Coleman Process Service, Inc.
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Serving summons are high on our list of services. Coleman Process
Service serves a multitude of summons on a regular basis. Our fees
for serving summons are comparable with other companies or
sometimes less. When you subscribe to our weekly newsletter you
will receive a 20% discount on our services. Our turnaround rate is
less than 72hours.
A summons (also known as a claim form) is a legal document issued
by a court (a judicial summons) or by an administrative agency of
government (an administrative summons) for various purposes.
Judicial Summons
A judicial summons is served (or delivered) to a defendant in a legal
proceeding. The summons will notify to the person to whom it is
served upon that a legal proceeding has been started against him/her,
and that a file has been started in the court records.
In most jurisdictions in the United States, the service of a summons is
required for the court to have personal jurisdiction over the party who
is being "summoned" into court involuntarily. The process by which a
summons is served is called service of process. This is when you
need to hire a professional process server to make sure your summons
is served properly.
The form and content of service in the federal system is governed by
Rule 4 the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and the rules of many
state courts are similar. The federal summons is usually issued by the
clerk of the court. In many states the summons may be issued by an
attorney, though some states use filing as the means to commence an
action and the summons must be filed in those cases in order to be
effective. Other jurisdictions may only require that the summons be
filed after it is served on the defendants.
Citation
A citation, traffic violation ticket, jumping the turnstile, drinking in
public, disorderly conduct or notice to appear is a type of summons
prepared and served at the scene of the occurrence by a police officer.
The defendant must appear before a judge in the county where the
offense took place within a certain period of time to answer for a
minor traffic infraction, misdemeanor or other summary offense.
Failure to appear within the specified period of time is a separate
criminal offense of failure to appear.
In the United States the Internal Revenue Service can issue you a
summons. The Internal Revenue Code authorizes the U.S. Internal
Revenue Service (IRS) to issue a summons for a taxpayer or any
person having custody of books of account relating to a business of a
taxpayer. You must appear before the IRS employee who issued the
summons at the time and place named in the summons. You may be
required to produce books, papers, records, or other data, and to give
testimony under oath before an IRS employee.
The IRS is also empowered to issue the section 7602 summons for
the purpose of "inquiring into any offense connected with the
administration or enforcement of the internal revenue laws."
The summons may be enforced by a court order, and the law provides
a criminal penalty of up to one year in prison or a fine, or both, for
failure to obey the summons. The person summoned may, to the
extent applicable, assert a privilege against self incrimination or other
evidentiary privileges, if applicable.
Summons