Toll Free: (800) 488-8868
New Jersey: (908) 707-1900
Our Most Important Asset is Our Reputation
Military members pose their own unique challenges when it comes to service of process. These challenges relate to what sort of housing they make use of, understanding the rules of residency and jurisdiction amongst the military, and the situational difficulties of deployment and training exercises.
Serving process to military members that live off base is pretty standard as long as your process server is aware of the recipient’s personal jurisdiction. This is the location of your domicile. For the civilian their domicile will be the location of their permanent address. For the military service member, whose life can be incredibly mobile, their domicile will be the state from which they were recruited.
Establishing the correct jurisdiction based on the military service member’s domicile is important. An individual’s domicile establishes in which state the courts have authority over that individual. As an example, serving a military service member a subpoena that currently lives in Arizona but was recruited in New Jersey would be as though process serving a subpoena in New Jersey. A court may also establish personal jurisdiction over an individual when they do not have general jurisdiction as long as all applicable laws are followed.
Serving process to military service members that live on base can be challenging due to restrictions on civilization access. Military bases have strict rules for access and generally as a civilian you must work on the installation, be a veteran, or be a family member. In order to access a military service member on base your process server will need to work with the Judge Advocate General (JAG) and the on-site military police. If the military service member is stationed internationally your process server will need to ensure that they are complying with the process service rules and laws of the host nation.
On base service of process will also be affected by whether the military installation is currently under concurrent (federal and state) or only federal jurisdiction.
Deployment and training exercises will often have military service members difficult to reach. The life of a military service member is demanding. Your process server will need to work with the installation that the service member is currently stationed while they are involved in a training exercise.
Deployment will mean extra, but certainly surmountable, challenges for your process server. In addition to standard operational security your process server will need to comply with the following:
Service of process to military service members may post unique challenges, however J & K Investigative Services, Inc. has the experience and training necessary to ensure your documents are delivered.
