AKAs And Proof Of Service

Proof Of Service (POS) is documented proof that a legal pleading or document was served and delivered on the correct party(s). Proof of service needs to get served by a third-party. POS is always very important for each required step in a victorious lawsuit or (at least a partial) enforcement of a judgment. In California, a few relevant laws are CCP 17, CCP 412.20, CCP 415, CCP 412.10, CCP 420, and CCP 422.10, and government codes 22 and 26660.

My articles are my opinions and are not, legal advice. I am a judgment recovery expert, and not an attorney. If you ever need legal advice or a strategy to use, please contact an attorney.

If the debtor gets served papers with any other name than what is listed on the judgment, the proof of service may get refused. This issue may appear when your debtor has more than one name, and uses AKAs (Also Known As). As an example, Dan Debtor was sued to get the judgment, and then you discover he owns no assets in that name; and he has assets with his other name of Daniel DebtorMan. When a proof of service on any post-judgment pleading or document names anyone other than Dan Debtor, it may and probably should get rejected by the court.

When the debtor has another name, depending on the state, a motion for an affidavit of identity with proof they are using that AKA name, might let you have the judgment amended to include their other name. Note that generally, you cannot add more debtors to your judgment, just alternate names of the debtor. If an affidavit of identity or its equivalent is not done, you can provide a brief explanation about their other name with your document package; although the name on a POS must exactly match the debtor's name as shown on the summons of that lawsuit and as listed on the judgment.

There is a legal difference between filing a document at the court, and having a document issued by the court. When your court refuses the proof of service as a debtor wasn't named properly, that's a wonderful time and way to learn about this kind of problem. Of course, you might decide to challenge that court clerks's rejection. Remember, it is important to always choose your battles carefully, and instead understand and appreciate why the court rejected your proof of service.

Generally, if someone filing their legal document believes their legal document is perfectly fine, however the court clerk will not file the document; the filer could probably request the clerk to "demand file" the document. The clerk will stamp the document "received" rather than of "filed" and will stamp the document with "filed on demand", often with red ink, and sometimes a judge will later looks at the document and make a judicial decision regarding the legality of filing of the document.

The worst time and way to discover a POS listing problem is to have your lawsuit tossed out of court by a court, or for a proof of service problem to cause a big judgment recovery garnishment to fail. In an ongoing lawsuit AKA name situation, an amendment to your original complaint could fix the problem. A good policy is to learn all known AKAs of the defendant prior to suing them.

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