Q: Need A Lawyer to serve a company for me, does the attny have to be in the same county as the defantant? (COMPANY)
A:
Generally speaking, lawyers do not personally "serve" process on defendants. Each state has a list of the types of individuals with authority to serve process on a defendant. Many states allow private process servers who are licensed with the state for that particular type of task. Other states allow any disinterested person over 18 years of age to serve process upon a defendant. In some states, a lawyer hired by the plaintiff is considered to be an "interested" person and is therefore not authorized to serve process on defendants. In other states, such a lawyer is considered to be "disinterested" and can serve such process. But lawyers typically don't because the cost of a lawyer's time is usually much more than what a public officer or private process server charges. Moreover, the public officers and private process servers who perform that task on a regular basis tend to be better at it than someone who hasn't performed that task on a regular basis.
As for being in the same county, it depends on particular state statutes. For example, a constable in Texas and his deputies only have authority to serve civil process in the county and precinct to which the constable is elected; a sheriff in Texas and his deputies only have authority to serve civil process in the county to which the sheriff is elected; but a private process server has authority to serve civil process anywhere in the State (although some charge more to serve process farther away from where their office is located).
Some states allow service of process on a defendant by certified or registered mail. This can be particularly useful in serving a company or corporation who usually has to file the name and address of its registered agent for service of process with the state. Most other significant communications from the state are sent to that same person at that same address, for example state tax notices, etc. Usually, the registered agent is accustomed to receiving and signing certified mail containing important legal documents sent to that address.
Tim Akpinar agrees with this answer
A: You may want to find out if a process server could handle this. If so, you could probably save money. Good luck
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