Serving someone during the pandemic

[ADA_Questions]

What is the name of your state? New Mexico

In a small claims court action in NM, how is serving notice of a suit conducted during the pandemic?

I believe the person that we wish to sue is in Mexico to "run away" from the problem with us. We know exactly where they are if they are there. Is it possible to have the noticed sent via registered mail to their home address and have it served that way? We know that a relative is there and will be willing to sign for the registered letter and then FedEx the unopened registered letter to them in Mexico.

I am just trying figure out as cheap of a process to get this taken care of. The amount of money is minor however that isn't the point.

 

[adjusterjack]

Let's start with this. NM has an excellent small claims self help page that will tell you everything you need to know about small claims. You should study up on all of it.

https://metro.nmcourts.gov/self-help-center.aspx

Next up are the Rules of Civil Procedure for the Metropolitan Courts. Study up on all of it.

https://laws.nmonesource.com/w/nmos/Rule-Set-3-NMRA?zoupio-debug#!fragment/zoupio-_Toc49773548/(hash:(chunk:(anchorText:zoupio-_Toc49773548),notesQuery:'',scrollChunk:!n,searchQuery:'civil procedure metropolitan court',searchSortBy:RELEVANCE,tab:search))

But to answer your question, go to Section 3-202 Summons, Paragraph E (which, by the way, is more Plaintiff friendly than I've seen elsewhere):

E. Summons; service by mail. A summons and complaint may be served upon a defendant of any class referred to in Subparagraph (1) or (2) of Paragraph F of this rule by mailing a copy of the summons and of the complaint (by first-class mail, postage prepaid) to the person to be served, together with two (2) copies of a notice and acknowledgment conforming with the form approved by the Supreme Court and a return envelope, postage prepaid, addressed to the sender. If no acknowledgment of service under this subdivision of this rule is received by the sender within twenty (20) days after the date of mailing plus three (3) days as provided by Rule 3-104 NMRA, service of such summons and complaint shall be made by a person authorized by Paragraph D of this rule, in the manner prescribed by Paragraph F of this rule. Service of a summons by mail is only effective if an acknowledgment of service signed by the person being served is filed with the court. The court shall order the payment of the costs of personal service by the person served if such person does not complete and return to the sender within twenty-three (23) days after mailing the notice and acknowledgment of receipt of summons, unless good cause is shown for not signing, filing and serving a signed acknowledgment of service in the time required by this paragraph.
The form of the notice and acknowledgment of receipt of summons and complaint shall be substantially in the form approved by the Supreme Court.

The following is the form that you send with your summons and complaint that the defendant has to fill out and return to you so that you can file it with the court.

https://metro.nmcourts.gov/uploads/files/Metro Self Help/Forms/CV188 - Notice and Acknowledgement of Receipt of Summons and Complaint.pdf

If he doesn't respond then he gets charged for any costs you incur to properly serve him.

 

[Litigator22]

What is the name of your state? New Mexico. In a small claims court action in NM, how is serving notice of a suit conducted during the pandemic?

I believe the person that we wish to sue is in Mexico to "run away" from the problem with us. We know exactly where they are if they are there. Is it possible to have the noticed sent via registered mail to their home address and have it served that way? We know that a relative is there and will be willing to sign for the registered letter and then FedEx the unopened registered letter to them in Mexico.

I am just trying figure out as cheap of a process to get this taken care of. The amount of money is minor however that isn't the point.

WOW! Have you been sorrily misled!

You aren't faced with effecting intrastate service of process or even interstate service. Comparatively that's a piece of cake. Instead what you are contemplating involves International Service of Process and that is a horse of a different color! The Republic of Mexico couldn't care less about layman astrojack's cited New Mexico's Rules of Civil Procedure for the Metropolitan Courts! *

Regardless of the venue of your lawsuit being in New Mexico the means of effecting service of process in Mexico will be governed by the strictures contained in a treaty commonly called the Hague Service Convention.

And please take notice that I have advisedly used the term strictures in its most exacting, complicated, paper eating, time consuming, AND overall user-unfriendly sense!

To understand do a search on the subject and learn, for instance, about the need that all related documents be translated in Spanish (and what specific Spanish words and terms must be used); submitting the same together with the properly completed "Hague Service Request" to the "Mexican Central Authority", etc., etc., etc.

And then be resigned to sitting on your heels for a matter of months and months. PLUS if you can't supply the precise address of the intended recipient, then forget it because it will all be for naught.

