Legal Question in Civil Rights Law in North Carolina

Re: Civil Summons Legality

There are two questions: 1) can you avoid summons that you actually received by relying upon a technicality and 2) what sort of mess are you going to get yourself into if you do?

1) if you received actual notice and the name is a typo or slightly wrong, you will be held to have received actual notice and the court can act

2) you can argue about service, but the fact is that you received actual notice, so any argument about notice is pretty weak and is highly likely to annoy the judge.

Quibbling over typos is never a good way to start your defense of a lawsuit.

So, if you want to disregard the summons, you risk having a default entered against you and you having no decent excuse as to why you didn't appear.

If you think it's more than a quibble, consult local counsel to see what the downside with that particular judge is likely to be.