Effect of Non Service of Court Process:
Effect of Non Service of Court Process:
Service of court process is one of the pre-requisite for valid court decision. The parties that are involved in a cases are expected to know about their matters. Service is the process by which the parties exchange their pleadings. While the plaintiff serves the defendant his statement of claim with its accompanying documents, the defendant will also be expected to serve the plaintiff his statement of defence with its accompanying documents. Service of Court process is intandem with the prevalent frontloading service in a legal system.
The law is plain that if either of the parties fails to serve the other party, the full court processes, it may most definitely stall the court proceeding or vitiate the whole proceeding if such abnormality was not attended to till the end of the proceeding. The importance of having the parties available in the court to attend to their course cannot be downplayed as the court will even demands that hearing notice should be served on an absent litigant in a court proceeding.
READ ALSO: Contract and breach of Contract
Parties may be served court processes either through personal, substituted or hybrid. The most preferred means of serving a court process is through personal service. Personal service is a process of serving a party the court process directly or in person. In this instance, the party that is involved in the case will be served in person while he will endorse such service. The copy that he will sign is what they called the Endorsement and Return copy (E&R Copy). It’s with this E&R copy that you can use and prepare the Affidavit of service.
Service of court process can be done by the court officials (Bailiff) or the party involved in the case who has accepted to do so in person.
Effect of non – service of court process to a party is that it will either forestall the proceeding or it will vitiate the whole proceeding and judgement, if judgement was obtained in the absence of a party that was not served the court processes. The act of serving the other party is a constitutional right that is meant to be enjoyed by the both parties in the case.
READ ALSO: Who Can Override a Power of Attorney
A service of Court Process on a company in Nigeria
It’s the law that after the incorporation of a company, that such a company shall have the right to sue and to be sued. The rights to sue will always have accompanied with it, the right to be served court process. The company that’s involved in a court proceeding is meant to be served the court processes as failure to do that will be infringing on the right of fair hearing of the Company. The most acceptable way of serving an incorporated company a court process is through personal service. It has been stated that a company cannot be served court process through any other means other than personal service.