Legal Question in Family Law in Minnesota

Re: serving papers

Thank you for your question regarding service of process.

Yes, you should serve the other party's attorney with the papers, and yes they are timely if served by fax, or personally, tomorrow. Responsive papers that do not raise new issues can be served five days prior to the hearing. When counting days, you include the day of the hearing, but do not include the day on which the papers are served. Moreover, Saturday and Sunday are included. Thus, the 8th is the last day you could properly serve the papers on the attorney -- and file with the court.

This assumes, again, that you are not raising new issues in your responsive motion. If, for example, her motion concerned visitation, and your response raised a child support issue, that would be a "new issue," and in that instance your response would have to be served and filed 10 days in advance of the hearing.

Good luck. If you feel you need additional assistance, please feel free to contact my office.

Re: serving papers

Whenever a person is represented by counsel of record, that means a lawyer who has submitted a Certificate of representation and has appeared in the case, you should serve the attorney rather than the client. the only exception is if you are serving an Order to Show Cause for Contempt. That must be personally served.

Generally, motins must be served 14 days before the motion hearing date, not including date of service, 20 days if it is a child support motion in the expedited process.