Legal Question in Civil Litigation in New York

Sounds bogus. Both Civil Court and Supreme Court are file first courts. The service is meaningless except as a blip on the radar screen.

I suggest you click your way to the New York Courts information sit. Navigate to www.state.ny.us and click the link for GOVERNMENT. Then select AGENCY LISTING, COURT ADMINISTRATION, and ATTORNEYS. On that screen, click on DECISIONS, TRIAL COURTS and note the links for WEBCIVIL LOCAL and WEBCIVIL SUPREME.

When you get to those, look at the summons and see what court it's in. If it's Supreme Court, click the WEBCIVIL SUPREME link; otherwise, click on WEBCIVIL LOCAL. Run the search based on a name search.

You should not get hits on your own name (unless you have common name). You will now have a listing of all the cases where your name appears as a defendant. You can then go to the courthouse and pull the files if there are any matches.

If you get no hits, I suggest you repeat the process monthly. I have seen several plaintiffs' lawyers who send summons through the mail, email, etc for months--one case, the nimrod did so for a year and THEN tried to ambush my client. But because I saw the case had been filed within a month after it was filed, I was able to defend my client and have the case dismissed.

Good luck. You might be surprised to find that there are lawyers who will perform this service for rather small amounts. Lawyer-style small amounts, e.g., ~$500.00, which normally would get one hour of my time but for these small cases, goes much farther, even to the point of starting (though not finishing) the defense of the case.