Legal Question in Business Law in California

Lawsuits are matters of public record. Presumably the papers your roommate received had already been filed with the court. Giving copies to your roommate did not violate your right to privacy.

Let me add that merely giving the papers to your roommate is not valid service on you. But if the plaintiff made other unsuccessful attempts to serve you, and if it also mails you copies of the same papers that were left with your roommate, it will have served you properly.

I agree with Mr. Hoffman. There is no privacy right with served papers. If the complaint is also accompanied by a summons, stamped by the clerk, the papers served are already part of the public record. The laws regarding service of summons and complaints have been on the books, and serving court papers has been done this way, since 1970. See Code of Civil Procedure section 415.20.

Now you need to turn your attention to answering and defending.

Although there is no defect here yet, I might point out that I usually encourage clients to disregard defects in the service of process such as serving at the wrong address or failing to mail a follow-up because filing motions to object to the defects is expensive and time-consuming, and the plaintiff will just re-do the service anyway

I agree with the previous responses. Presumably, you were served with a copy of the summons and complaint. Both of these documents are a matter of public record, and anyone can view them at the county courthouse where they are filed. It would appear that you have been served via substituted service, and should be expecting a copy in the mail.