The term service by publication refers to serving a summons or other legal document in a lawsuit on a defendant by publishing the document in an advertisement in a newspaper of general circulation, such as The Daily Reporter.
Service by publication is used to give "constructive notice" to a defendant who is intentionally absent, in hiding, unknown (such as a possible descendant of a former landowner), or otherwise cannot be located, and only when allowed by a judge's order based on a sworn declaration of the inability to find the defendant after other means (such as standard mail delivery, certified mail or process servers) have been exhausted.
Service by publication is commonly used in a divorce action to serve a spouse who has disappeared without leaving a forwarding address or to give notice to people who might have a right to object to a "quiet title" action to clear title to real property. In addition, it may be necessary in personal injury actions, foreclosures, breach of contracts, etc.
To begin the process, the attorney of the person who has initiated the legal action or complaint (the plaintiff) will file an affidavit with the clerk of courts requesting service by publication. The affidavit will specify that the plaintiff is requesting the defendant be served by notice of publication. If service by publication is necessary, a fee will be paid through the clerk of courts at the time of the request.
When the court has approved the request for publication of the notice, it will send a copy of the affidavit and the original complaint to The Daily Reporter in order for the newspaper's staff to build a notice summarizing the two documents. The notice will then run once a week for six weeks, on the same day each week. (This information is found in The Daily Reporter under Public Notices.)
Generally, the notice will state that the defendant has 28 days after the last publication to respond to the complaint and the same amount of time he would have to respond to being served notice by traditional methods. If the defendant does not respond, the case can proceed through the normal course.
