Tim May wrote:
>
> At 9:58 PM -0700 7/31/00, Ray Dillinger wrote:
> >
> >Try completely ignoring your paper mail sometime and see how
> >long it is before you're in trouble with the law for missing
> >a jury duty summons or a bill or some legal action or other.
>
> I was called _once_ for jury duty, in 1973, and once was on stand-by,
> but was not called.
>
> As for legal papers, these have in all cases I can remember been
> delivered by hand, as subpoenas cannot be mailed.
Subpoenas, SFAIK, don't count if they're sent by regular mail.
Congressional subpoenas can be sent by mail, but I'm not sure if it's
certified or registered. And I'm not sure about the requirements for
ordinary court subpoenas.
However, there are other "must answer" documents. For instance, when
my (then) wife filed for child custody, I was sent the summons to
mediation by regular mail. If I hadn't received it and had missed the
court date I presumably could have protested on grounds of non-service
but I'd definitely have been fighting against a done deed at that
point.
> Service in person is why process servers are still employed, why
> people sometimes avoid being served by avoiding potential process
> servers, etc.
In NY, summons can be served by a combination of (registered|certified)
mail and physical delivery _to the last known address_. It's called
"nail and mail". In general the process servers in my home county
tried a couple of times to physically contact the servee or another
adult at the last known address before they placed the notice on the
door; the guy I talked to was a little vague on whether the repeated
tries were required or simply CYA in case someone objected to the
method of service.
This doesn't address subpoenas, concerning which I know little.
> Were I to face some legal "troubles" because of something allegedly
> sent to me in ordinary mail, I'd claim to the court that I never saw
> it, that it either was never delivered at all or that it was lost in
> the morass of fliers for Safeway and Ralph's and Nordstrom's,
> whatever. And not even in "Alice's Restaurant World" are people
> jailed for failing to find a particular letter buried in a 2-inch
> stack of junk mail received nearly every day.
You're right that people would seldom if ever be jailed for not
getting (or admitting to getting) the notice. They could expect a host
of lesser problems, though. The most is similar to what I wrote above:
missing a court date, getting a default judgement entered, and then
having to fight twice as hard to show cause why that judgement should
be overturned. Sure, there is often a notice sent out that
such-and-such will be entered unless one of the parties objects, but
this notice would presumably be sent out by the same method as the
original (missed) notice.
Also, I'm not sure that a claim that you didn't see the notice because
it was obscured by junk mail would hold up. Probably up to the whim of
the court.
--
Steve Furlong, Computer Condottiere Have GNU, will travel
518-374-4720 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
