Service of process is a critical step in the legal process that ensures individuals are properly notified of court proceedings involving them. However, not everyone willingly accepts legal documents, leading to two possible scenarios: avoiding service and resisting service. While these terms may sound similar, they involve different behaviors and carry different potential legal consequences. In this post, we’ll break down the differences between avoiding service and resisting service to help you understand how they impact the legal process.
What Does It Mean to Avoid Service?
Avoiding service occurs when an individual actively takes steps to evade being served with legal documents. This typically involves subtle, non-confrontational actions that make it difficult for a process server to successfully deliver the papers. Individuals who avoid service do so with the goal of delaying the legal process.
Some common ways people avoid service include:
- Refusing to Answer the Door: Individuals may not open the door when they suspect the person knocking is a process server.
- Providing False Information: Giving fake details about their whereabouts to friends, family, or co-workers to make it harder for process servers to locate them.
- Changing Residences Frequently: Moving between different homes or staying in temporary accommodations to avoid detection.
- Avoiding Known Locations: Steering clear of familiar places, such as home, work, or other public venues where they know they could be served.
Avoiding service is often a short-term solution because professional process servers are trained to navigate these tactics. They may try multiple approaches or use creative strategies to complete the service. In cases where an individual continually avoids service, the court may allow alternative methods, such as serving the individual through mail or public notice. This ensures that the legal process moves forward, even if the person refuses to be directly served.
What Does It Mean to Resist Service?
Resisting service, on the other hand, involves more direct and often aggressive actions aimed at physically or verbally obstructing the process server. Unlike avoiding service, resisting service can lead to confrontational situations that may escalate into illegal behavior.
Common ways people resist service include:
- Refusing to Accept Documents: Individuals may flat-out reject the documents by physically refusing to take them from the process server.
- Confrontational Behavior: This can involve yelling, threats, or physical altercations to prevent the process server from completing their job. In some cases, individuals might enlist others to confront the server on their behalf.
- Destroying the Documents: Some people will take the legal papers only to tear them up or destroy them, believing this invalidates the service (which it does not).
Resisting service is more serious than avoiding it because it can involve illegal and dangerous actions, such as threats or assaults. Process servers are trained to handle these situations calmly, but in extreme cases, law enforcement may need to be called in to ensure the documents are served and any unlawful behavior is addressed.
Legal Consequences of Avoiding and Resisting Service
Neither avoiding nor resisting service helps in the long run, and both actions can have significant legal consequences. Courts generally do not look kindly on individuals who attempt to undermine the legal process, and the following outcomes may occur:
- Alternative Service Methods: If someone continually avoids service, the court may authorize alternative methods like service by mail or publication. This allows the case to proceed even without direct service.
- Default Judgment: If a person successfully avoids service long enough, the court may move forward without their participation, which can result in a default judgment against them.
- Contempt of Court: Resisting service, especially if it involves aggressive or illegal actions, can lead to contempt of court charges. This may result in fines or even jail time.
- Criminal Charges: In some instances, resisting service can lead to criminal charges if the person commits an illegal act during the process. Common charges include assault, battery, and communicating threats.
Compliance Matters in the Carolinas
Service of process is a foundational part of the legal system. It ensures that individuals are properly informed about legal actions involving them and are given the opportunity to respond. Avoiding or resisting service may delay the inevitable, but it will not prevent the legal process from continuing. In fact, it often complicates and prolongs legal proceedings, making matters worse for the offending individual involved.
If you need to serve someone who is likely to avoid or resist service, hiring an experienced process server like those at Accurate Serve of Charlotte ensures the job will be done efficiently and legally. We use proven strategies to navigate even the most difficult service situations, ensuring that your legal documents are delivered in full compliance with federal, state, and local laws. Contact us at 704-858-2952 or send us a work request online for all your process service, document retrieval, skip tracing, and diligent search needs in the Queen City and beyond..