 

[Zigner]

Who is "we"?

 

[quincy]

https://www.americanbar.org/groups/gpsolo/publications/gp_solo/2011/april_may/service_in_foreignjurisdictions/

It is possible to seek from the court an alternate means of service, this even when there is suspicion that the defendant is not in the U.S.

 

[LdiJ]

https://www.americanbar.org/groups/gpsolo/publications/gp_solo/2011/april_may/service_in_foreign_jurisdictions/

It is possible to seek from the court an alternate means of service, this even when there is suspicion that the defendant is not in the U.S.

I agree, but normally treaties between country's control that. I would suspect that countries that are signatories to the Hague Convention would be bound by that.

 

[quincy]

It depends on the language regarding service.

And, despite what Litigator implies in his response, translation is a “may need to be translated” and not a “shall be translated.”

 

[adjusterjack]

You aren't faced with effecting intrastate service of process or even interstate service. Comparatively that's a piece of cake. Instead what you are contemplating involves International Service of Process and that is a horse of a different color! The Republic of Mexico couldn't care less about layman astrojack's cited New Mexico's Rules of Civil Procedure for the Metropolitan Courts! *

As far as New Mexico is concerned all the Plaintiff has to to is mail the summons and complaint with the response form and IF the Defendant complies and mails the form back then he's accepted service. Old Mexico doesn't get to say squat about that.

Mr Litigator, you do understand what "accepting service" means, right?

However, IF the Defendant doesn't comply THEN the Plaintiff would have to follow the procedure you have outlined.

 

[Just Blue]

As far as New Mexico is concerned all the Plaintiff has to to is mail the summons and complaint with the response form and IF the Defendant complies and mails the form back then he's accepted service. Old Mexico doesn't get to say squat about that.

Mr Litigator, you do understand what "accepting service" means, right?

However, IF the Defendant doesn't comply THEN the Plaintiff would have to follow the procedure you have outlined.

 

[Litigator22]

QUOTE="quincy, post: 3710054, member: 327460"] . . . despite what Litigator implies in his response, translation is a “may need to be translated” and not a “shall be translated.” [/QUOTE]

Interesting, yet not surprising, how you find it more worthy of your time to nit-pick with me over the specifics of the Hague Service Convention rather than assisting the OP in evaluating and commenting on the propriety of adjusterjack's urging him to study and his need to adhere to New Mexico's Rules of Civil Procedure for the Metropolitan Courts, etc., etc.!

As to the business of language translation:

Clearly Article 5 of the Convention does not mandate it. I have read it. However, one might reasonably infer from reading some of the blogs on the subject offering legal as well as translation services that in Mexico the Central Authority has opted to require that all submitted documents are to be written in, or translated into Spanish. What's more the translation may also have to be performed by a Mexican court-certified “perito” (expert) translator. https://www.legallanguage.com/international-litigation/service-of-process/countries/mexico/

Also reasonable to surmise from those sources is that it is of no matter as to whether or not the intended recipient of the documents is fluent in the official language of the initiating venue.

 

[quincy]

Interesting, yet not surprising, how you find it more worthy of your time to nit-pick with me over the specifics of the Hague Service Convention rather than assisting the OP in evaluating and commenting on the propriety of adjusterjack's urging him to study and his need to adhere to New Mexico's Rules of Civil Procedure for the Metropolitan Courts, etc., etc.!

As to the business of language translation:

Clearly Article 5 of the Convention does not mandate it. I have read it. However, one might reasonably infer from reading some of the blogs on the subject offering legal as well as translation services that in Mexico the Central Authority has opted to require that all submitted documents are to be written in, or translated into Spanish. What's more the translation may also have to be performed by a Mexican court-certified “perito” (expert) translator. https://www.legallanguage.com/international-litigation/service-of-process/countries/mexico/

Also reasonable to surmise from those sources is that it is of no matter as to whether or not the intended recipient of the documents is fluent in the official language of the initiating venue.

I thought you liked nitpicking. You do it so frequently.

 

[Just Blue]

I thought you liked nitpicking. You do it so frequently.

Don't you know...it's only nitpicking when it's directed at Lit. When Lit does it, it's "enlightenment".

 

[quincy]

Don't you know...it's only nitpicking when it's directed at Lit. When Lit does it, it's "enlightenment".

I will nitpick when it matters. Can I find other things wrong with what Litigator wrote? Yes. I can.