Okay, okay I may have read wrong about mail being acceptable. Anyway, I went to the courthouse today to review the file. It had the certificate inside of the person who tried to "serve" the summons. It read really weird. It states that he spoke to a neighbor, about 5 houses down, and she confirmed that I did live at that address. Okay, then it states that she refused to give her first name, but did give her last name...how weird is that? Next, I have NEVER spoken to the neighbors, or know what they look like, even the neighbors next door. I had moved there from down south, and was only renting a room at this house. I stayed there about 7 months. So, there is NO way, that this person knows me. So, this seems very fishy to me. But the server is a seperate person from the plaintiff, correct? He works for the county or state or whatever.
So what are they claiming? Some stranger at a different address "accepted" your summons? They "served" you by delivering your summons to some stranger at what they knew was a different address from yours? Did you ever actually get anything sent to you from this person? Some states may allow serving any responsible adult at YOUR address, but it sounds like this process server has basically documented that they did NOT serve you.
They were only stating that this "STRANGER" verified that I lived there and didn't know where I worked or my work habits. I DON'T KNOW ANYONE from that neighborhood. I lived there a very short time, only renting a room in someones house. Thats exactly what it is. They documented not serving me. They SAID, they left a copy attatched to the door of my old address, but if they had, my old roommtes would have contacted me. I never received anything from the processor, only the two copies from the plaintiffs. AND, I left a forwarding address at my post office. If they had checked at the post office, they would have gotten my new address. Heck, for that matter, ALL three CBs have my new address.
one more thing. The clerk at court said that the file had been "pulled" and was being scheduled for arbitration. Not sure what that means exactly. Im researching now.
It's a way to resolve your dispute outside of court, with a third party who is not involved. You may be able to settle without worrying about a judgment now.
Did the envelopes have postmarks with the date of mailing on them? (Some do, some will send them with the dreaded "POSTAGE PAID" impressions which don't have to be postmarked, darn them If there is a postmark, you want to include phrasings similar to. On XX/XX/XXXX, I received via postal mail the summons dated xx/xx/xxxx, filed on xx/xx/xxxx; and postmarked on XX/XX/XXXX. The goal is to ensure that it is memorialized in your answer the date of postmark, and receipt; so that it is a part of the answer when in fact the summons was properly received. I've had letters which had a half page of memorialization of the paper-trail... They can't argue when each letter re-iterates the previous, and current paper-trail of communications...
"PULLED & SCHEDULED FOR ARBITRATION..." Since you had the audacity to stop us from obtaining a default judgment, we're going to take our marbles out of the court where you have a chance of defending yourself, and take it to arbitration where *WE PAY* for the arbitrators to see it our way.
Ice, not exactly, once they get the arbitrator (who isn't impartial, they're bought and paid for by W&A) to rule in their favor, they can file the arbitration decision with the court for a judgment.
