Before you can get your case to court you must serve the defendant with the complaint. This generally is a fairly simple task. But what about the situation where the defendant cannot be found or is hiding. Maryland rule 2-121 deals with serving an individual. You can deliver the complaint by handing it to the defendant, by sending it to him by certified mail, or handing it to somebody that he lives with provided they are mature enough to know the papers are important and will give them to the defendant. Well what if the defendant knows you're trying to serve him and purposely made himself unavailable. Section (B.) deals with the issue of defendants evading service. The court requires an affidavit establishing facts sufficient to prove the defendant is evading service. If the defendant is not evading service however you simply cannot locate him you must first make good-faith efforts to locate the defendant and serve him. Thereafter if you still cannot locate and serve the defendant you should petition the court showing your good-faith efforts to get the defendant served and in that case ask the the court to order other means of service. The court can order any other means that it believes is appropriate under the circumstances and is reasonably calculated to give the actual notice. When you file your motion asking the court to allow you to serve by alternate means it is necessary to outline how the alternate means are calculated to give actual notice.
If you have questions regarding serving your complaint please feel free to give me a call at 1-888-760-7339. I am happy to answer your questions for you over the phone at no cost to you.
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