Affidavit of service

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Affidavit of service. Noun (litigation): A sworn written statement made by the bearded, tattooed hippy on a fixie to whom you gave your close-out notice with instructions to deliver it to your Defaulting Party — that he actually did what you asked and handed it to your counterparty at the registered address listed in your legal agreement call the purpose of serving notices.

This is a simple but nonetheless important evidential point should you need to take legal action against your counterparty to recover sums due but unpaid. Should the rascal not pay the amnount due and you find yourselves issuing proceedings, this greasy fellow becomes aprocess server, and will need to file your claim on your defendant or, should it be foreign, its process agent.

If your counterparty was not there to take delivery of the notice, your fellow will need to be suitably present of mind to work out how to validly effect service in a way that will satisfy the court subsequently. If you are in doubt, give him instructions before he sets off.

While tattooed, bearded, hippy cycle couriers are inevitably somewhat distasteful, you should nevertheless exercise some standards when appointing one since, in theory at least, your man may be called upon to confirm his written statement in court and the reliability of his evidence may well not stand up to cross-examination if he turns out to have a crystal meth habit.

Serving legal notices became unexpectedly fraught in the early part of 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic.

See also

• Process agent
• Section 12 (Notices) of the ISDA Master Agreement