QUESTION
Breach of contract and defendant does not provide address and thus cannot be served
Asked on Jun 14th, 2016 on Contracts - California
More details to this question:
I had filed a case in small claims court regarding a person failing to return the money. He was evicted from his last known address and thus court was not able to serve him the notice. Now he is not returning the calls and messages. And thus I can't serve him the notice. I know that he is in the country but his exact address is not known. What are my options?
1 ANSWER
Where the defendant can't be located despite reasonable efforts, a court will generally allow service by other means, typically by publication (e.g. by taking out an ad or ads in a local newspaper.) You would have to make a motion, demonstrating to the court that you had made reasonable efforts to serve but were unsuccessful, and seek to be allowed to serve by other means. I'm not sure, however, that it would be worth it to you to go through that effort and expense on a small claims matter, particularly since it appears that the defendant may not have the money to pay you even if you should be awarded a judgment.
Answered on Jun 15th, 2016 at 12:03 PM