Legal Question in Business Law in California
Small Court Serving Process
Im trying to sue someone for a past
loan that was never paid back. I cant
find the defendant. Can I serve the
last know address or publish it in a
newspaper? The processor I hired
just left it with someone at his last
know address. What option if any, do
I have?
3 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Small Court Serving Process
The service might be proper. Once you obtain a judgment, then the hard part will be collecting. Try Zabasearch.com, a free people-finder. If all else fails, hire an attorney to help you collect.
Re: Small Court Serving Process
You can't serve by publication in small claims. You should perform a little investigation to find the defendant. Otherwise you run the risk of serving the defendant in a manner that will not give notice to the defendant of the lawsuit, and may later result in the overturning of the judgment - i.e. a big waste of time.
Re: Small Court Serving Process
More to the point: if you can't find him, you won't be able to collect any judgment you might get. Why waste the time and money doing so? You'll have to get a court order for publication of Summons, pay the cost of publication, then seek a default judgment.
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