Alaska Process Server Licensed Servers in All 30 Boroughs and Census Areas, Under Civil Rule 4

Civil Rule 4(c)(1) has process served by a peace officer, by a person specially appointed by the Commissioner of Public Safety for that purpose or, where a rule so provides, by registered or certified mail. 13 AAC 67.005, the purpose section of the license regulations, says the Supreme Court’s rules, among them Administrative Rule 11(b) and Civil Rules 4(c)(3) and 45, provide for service by private persons appointed or designated by the commissioner, and that a civilian process server is a private person who, by virtue of holding a license issued under 13 AAC 67, may serve process under AS 22.20.120. Unless a Supreme Court rule provides otherwise, 13 AAC 67.010 bars serving process without that license, and Administrative Rule 11(b) has civil process served by private persons appointed under Civil Rule 4(c)(1), (c)(3) or (c)(4) or authorized by Rule 45(c). The Alaska servers we assign hold the appointment through that license. A State Trooper or other peace officer may assist a process server, or serve any process when the Commissioner of Public Safety directs, and AS 22.20.120 lets any Alaska court direct its process to the commissioner or a designee for service; the court system’s CIV-106 guide notes that many parts of the state have no process servers, and there peace officers, usually State Troopers, serve process. A subpoena needs no special appointment (Rule 4(c)(2)).

Two things fall on day 120. Under Civil Rule 4(f) the plaintiff files and serves an affidavit identifying the parties served, the date service was made and the parties who remain unserved; the court’s form for it is CIV-135, Civil Rule 4(f) Affidavit, sworn or affirmed and signed by the plaintiff or the plaintiff’s attorney. Under Rule 4(j) the clerk reviews each pending case 120 days after the complaint is filed and, for any defendant not served, sends the plaintiff a notice to show good cause in writing why service is not complete. If good cause is not shown within 30 days after the notice is distributed, the court dismisses the action without prejudice as to that defendant, and the clerk may enter the dismissal if the plaintiff has not opposed it. If the court finds good cause, it sets a new deadline by which the plaintiff must file proof of service or proof of diligent efforts to serve. Rule 6(b) also lets the court, for cause shown, enlarge a period when asked before it runs out, or after it runs out on a motion showing excusable neglect. If a limitation period is close, ask counsel how the timing of service affects your case.

When the return receipt is signed. In addition to the other methods, Civil Rule 4(h) allows registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, anywhere in Alaska or the United States and its possessions, on an individual other than an infant or an incompetent person and on a corporation, partnership, unincorporated association or public corporation. The summons and complaint are mailed for restricted delivery only to the party, or to the person authorized under federal regulation to receive that party’s restricted delivery mail, and every receipt is addressed to come back to the party serving or that party’s attorney.

Rule 4(e) opens only when an affidavit of a person with knowledge of the facts, filed with the clerk, shows that after diligent inquiry the party cannot be served under Rule 4(d) or 4(h). The inquiry includes a reasonable internet search unless the court orders otherwise and is also made in person or by letter; the affidavit fully specifies the inquiry, of whom and how it was made, and the internet search efforts, and discusses whether the other methods in Rule 4(e)(3) may be more likely to give actual notice. Notice is then posted for four consecutive weeks on the Alaska Court System’s legal notice website, and before the last week the plaintiff sends the notice and complaint by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, and by first class mail. The court may add other methods, such as newspaper publication, e-mail, social media or posting on the front door, each with the same mailing. The notice gives at least 20 days after personal service, or 30 days after the last publication, to appear or answer, and proof of website posting is the court clerk’s certification. In adoption cases, posting or publication is allowed only if the court orders it for compelling reasons.

Civil Rule 4(d)(7) serves the state by registered or certified mail to the Attorney General of Alaska in Juneau, and also to the chief of the attorney general’s office in Anchorage when the case is filed in the Third Judicial District, or in Fairbanks when it is filed in the Fourth. An officer or agency of the state is served by serving the state that way and also delivering the summons and complaint to the officer or agency; an agency that is a corporation receives its copies as Rule 4(d)(4) provides. Under Rule 4(d)(9) a borough, incorporated city, town, school district, public utility district or other public corporation in the state is served by delivery to its chief executive officer or chief clerk or secretary. The state or its officer or agency answers within 40 days after the attorney general is served (Rule 12(a)).

