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Summons via email
- Thread Starter jetturbo
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army judge
Super Moderator
Email, not that I have heard.
Many people don't have email addresses.
I smell SCAM.
Read on for a detailed explanation of proper service.
Process—Manner of service to exercise personal jurisdiction.
In any action commenced in a court of this State having jurisdiction of the subject matter and grounds for personal jurisdiction as provided in G.S. 1-75.4, the manner of service of process within or without the State shall be as follows:
Natural Person.—Except as provided in subsection (2) below, upon a natural person:
By delivering a copy of the summons and of the complaint to him or by leaving copies thereof at the defendant's dwelling house or usual place of abode with some person of suitable age and discretion then residing therein; or
By delivering a copy of the summons and of the complaint to an agent authorized by appointment or by law to be served or to accept service of process or by serving process upon such agent or the party in a manner specified by any statute.
By mailing a copy of the summons and of the complaint, registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, addressed to the party to be served, and delivering to the addressee.
Upon the filing of the complaint, summons shall be issued forthwith, and in any event within five days. The complaint and summons shall be delivered to some proper person for service. In this State, such proper person shall be the sheriff of the county where service is to be made or some other person duly authorized by law to serve summons. Outside this State, such proper person shall be anyone who is not a party and is not less than 21 years of age or anyone duly authorized to serve summons by the law of the place where service is to be made. Upon request of the plaintiff separate or additional summons shall be issued against any defendants. A summons is issued when, after being filled out and dated, it is signed by the officer having authority to do so. The date the summons bears shall be prima facie evidence of the date of issue.
The summons shall run in the name of the State and be dated and signed by the clerk, assistant clerk, or deputy clerk of the court in the county in which the action is commenced. It shall contain the title of the cause and the name of the court and county wherein the action has been commenced. It shall be directed to the defendant or defendants and shall notify each defendant to appear and answer within 30 days after its service upon him and further that if he fails so to appear, the plaintiff will apply to the court for the relief demanded in the complaint. It shall set forth the name and address of plaintiff's attorney, or if there be none, the name and address of plaintiff. If a request for admission is served with the summons, the summons shall so state.
North Carolina Rules of Civil Procedure - ServeNow.com
Check with the court and see if the documents are genuine.
adjusterjack
Super Moderator
Common sense would dictate that you contact the court to see if there is a lawsuit on file with your name on it.
Did you do that?
Did you do that?
adjusterjack
Super Moderator
Do it in the AM.
Does the "summons" have a court name and case number?
Should be easy enough to determine if it's legit.
army judge
Super Moderator
KatDini
Well-Known Member
Or OP has opened up attachments that have spread nasty computer virii/malware throughout his system. Not the first time I've seen/heard of such a thing.
army judge
Super Moderator
Aww, snap. That ain't cool, not cool.
adjusterjack
Super Moderator
OP made the following statement:
"The reason was the case mentioned is based on an item I sold on eBay. Paypal suspended my account pending the results of the case."
Seems to me that there's a genuine issue at hand so the email might not be a scam.
The email might have come through Ebay's email function where buyers and sellers can communicate without revealing their own email address.
The documents might also have been completed (but not filed with the court) and sent as a warning that the buyer is willing and able to take the matter to court if the seller doesn't resolve the issue.
Could have been a lot of explanations that didn't include going off the deep end with the hacking business.
"The reason was the case mentioned is based on an item I sold on eBay. Paypal suspended my account pending the results of the case."
Seems to me that there's a genuine issue at hand so the email might not be a scam.
The email might have come through Ebay's email function where buyers and sellers can communicate without revealing their own email address.
The documents might also have been completed (but not filed with the court) and sent as a warning that the buyer is willing and able to take the matter to court if the seller doesn't resolve the issue.
Could have been a lot of explanations that didn't include going off the deep end with the hacking business.
army judge
Super Moderator
Uhh, that would be a THREAT of a lawsuit, and certainly wouldn't be considered to be proper service.
I've linked and commented about the PROPER forms of civil service in NC, for those who might be interested.
All any of us can really do is offer opinions about any query on this site. We're just a little group of lay volunteers, not some law school review or a scholarly legal publication.
KatDini
Well-Known Member
I can't count the number of 'court summons' (from jurisdictions I've never been in) received via email that had virii/malware-laden attachments. It's like boarding pass emails from airlines, when you KNOW you haven't booked a flight. Number one rule of PC security: Don't open ANY attachments when you're not expecting them/don't know the sender/even when you know the sender.
army judge
Super Moderator
Yes, I've seen this type of treacherous trickery, too.
adjusterjack
Super Moderator
I've been following Jetturbo's thread on another website were some additional information has been revealed. Here are his ongoing comments:
"The case does exist. And the record is showing that I was served via the email. The court gave permission to serve me through my email.
In this scenario the company that manufacturers the items I sold. Hired a law firm. And that law firm bought items from my eBay account, the manufacturers items. Now I'm being sued.
The court is over 12 hours away from me. In the state that the manufacturer is in. The dollar amount that the law firm purchased from me is low. I'm wondering if this is going to warrant me paying for a lawyer. Or do I just pay whatever settlement they offer me."
Can a Summons be Served by Email
That's all I know so far.
"The case does exist. And the record is showing that I was served via the email. The court gave permission to serve me through my email.
In this scenario the company that manufacturers the items I sold. Hired a law firm. And that law firm bought items from my eBay account, the manufacturers items. Now I'm being sued.
The court is over 12 hours away from me. In the state that the manufacturer is in. The dollar amount that the law firm purchased from me is low. I'm wondering if this is going to warrant me paying for a lawyer. Or do I just pay whatever settlement they offer me."
Can a Summons be Served by Email
That's all I know so far.
army judge
Super Moderator
Interesting reveal.
Always problematic suing the resident of a state other than the state where the plaintiff filed the lawsuit even if the plaintiff is represented by counsel.
Conclusion this dummy draws: SCAM spelled SKAM, still is a SCAM.
First I'd Google the name of the alleged law firm.
Very hard for a TN Court, for example, to obtain personal jurisdiction over a citizen/resident of another state in a civil matter.
The defendant could always seek to have the matter heard before a federal court, if the amount sought by the plaintiff exceeds the federal court minimum.
No legitimate law firm will sue for a lousy two hundred bucks, even two grand.
Personal Jurisdiction Analysis 2.0
https://www.wshein.com/media/samples/72009.pdf
https://law.wustl.edu/sba/firstyearoutlines/civilprocedure/Levin/levin7.pdf
http://www.law.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/upload_documents/dreyfuss_f02_1.doc
adjusterjack
Super Moderator
Once a court allows the lawsuit to be filed, it would be up to the defendant to raise the personal jurisdiction issue as an affirmative defense. What an unscrupulous plaintiff might do is rely on the inability of the defendant to defend (due to cost, distance, lack of knowledge, fear, etc), get a default judgment, domesticate it in the defendant's state and then go after the defendant's wages and bank accounts.
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