At Accurate Serve® of Ft. Myers, one of the most common types of legal documents we are asked to serve are child support papers. These documents can be sensitive and emotional, and it’s important to handle them with care and professionalism. In this post, we’ll go over the steps for serving child support papers in Florida’s 20th Judicial Circuit.
Step 1: Get the Proper Certification
All process servers who intend to serve documents anywhere in Florida’s 20th Judicial Circuit, which includes Lee, Charlotte, Collier, Glades, and Hendry counties, must be certified by the Chief Judge of the Administrative Office of the Court. If a process server is not certified, any process they serve in the counties listed above is invalid.
Step 2: Get the Documents Together
Before serving child support papers, it’s important to ensure that you have the correct paperwork. In Florida, child support papers typically include a summons, petition, and financial affidavit. These documents can be obtained from the court or from the attorney representing the person filing for child support.
Step 3: Determine Who to Serve
Once you have the correct paperwork together, you need to determine who to serve. In most cases, child support papers are served to the person who is obligated to pay child support. This person is often referred to as the “obligor.”
Step 4: Find the Obligor
After determining who to serve, the next step is to locate them. While most child support obligors are easy to find and can be served quickly, occasionally we run into someone who doesn’t want to be served. In those cases, we have access to a variety of databases and resources to help us locate individuals, not to mention our extensive network built on years of service and commitment to this community.
Step 5: Serve the Papers
Once you have located the obligor, you need to serve the papers. This is where Accurate Serve® of Ft. Myers, Labelle, Naples, and Port Charlotte come in! In Florida, child support papers can be served in a number of ways, including:
- Personal service: This involves handing the papers directly to the obligor.
- Substituted service: This involves serving the papers to a person of suitable age and discretion who resides at the obligor’s home or place of business.
- Service by publication: This involves publishing a notice of the lawsuit in a newspaper or other publication if the obligor cannot be located. This method must be approved by a judge before it can be attempted.
Let Accurate Serve handle your Florida child support process by sending us a work request online.
Step 6: File Proof of Service
After serving the papers, it’s important to file proof of service with the court. This document verifies that the papers were served and is typically filed by the person who served the papers. When you choose Accurate Serve to handle your child support paperwork, we always file complete proof of service with the originating court as soon as service is complete, along with updating the case’s status in our online status tracker tool available for all of our clients from our home page.
Let Accurate Serve Get Your Child Support Paperwork in the Right Hands
Serving child support papers in Florida’s 20th Judicial Circuit requires careful attention to detail and adherence to specific legal procedures. At Accurate Serve, we know all the rules and regulations so we can get your child support process served quickly and efficiently. Call us at the numbers below based on your location or send us a work request online to get started today. If you’re not located on Florida’s southwestern Gulf coast, visit theaccurateservefranchise.com to find a location near you.
Fort Myers: (239) 822-7299
LaBelle: (863) 517-3157
Naples: (239) 732-4671
Port Charlotte: (941) 564-3057