Civil Rule 4(d)(4) reaches a domestic or foreign corporation or LLC through a managing member, an officer, a managing or general agent, or any other agent authorized by appointment or by law. If the company fails to appoint or maintain a registered agent in Alaska, or the agent cannot with reasonable diligence be found at the registered office, AS 10.06.175(b) and 10.50.065(b) make the commissioner its agent for service; for corporations, AS 10.06.990 defines the commissioner as the commissioner of commerce, community, and economic development or a designee. The party serving delivers to the commissioner or designee a copy of the process with any papers the law requires and the fee set by department regulation; sends the company, by certified mail, a notice that service was made on the commissioner with a copy of the papers, both to its last registered office in the state’s records and to the address the party knows or, on reasonable inquiry, has reason to believe is most likely to give actual notice; and files the return receipt and the party’s affidavit of compliance with the court as part of the return of service. AS 10.06.765 and 10.50.645 send a foreign corporation or LLC through the same route, whether it is registered in Alaska or doing business there without authority, and also when its certificate of authority or registration is suspended or revoked. None of this displaces any other manner of service the law permits. A non-governmental defendant served through a State of Alaska officer or agency named as its agent by statute (Rule 4(d)(11)) answers within 40 days after that service.

Rule 4(d)(3) serves an incompetent person by personal delivery to the guardian of the person or a competent adult member of the person’s family with whom the person resides or, for a person living in an institution, to its director or chief executive officer; if none of them can be served, as the court orders. Unless the court orders otherwise, the incompetent person is also served. Rule 4(d)(2) serves an infant personally and also the infant’s father, mother or guardian; if there is none within the state, any person having the care or control of the infant, with whom the infant resides or in whose service the infant is employed; if none of them can be served, as the court orders. The abode route of Rule 4(d)(1) and Rule 4(h) mail do not apply to either.

Rule 45(c) lets a peace officer or any person who is not a party and is at least 18 serve a subpoena, by delivering a copy to the person named and tendering the fees for one day’s attendance and the mileage prescribed by rule; no tender is needed when the subpoena is issued on behalf of the state, a municipality, a borough, a city, or an officer or agency of one of them. Administrative Rule 7 sets Alaska’s witness fees: under 7(a) the fee depends on whether attendance, travel time included, takes more than three consecutive hours; 7(b) adds round-trip travel at the state employee rate for a witness who must travel more than 30 miles; and under 7(e) a witness in a civil case, unless subpoenaed by the state, a municipality, a borough, a city, or an officer or agency of one of them, may demand travel expense and one day’s per diem fee in advance and need not attend until paid. A subpoena may also go by registered or certified mail, which the clerk sends for delivery only to the person subpoenaed with the fees and mileage enclosed unless not required. A hearing or trial subpoena may be served anywhere in Alaska, and proof of service is by affidavit.

The clerk of court for any judicial district. Alaska Civil Rule 45.1 is derived from the Uniform Interstate Depositions and Discovery Act. A party submits the foreign subpoena to the clerk of court for any judicial district, the clerk promptly issues an Alaska subpoena, which must incorporate the terms of the foreign subpoena and contain or be accompanied by the names, addresses and telephone numbers of all counsel of record and of any unrepresented party. It is served under Rule 45(c) by delivering a copy and tendering one day’s attendance fees and mileage, unless it is issued on behalf of the state, a municipality, a borough, a city, or an officer or agency of one of them. It may also be served by registered or certified mail, which the clerk sends for delivery only to the person subpoenaed, with the fees and mileage enclosed unless not required. Our Alaska subpoena domestication page covers the process.

Rule 4(f) says failure to make proof of service does not affect the validity of the service, and Rule 4(g) lets the court allow process or proof of service to be amended unless it clearly appears that material prejudice would result to the substantial rights of the parties against whom the process issued. The duty still applies: when someone other than a peace officer serves, that person makes an affidavit, in writing, setting out the manner, place and date of service and all pleadings or other papers served, and gives it to the requesting party or attorney promptly and in any event within the time the person served has to respond. The court system’s CIV-106 guide calls this proof the Return of Service and describes it as a document, sworn before a notary, stating who was served with the summons and complaint and when and how. AS 09.63.020 allows a certification under penalty of perjury in place of a sworn affidavit only where a notary public or other official empowered to administer oaths is unavailable; it states that fact and the date and place of execution, and contains the words “I certify under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true.”

Rule 4(d)(13) serves an individual in a foreign country (A) by any internationally agreed means reasonably calculated to give notice, such as those of the Hague Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents; (B) where there is no internationally agreed means, or the agreement allows other means, by a method reasonably calculated to give notice: the foreign country’s own method for its courts of general jurisdiction, as a foreign authority directs in response to a letter rogatory or letter of request, or, unless the foreign country’s law prohibits it, personal delivery or any form of mail requiring a signed receipt by the party served, with the return receipt filed with the court; or (C) by other means not prohibited by international agreement as the court directs. Whatever the method, before judgment the court must be satisfied it was reasonably likely to give actual notice. An individual served abroad under Rule 4(d)(13) answers within 40 days after service (Rule 12(a)).