In Kansas the county sheriff serves a summons unless a party tells the clerk it will handle service under K.S.A. 60-303(b). Personal and residence service is made by a sheriff or deputy, a Kansas attorney, a private detective with a Kansas license or a server a district judge or clerk appoints, and K.S.A. 60-203(a) makes the filing date the commencement date only if service or first publication is within 90 days, or within 30 more days the court grants for good cause before the 90 run. Served 123 LLC arranges Kansas service through local servers, with up to three attempts per address.
Upload the issued summons, the petition with it and the Kansas address, online at any hour.
The quote reflects the county and the address, and no work begins until you approve it.
You receive the server’s signed return giving the time, place and manner of service.
Request a free written quote. Each address starts in Kansas. Serving someone in another state? Change the first address’s State and we take you to that state’s page with your entries kept.
The 90 days in K.S.A. 60-203(a) start when the petition is filed. K.S.A. 60-206(a)(1) skips that filing day, counts each later day with Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays included, and carries a period that ends on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday to the end of the next day that is not one.
Kansas writes its service rules into statute rather than court rule: K.S.A. 60-301 through 60-313 cover the summons, the methods, who is served, publication, service outside the state and the return, with 60-203 on commencement, 60-206 on counting days and 60-212 on challenges. Chapter 17 adds the resident agent and Secretary of State rules for business entities, and Chapter 61 carries parallel rules for limited actions.
Process servers should be appointed freely and may be authorized either to serve process in a single case or in cases generally during a fixed period of time.
Rules current as of October 2026, from the official texts: the Kansas Statutes Annotated as published by the Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes, K.S.A. 60-203 (with its Revisor case annotations), 60-204, 60-206, 60-212, 60-228a, 60-245, 60-301, 60-302, 60-303, 60-304, 60-307, 60-308, 60-309, 60-311, 60-312, 60-313, 60-2001, 61-2902, 61-3003, 61-3005, 17-7915, 17-7925, 17-7931, 53-601, 21-5903, 28-125, 35-107, 75-7b01, 77-201 and 69-102 (repealed); the Kansas Legislature’s Supplemental Note on 2018 Senate Bill 288; 2026 House Bill 2393 as enrolled, whose § 18 amends K.S.A. 60-2001 from July 1, 2026 (enrolled text); the Kansas judicial branch Holiday Schedule; and the Kansas Judicial Council’s Application and Order Appointing Special Process Server, its Chapter 60 Summons and Service of Process forms list and its Summons and Return of Service (12-2022) listing. General information, not legal advice. The official text controls.
With Served 123, one order handles each Kansas route listed: personal and residence service, the dwelling with mailed notice, entities and the Secretary of State, public bodies, publication, return receipt delivery the party sends, and parties beyond Kansas. Service by the sheriff or another officer, and a defendant’s own acknowledgment, lie outside it.
Every route above, one order.
Get a Free Quote Online →Several routes carry steps of their own. Return receipt delivery goes to the address 60-304 directs: an individual’s dwelling or usual place of abode, an authorized agent’s usual or designated address, an officer, partner or agent’s usual place of business, or the official’s governmental office; merely failing to claim the envelope is not a refusal, and an unopened first-class envelope returned undelivered means service is not obtained and calls for an amended certificate showing nondelivery; and for an individual, once a return states delivery at the home was refused or unclaimed, service may be completed by return receipt delivery to a known business address. The Secretary of State route needs the original and two copies of the process and two copies of the petition, delivered in person or by return receipt delivery, with the statutory fee; the Secretary forwards a copy by return receipt delivery to the principal office in its records or the registered or principal office in the home state. Service for a series of an LLC through the LLC’s agent or the Secretary of State includes the name of the LLC and the name of the series. Publication needs a filed affidavit or K.S.A. 53-601 declaration first, runs once a week for three consecutive weeks, sets an answer date at least 41 days after the first publication, and has a copy of the notice mailed within seven days to each defendant whose address the affidavit or declaration states, the mailing proved by the affidavit or declaration of the person who mailed the copies, with the return receipt filed if mailing was by certified mail. Under 60-311 all process issued in Kansas may be served anywhere in the state, and outside it when the law authorizes; under 60-303(d)(3) an appointed process server, an authorized attorney or a private detective with a Kansas license may make the service anywhere in or outside Kansas.
Proof of service must be filed with the court. Under 60-312(a)(2) a server who is not an officer makes an affidavit or a K.S.A. 53-601 declaration as to the time, place and manner of service; an officer makes a statement subject to penalty of perjury under K.S.A. 21-5903. A 53-601 declaration is dated, signed as true under penalty of perjury and carries the same force and effect as an affidavit. Under 60-312(d) the officer or other person receiving the summons for service must file the return not later than 14 days after service is effected, and a summons that cannot be served goes back to the court within 30 days after it was issued with the reason, unless the court extends the time for service. The Judicial Council’s form is the Summons and Return of Service (12-2022), and 60-313 lets the court allow a return to be amended unless material prejudice would clearly result.
For attorneys, paralegals, collection teams, insurers and self-represented parties who need a defendant or a witness served anywhere in Kansas.
Upload the issued summons, the petition with it and the Kansas address, online at any hour.
The quote reflects the county and the address, and no work begins until you approve it.
A process server near the address makes up to three attempts to complete personal or residence service.
You receive the server’s signed return giving the time, place and manner of service.
