Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

Re: Proof of service signed by attorney

The person who signs the proof of service must be the one who serves the papers. The parties can't serve papers in their own cases, but otherwise the only requirement is that the person must be an adult. Attorney A can serve Attorney B's papers (and sign the proof of service) unless Attorney A is a party in the case.

Can one attorney sign another's name on the motion itself? Probably, as long as he has been authorized by the lawyer whose name he is signing. Motions are not signed under penalty of perjury, and what matters is that the attorney of record stands behind the motion, not that it was actually her hand that signed it.

Re: Proof of service signed by attorney

The one who signs the proof of service must be the one who served the papers. An attorney can serve papers provided that he is not a party to the action.

I actually had a case where the attorney was the party and was signing his own proofs of service that were filed with the court. And not suprisingly, we were not receiving the documents he claimed to be serving.

Very truly yours,

Re: Proof of service signed by attorney

Can one attorney sign a proof of service for another attorney's motion? Yes.