Legal Question in Personal Injury in California

Re: serving summons

I would call the attorney and find out if the attorney truly represents the defendant, and would be willing to accept service. If so, then you serve the summons, complaint, other documents and two copies of a Notice and Acknowledgment, along with a self-addressed, stamped envelope for the attorney to sign and return. Once the attorney does that, then the defendant has been served. Short of that, you might have to be more aggressive in service or petition the court to serve by publication.

Re: serving summons

Mr. Cohen's answer is correct, but it may lead some readers to believe the lawyer has to accept service if she really represents the client. She does not.

A lawyer who represents a party *in an ongoing court case* must accept service of papers that are filed with the court in that case, but she is not required to accept service of other documents. A lawyer whose client isn't party to any ongoing case does not have to accept service of anything on his behalf unless he has authorized her to do so and she has agreed.

Were the law otherwise, then any of the thousands of lawyers who represent, say, Exxon would have to accept service of papers from cases handled by any of the other lawyers. Such a system would needlessly burden the lawyers and would greatly complicate the litigation.