@pie_flavor said in WTF Bites:
@Gąska said in WTF Bites:
@pie_flavor are you familiar with the concept of beating a dead horse?
I'm going to take that as a 'no'. In the US, you must be presented in person with the court summons before you can be accountable for missing the court date upon it. And so, for a certain value of 'not read', your mockery of your strawman is actually correct.
@brie said in WTF Bites:
@pie_flavor It's not just that you can't be held accountable for missing the court date... the court actually doesn't have personal jurisdiction over you until you've been properly served.
As a matter of fact, if you were never served properly, you could actually show up in court on the appropriate date with a motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction, and the case would be dismissed. You could effectively say "you did not follow the rules of civil procedure, therefore, this court has no jurisdiction over me, so, goodbye". Note that you must object to the lack of personal jurisdiction, if you actually mean to do so; otherwise, just showing up but not challenging the court's personal jurisdiction would be interpreted as waiving any challenge to it.
Uh, just in case any one gets any ideas: these are not true in the general case in the US. There might be some jurisdictions and/or case types that are this uptight about such things, but generally there are accepted means if a person can't be served directly within a reasonable period of time (or even instead of doing that) known as "substituted service". One of the better known of these being "service by publication" - e.g., putting it in the newspaper.
If there's a good reason you couldn't/didn't show up - say you were a J. Doe in a coma in a hospital somewhere for the entire time, for an extreme example - you probably wouldn't be punished for it. But people trying to avoid service in order to avoid court is hardly a new phenomenon, and the system has built in ways to deal with it. No matter why you didn't show up, not doing so can result in a warrant for your arrest or can result in a default judgment against you, which at best would just prolong the issue but with more hanging over your head.
Additionally, personal jurisdiction is a separate issue from notice of process, and can be contested even if you are properly served.