Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Washington

Re: Failure to properly serve legal papers

It is absolutely NOT lawful to leave papers on the doorstep for the defendants.

The problem is in notifying the other party that their service was improper. If you show up, they are going to try to serve you properly; if you just avoid the whole situation, they are going to ask for and get a default judgment.

Here is my advice: See if you can reach NW Justice project and tell them about this situation and ask them for help.

If you cannot reach them, write a letter to the court (to the clerk of the court to be included in your court file) and send a copy to opposing counsel.

In that letter, say what you said here. Say that you came home and found the envelope and that you are not waiving actual service of process.

Sign it, and put your address on the letter. They have your address; you are not giving away the game by putting it on paper.

If the lawyer asks for a default, he will have to explain his process servers egregious dereliction of duty.

Hope this helps. Elizabeth Powell