Service of process of Family Court summonses and petitions is more demanding than it seems. By law in New York, for instance, you must not affix a New York State Family Court summons. Furthermore in many cases you may be forced to attempt to get a responsible relative who is willing to accept process if Respondent is unavailable or plainly evading service. So altogether, the need to serve these court papers in person adds extra burden at serving child support petitions, child custody petitions, orders to show cause, orders of protection and paternity petitions.
When Respondents cannot be served, then the process server must issue an affidavit of attempted service (due dilligence affidavit) in order for the petitioner to ask the presiding judge to issue an order allowing substitute service:nail and mail. In the meantime, between the day you decide to fight for your child support and the day you actually get an evasive Respondent to appear in the court hearing a long, long time may pass. It’s the legal system’s fault, not the process server’s.
