According to the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution due process is required when someone’s life, property, and liberty are at risk. Essentially, this is a complicated way of requiring you to serve someone court papers if you want to see them in court.
While serving someone is an important part of the legal process, the legal documents have to reach them properly and sometimes this can be challenging, especially if you can’t seem to find them.
The good news is that if you’re curious about how to serve someone court papers without an address you’re in the right place. We cover what serving someone means, how you can find their address, and other ways you can serve them. Read on to learn more.
What Does It Mean to Serve Someone?
According to the 14th Amendment you have to serve someone before they can appear in court, even if that person is your spouse; hence the need for divorce papers. This means that you have to find the person or send someone to find the person in order to begin the legal process of taking them to court.
For this reason, many people try to avoid being served as long as possible to prepare a defense or avoid the lawsuit altogether.
When someone serves you a legal notice the process is called litigation. Typically, this occurs when someone is suing the other party or in other civil cases including breach of contract, divorce, and child support. However, there may be other reasons for litigation and it can happen at the corporate level as well.
Can Someone Avoid Being Served?
People can avoid being served. In fact, it’s not illegal to avoid receiving court-issued paperwork. That said, it’s usually not a good idea for someone to avoid being served because courts will often make decisions without the person being present. This can lead to garnished wages, lawsuits going through, and other court orders.
How to Serve Someone Without an Address
Serving someone without an address can be difficult if you don’t know where to start. The good news is that several tools can help you serve someone, even if you don’t know where they live. Explore some of the best methods to serve someone below.
FreePeopleSearch
The best way to serve someone without an address is to use FreePeopleSearch. While FreePeopleSearch won’t serve someone for you, it can help you find their address. FreePeopleSearch has a people search free tool that you can use to help you find someone’s address by entering their name or phone number into a search tool.
FreePeopleSearch’s tools are connected to millions of public records databases across the United States, and when you run a search, you can find anything that’s a public record about someone. Since an address is a public record, using FreePeopleSearch is the best way to serve someone if you don’t know their address.
Use a Process Server
Some legal professionals work as process servers. These professionals deliver legal court documents to people who are being served, and they’re often among the best ways to get court documents to someone. Process servers can also help with warrants, complaints, transcripts, and much more.
Ultimately, using a process server is one of the standard methods you can use to serve someone court papers without an address. That said, it will cost you about $100 to $200 per case. For this reason, it’s wise to start with an online tool like FreePeopleSearch to see if you can find the address yourself first.
Hire a Private Investigator
When you can’t find someone working with a private investigator (PI), it is a great way to get results. While they’re more expensive than online tools like FreePeopleSearch, they have tools that can help them find just about anyone. Therefore, you can use a PI if you’re having trouble serving someone after trying some of the more affordable methods that we covered.
Serve Someone Court Papers Without an Address Today
Unfortunately, people may do their best to avoid being served in hopes that you’ll give up or that they can escape the litigation process. While this tactic may delay the litigation process, if you use the right tools to find them it’s only delaying the inevitable.
Therefore, we recommend using an address lookup tool or working with a reputable organization that can help you serve someone court papers without an address. While it might take longer, making sure they meet you in court is often worth the wait.
