Legal Questions

February 7th, 2005

Filed under: Comics

Now I’m not a lawyer, but I sometimes see plot points in comics that perplex me from a legal point of view (Identity Crisis #7, for example). Today, I’m wondering about serving people — in the legal sense, not in the Twilight Zone “To Serve Man“ sense.

What are the limits to serving someone with legal papers/subpoenas? If someone is being served with papers from an Indiana court, can he be served if he’s in Illinois? Can he be served if he’s outside the country (vacationing in Bermuda, for instance)? Can he be served if he’s in outer space?

Why yes, I was reading Manhunter #6.

I wish Bob Ingersoll were still answering questions like this.

5 Responses to “ Legal Questions ”

  1. Hisham Zubi
    February 7th, 2005 at 4:41 pm

    Rules of service can vary from state to state and with the Federal government. The purpose of such rules are to confirm whether a person has been made aware of legal actions taken against them so that they have time to respond. Ideally, rules strive to have service given in person by a third party. If that isn’t possible, notice can also be made through the mail or by placing ads in the papers where the person lives. Service can be given anywhere, but the real question is whether the court has jurisdiction over the person being served or the issue of law which is involved.

  2. Scott
    February 7th, 2005 at 4:59 pm

    Thank you!

  3. mojo
    February 7th, 2005 at 8:06 pm

    I used to be a process server back in college and a few times people that I had to serve had fled the state and were now living elsewhere. In every case I hired a process server in the new state to deliver the subpoena to the person. States are required to respect each other’s laws, so each state much respect the laws of the other states w/r/t the service of process.

    Cheers!

  4. Charles W.
    February 8th, 2005 at 2:52 pm

    You might want to take a look at the She-Hulk trade paperback that came out recently. I seem to recall that they had an interesting process server in there.

  5. H
    February 8th, 2005 at 10:29 pm

    Scott: The short answer is yes, if the person is in the country. There’s all sorts of technical hurdles to go through to get it done, but it is a common practice. Outside the country or in outer space? It’s never come up for me, so I have no idea. If I did need to serve a subpoena outside the galaxy though, you can bet Space Cabbie would be my man.

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