Service of Process

Model Service of Process Rule

Process may be served by facsimile on any individual by sending a copy of the summons and complaint to the facsimile machine at a number assigned to the individual. If service through this means is challenged, the electronic confirmation produced by the receiving facsimile machine shall be presumptive evidence that service was completed.

Process may be served on a corporation by sending a copy of the summons and complaint through a facsimile machine answering a telephone number assigned to the corporate headquarters or another office likely to be concerned with the general affairs of the corporation and likely to notify appropriate corporate authority of the facsimile message. Proof of service and challenges to service shall be resolved in the same manner provided for facsimile service on individuals.

Process may be served by other electronic means by sending a copy of the summons and complaint to an electronic mailbox assigned to the person or entity to be served. Service by this means is not complete unless the party serving obtains an electronic receipt indicating not only that the message was placed in the electronic mailbox, but also that it was received from that mailbox by the person to whom the mailbox was assigned. Alternatively, the person seeking service through this means may prove by other reliable extrinsic evidence that the person to be served actually retrieved the message from the mailbox.

- excerpted from Henry H. Perritt, Jr., Law and the Information Superhighway, 2d Ed., § 12.03, p. 800 (Aspen Law Publishers 2001).