Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Service need to be in person but if several reasonable attempts have been made to serve you then it can be done by leaving it with a adult reasonably likely to give it to you or by publication in a newspaper. A Motion to Quash is only filed when Plaintiff alleges that you were served [not all defendants are always served in all suits--but you also do not tell us what type of suit it is]. If it is an unlawful detainer, court actions do go quickly. But if it is a normal personal injury case nothing is going to happy for at least three months and you will have plenty of time to gather your evidence. Without more information, we can not give you more advice.

The first thing I would do is determine from the court whether a "Proof of Service of Summons" has been filed by the sheriff or other process server, telling the Court that you were served. If none is on file, the Court doesn't yet have jurisdiction over you and should not conduct any proceedings against you. If there is a P.O.S., get a copy and analyze what the person doing the service says they did......if it is substantially off base, go ahead and move to quash. If there is no P.O.S. yet, I think a motion to quash would be premature.

Of course, just because there is no P.O.S. on file on Monday morning at 9 a.m., that doesn't mean one won't be filed at 9:01, so be watchful.

If the case is an unlawful detainer and you don't live at the address that plaintiff is suing over, you appear to have a perfect defense -- you're not unlawfully detaining, because you're not in possession or claiming possessory rights. I understand, however, that winning the battle may lead to losing the war.

If the case is not a UD, keep in mind that once service is complete and you are in the case, you have a full range of discovery tools available for the collection of evidence.

Finally, note that in some situations judges will overlook technical or minor defects in service of process when the defective service seems nevertheless to have done the job of notifying the defendant of the allegations against him.

Sure, you can file a Motion to Quash, spend the time and money to do so, with or without an attorney, but all you're going to do is run up unnecessary fees and costs in order to slightly delay having to Answer the case. If this is a UD case, you're simply running up the plaintiff's attorney fees that you could end up paying when they get a judgment against you. If this is small claims court, there is less risk to you. If it is in Superior Court, and if you get serious about getting counsel to do it right, feel free to contact me.