Ohio - Service by certified mail question and venue question
I am trying to delay this as long as possible so that I can try to get some funds together to work out a settlement. I have not been officially served until I acutally go in and sign for that package, correct? If the mailman brings it by my house again and I happen to be home, can I refuse delivery? I understand that eventually they will move to service by publication or some other means, and I will need to step in at that point to avoid a default judgement, but I would like to postpone this a couple weeks if I can.
Also...
I read in another thread that California law requires the lawsuit to be opened in the county where the debtor resides, not where the creditor is located. Does Ohio have a similar law?
You will probably buy yourself an additional month or two not ac
You will probably buy yourself an additional month or two not accepting the letter and you can refuse to accept it if you are home. If you want to make the situation easy with your mailman just tell him you were a victim of identity theft and don't want to sign for anything.
The court case should be filed in the county where you reside. If it is not you can motion for it to be dismissed based on the wrong venue.
Thanks for the response. I am having trouble wording a search
Thanks for the response.
I am having trouble wording a search that finds me an actual rule for this in Ohio state laws. Anyone have any suggestions?
Check the Ohio Rules of Civil Procedure. It's all spelled out i
Check the Ohio Rules of Civil Procedure. It's all spelled out in there. What usually happens if a certified mail summons is unclaimed or refused is the court, at the request of the creditor's attorney, sends it out again by regular mail. You then have 28 days to file your answer.
I have been doing this too, to buy some time. I don't see in the RCP that there is any penalty for doing this. And the creditor's attorney (some of which are not too swift) can screw up and forget to notify the court to send it out by regular mail.
Delay is always good for the debtor.
If the letter is a Summon's you'll have 28 days to get it back t
If the letter is a Summon's you'll have 28 days to get it back to them. Twice as long as you say you need to come up with funds.
IMO, ya might just as well get it over with. That way, it won't be constantly on your mind. It'll consume you, if you let it. I KNOW!
Thanks for the response Buckeye, but after reading some more Ohi
Thanks for the response Buckeye, but after reading some more Ohioan is absolutely correct. The summons is not considered served until I sign for the certified letter. It will sit at the post office for 14 days and then be returned to the sender. Under the "unclaimed" RCP process, the clerk then informs the filing attny that the summons went unclaimed.
At that point, the attny can then request summons by reg mail, and the clock starts ticking (28) days from the time when that is dropped in the mail. So this buys me a min of 6 weeks to try to get some money together for a settlement before I have to respond to the summons, which is definitely better than 4 weeks.