How Many Attempts Must Be Made to Serve Papers and Potential Alternatives

Published September 15, 2020 | By accurateserve

If you are having trouble getting papers served in your case, you might be starting to wonder if you have any alternative means of moving forward with a court hearing. There are some alternatives to service when it is deemed impossible or reasonably too difficult to require. But before these alternatives can be explored, there has to be a reasonable attempt to serve the papers according to law.

But what is a reasonable attempt? How many attempts must be made before giving up? Here’s what you need to know.

How many attempts to serve papers are required?

There is no set rule or law that governs how many attempts equals a reasonable effort at service of process. However, the average number of attempts needed for success is three, so you will likely need at least that many complete attempts before going to the judge with a request for alternative service. The judge could still require additional attempts.

Getting alternative service

If your private process server can prove that the papers could not have reasonably been served on the intended party, the judge could offer an alternative means of service. For decades, that has only included notice by publication in a newspaper. But in today’s digital world, new methods are being approved by judges across the country.