Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California
Requirement of personal service
Does person knowledge after the fact, equal personal service when service is required under California law?
Otherwise, if someone is required to serve notice and failed to do so, and at a later date you become aware of the document which was required to be served on you own through a records request, does that render the necessity of service moot?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Requirement of personal service
Merely learning of the document does not eliminate the need for proper service. In most instances, proper service is a jurisdictional requirement -- if the party was not properly served with a document, the court has no jurisdiction to act against her pursuant to that document even if she learns of the document independently.
There are ways for the party to submit to the court's jurisdiction even if she was not properly served. Often, parties do this inadvertently. If you think a court has acted upon documents which were not properly served upon you, you should get a lawyer to help you deal with the situation so that you do not accidentally give the court the jurisdiction over you which it now lacks.
Re: Requirement of personal service
It depends on the type of service required and the purpose for which the service is made.
Generally for court related documents, actual notice is not the same things as legal notice. You can have one without the other -- either way!
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