Service of Process for Family Law Claims

1.  Uploaded documents are confirmed as ready and are dispatched to the nearest process server.
2. If you have standard delivery, expect the first attempt within 3-5 business days and 1-2 business days for Rush.
3. Additional attempts are made such that they meet local court diligence requirements. The process server continues to make attempts, recording data about each attempt as they go.
4. Once they are able to make the delivery legally, service is considered complete.
5. Proof of service is signed by the process server and is available in your account. Where required by the court, it will be mailed to you.
   1. If the process server is unable to make the delivery in the number of attempts outlined by courts for due diligence, a return of non-service will be prepared, so that you can seek other options for service as available.

Once you have proof of service for the delivery of your legal documents, it is important that you submit it to the court in accordance with local requirements. Be sure to confirm what the court you initially filed with requires.

Yes, in most cases, we can deliver a summons and complaint or order and notice for family law cases.

Process servers deliver legal documents alerting people to legal actions taken in or resulting from judgments in civil courts. As unbiased delivery agents, they are eligible to deliver documents for all kinds of civil court cases, except where there are special laws or rules. 

There are certain situations where process servers may not serve; in certain states, for example, third parties are not allowed in certain areas unsupervised. 

Learn more about service of process and process servers here.

We deliver in all 50 states. ABC Legal has the largest process server network in the U.S. with more than 2.5K active process servers that regularly deliver documents.

Learn more about our process servers here.

Process servers are, in most cases, able to serve documents from civil court proceedings. Just upload your documents and we'll get them where they need to go.

To order service of process, all you need are the documents you need delivered in a digital format, the name of the person you hope to serve and the address you'd like us to go to.

If there's anything special you want us to know or do for delivery, you can add additional notes for the process server, such as particular days to try or a description of the party to be served, during the place order process.

Get started here.

We provide a comprehensive service of process experience at a flat rate based on the service state. Prices range from $75-145 for standard delivery.

Learn more about the quality and value you get with ABC Legal here.

People are not always where you expect them to be. If we try the address you provide and we cannot complete the delivery, we'll tell you what happened so you're able to take the appropriate next steps for your family law case.

If you know of a second address we can try, perhaps their place of work or another place they could be staying, simply place a new order at that address and note why you think they could be there. To make this easy, if your case was non-served, you will have an Issue, Action Needed in your account. You can add the second address there. This will allow you to place the second order without re-uploading your documents or re-entering your information.

If you're certain that the person lives at the address and should be there, and if you are able to provide a photo of the person being served and a person has come to the door during attempts, we can try to confirm their identity using the photo. However, if they are not answering the door, we may not be able to make progress.

When you first place your order, if you know of a day that person may be available you can let us know in the "Additional Notes". If you need us to try at a specific time of day, you may include it, but it will require a special handling fee of $65. If you require us to wait at a house for more than 10 minutes at a property, we can perform a stakeout, for $125, which covers up to an hour at a location. After an hour, there is an additional $1/minute fee, for up to 3 hours total.

If the process server finds an indication that the person you're looking for resides at the address provided and is avoiding service, you'll have that evidence in your account if you would like to use it to move for alternative service, which may require assistance from an appropriate legal counsel.

Sometimes, we need to visit an address multiple times to catch a person while they're at home. Life happens. But, there are cases where people actively avoid being served family law documents.

Based on our nearly 50 years of experience serving legal documents, we've developed systems to help our process servers gather details during their attempts to confirm that the person we're looking for resides there. That information, like the presence of a vehicle registered in the servee's name, packages addressed to the servee, or mailbox labels with their name, is made available to you. With that information, you'll have greater flexibility when you go to make a case that the person is truly avoiding service of process.

With that evidence, you may be able to move for alternative service methods. Since alternative service requires court approval, you may want to seek legal counsel to ensure you're on track.

Proof of Service, return of service, or an Affidavit of Service is a document that must be filled out to formally record and properly complete legally-compliant service of process in most states. The person serving the document signs it, effectively, swearing under oath that service was completed as outlined in the document. Proof of service is available in your account as soon as it's ready. If your state requires the original signed document, that will be mailed to you.

Once you have proof of service, you must file it with the court where you filed the initial family law case. In some states, there is a limited timeline between when the documents are served and the proof must be filed with the court. Be sure to check local court rules to confirm what is required for your case.

Contesting service of process, claiming that service was not performed or was performed improperly can force your case back to the beginning since proper notification is required for the case to be heard in civil court. When that happens, evidence must be presented to validate service of process and a process server may need to appear in court to swear in person to their service of process. This means that getting service right the first time and evidence to support service of process can be crucial for your case.

ABC Legal provides tech-backed evidence of service of process that validates where and when service of process took place. Having GPS coordinates and photos validating service will go a long way in the eyes of the court to prevent service from being contested.