to get an order from the court allowing you to use a private process server. If you use a private process server to serve your lawsuit before obtaining an order in a jurisdiction that requires such an order, your service could be deemed invalid and then you would have to start the whole process over.
How Can an Attorney Help?
To determine if you’re in a jurisdiction that requires you to get an order from the court allowing you to use a private process server, we recommend calling an attorney. An attorney can help determine whether or not you need an order allowing a private process server or if you have an available sheriff/marshal to serve. An attorney can also help you create a plan for how to best navigate your civil case.
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