Need to sue someone, not positive of their address

[nicole1745]

What will happen if someone owes me money for a car and I'm not positive where they are at? I have a mailing address that is on the title because I am leinholder on the title. The person contacted me and told me he was out of state, but now won't contact me back. I'm not sure where he's at. So if I sue him, will the courts look for him?

 

[Gail_in_Georgia]

Nope.

When you file against someone, a representative of the court (a marshall, a deputy, etc.) will serve this person notification that a lawsuit has been filed against them so they can respond (or not). Based on the idea that everyone who is served has the right to have their "day in court", a lawsuit will typically not go forward without all parties involved aware of it.

However, you have to provide the address. It's not up to them to try to find where he now lives.

Do you know where he works? Sometimes folks can be served at work.

Have you done some "google" searches to find his home address?

Gail

 

[nicole1745]

What if he is in the Air Force Reserves? Can I contact the military and find out any information? He had told me a place where he "says" he's working but its out of state. I'm not sure if he's lying or not. I only have the mailing address of where the title was registered.

 

[Gail_in_Georgia]

You can try contacting the Reserves to see if they will give you this information.

Gail

 

[soloprob]

Reserves will give you nothing. Use whitepages.com, pay the bucks for a check of the guy, crosscheck past adresses and you should get current address. Then call the base you think he works at and ask for the base locator, ask to be connected to him, then when the office he works at answers, get all their info, then ask who that commander is, mailing adress etc, then send the commander a letter explaining the situation. That might help, but they cannot force the guy to do anything without a court order.

 

[nicole1745]

Does anyone know what type of lawyer I need to contact about a small claims?

 

[dee_dub]

You may not need to contact a lawyer. Small claims courts are user-friendly.

You should also post your question in its own thread.