Serving court papers gone wrong!

Tiki90 · 01-12-2019 6:06am #1

Served a court paper at a defendants home address (a family member accepted it on their behalf without knowing that the defendant is being sued) and things turned left quick.😳 In the end defendant parent tore up the letter, caught it on video.

Is that proof of defendant being served?

Irishphotodesk · 01-12-2019 8:04am

Tiki90 wrote: »

Served a court paper at a defendants home address (a family member accepted it on their behalf without knowing that the defendant is being sued) and things turned left quick.ðŸ˜³ In the end defendant parent tore up the letter, caught it on video.

Is that proof of defendant being served?

I thought personal service was supposed to be directly to the person themselves.
If "an agent" known to the person has damaged/destroyed the letter you could consider reporting the matter to gardai - it's an offence to tamper with post.
If you are putting it on an affadafit that you served "X" with court papers, but also that you know "X" destroyed the papers, I believe that would nullify service of papers, but would allow a court to grant permission for substitute service.

(I'm not legally trained...but that's my understanding given the piece of information you have posted)

randomrb · 02-12-2019 11:09am

It would be an interesting one, you could sign an affidavit that the documents were served to an individual that purported to represent the defendant and that that is enough to discharge your duty, what they do next is not under your control.

However that could be a tricky argument to make, you are better of getting a summons server to do it properly and then you have an unbiased account in court as well

Carawaystick · 02-12-2019 10:53pm

I presume you know the explicit, specific & legitimate purpose you are processing the persons personal data?
And that you are processing it fairly and transparently? They person you videoed knows who you are and where to contact you if they were to submit a SAR right?

NUTLEY BOY · 04-12-2019 12:20pm

Generally, destroying court papers just served does not render them nugatory.
Personal service is best achieved by actual service on the intended recipient.

If the next step is a motion for judgment there might well be a problem in establishing that bona fide service has occurred.

If an intended recipient is evading service the next thing to do is to apply for an order for substituted service - usually a public notice in a newspaper. That will deal with evasion of service.

Tiki90 · 06-12-2019 7:51pm

I got in contact with the court and they said to me that it was served (served to any member of the family) . I could do it myself. Presuming that information is correct.

Serving court papers gone wrong!

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