What You Get Back
K.S.A. 60-311 lets process issued in Kansas be served anywhere in the state, so a summons from a district court in one county can be served in any of the other 104. Choose a county on the map or from the list to start a quote.
Each answer names the Kansas statute it rests on. General information, not legal advice.
Yes. Section 60-303(b) has the sheriff of the county where the action is filed serve any process unless a party, personally or through an attorney, notifies the clerk that the party elects to undertake responsibility for service. Once a party takes that on, personal and residence service under 60-303(d)(3) is made by a sheriff within the sheriff’s county, a deputy, an attorney admitted to practice in Kansas, a private detective holding a license under K.S.A. 75-7b01 et seq., or a person a district court judge or clerk appoints as a process server, and the clerk delivers the copies to that server or the party’s attorney on request. Return receipt delivery is handled by the sheriff, the party or the party’s attorney under 60-303(c)(2).
Copy LinkThe filing date stays the commencement date only if service is obtained, or the first publication made, within 90 days after the petition is filed, or within an additional 30 days the court allows on the plaintiff’s showing of good cause; the Revisor’s case annotations to 60-203 record that the extension must be sought and granted before the 90 days expire (Read v. Miller, 247 Kan. 557 (1990)). Past that, the action is commenced on the date of service or first publication instead, which matters when a statute of limitations is running; if a limitation period is close, ask counsel. Service later adjudicated invalid for an irregularity or defect can be cured by valid service within 90 days after that ruling (plus 30 for good cause) under 60-203(b). A defendant may raise insufficient service by motion before pleading or in the responsive pleading, and under 60-212(h)(1) waives it by leaving it out of an earlier 60-212 motion or by never raising it either way.
Copy LinkSection 60-303(d)(3) lets a judge or clerk of the district court appoint a process server and says appointments should be made freely, either for a single case or for cases generally during a fixed period of time. The Judicial Council’s Application and Order Appointing Special Process Server is signed by the judge or clerk on the oral application of the attorney who signs it, and authorizes service in all cases under K.S.A. Chapters 59, 60 and 61 for a period ending on the date it states. An appointed server may serve anywhere in or outside Kansas. Our servers hold the appointment wherever a Kansas court’s appointment is what authorizes them to serve.
Copy LinkYes. Return receipt delivery under 60-303(c) means certified mail, priority mail, a commercial courier, an overnight delivery service or another reliable personal delivery service, with a written or electronic receipt showing to whom and where it was delivered, the date and who delivered it. The sheriff, party or party’s attorney gives the carrier the process and petition in a sealed, prepaid envelope addressed as 60-304 directs, and service is obtained on delivery of that envelope. The return then states the nature of the process, to whom and where it was delivered, the date and who delivered it, with a copy of the return receipt.
Copy LinkA refusal endorsement lets the sheriff, party or attorney mail the process and petition by first-class mail, postage prepaid, or choose another method; mailed service counts as obtained three days after mailing, proved by a certificate filed with the clerk, and an envelope returned undelivered means no service and an amended certificate. Failing to claim the envelope is not a refusal. For an individual, once a return of service states that delivery at the home was refused or unclaimed and a business address is known, service may be completed by return receipt delivery to that business address under 60-304(a).
Copy LinkOnly after personal or residence service cannot be made, and never for a minor or a disabled person. Residence service itself is leaving a copy at the dwelling or usual place of abode with someone of suitable age and discretion who lives there. If that fails too, 60-303(d)(1)(C) has the copy left at the dwelling or usual place of abode and a notice that it was left there mailed to the individual by first-class mail, postage prepaid.
Copy LinkEvery covered entity must keep a resident agent in Kansas. When one fails to appoint or maintain a resident agent, or the agent cannot with reasonable diligence be found at the registered office, 60-304(f) makes the Secretary of State its agent; that covers domestic corporations, LLCs, limited partnerships and limited liability partnerships, and foreign ones authorized to transact business or transacting business without authority in Kansas. The requesting party delivers the original and two copies of the process and two copies of the petition to the Secretary of State, in person or by return receipt delivery, and pays the Secretary’s statutory fee; the Secretary forwards a copy by return receipt delivery to the principal office in its records or the registered or principal office in the home state.
Copy LinkThe officer or other person who received the summons for service must file the return not later than 14 days after service is effected. A summons that cannot be served goes back to the court within 30 days after the date it was issued with the reason, unless the court extends the time for service up to 90 days after issuance, and the clerk serves a copy of the return on the requesting party’s attorney, or on the party if unrepresented. In a Chapter 61 limited action the return is due no later than five days before the appearance or answer date on the summons (three days in forcible detainer cases).
Copy LinkUnder 60-312(a)(2) a server who is not an officer makes either an affidavit or a K.S.A. 53-601 declaration stating the time, place and manner of service; an officer makes a statement subject to penalty of perjury under K.S.A. 21-5903. Section 53-601 gives an unsworn written declaration, dated and signed as true under penalty of perjury, the same force and effect as an affidavit, with its own wording for one executed in Kansas and one executed outside the state, which adds “under the laws of the state of Kansas”. The court may allow a return or proof of service to be amended unless material prejudice would clearly result.
Copy LinkKansas enacted the Uniform Interstate Depositions and Discovery Act at 60-228a, and its definition of a foreign jurisdiction reaches another state or a foreign country. The party submits the foreign subpoena to a clerk of court in the county where discovery is to be conducted and pays the docket fee K.S.A. 60-2001 requires; the request is not an appearance. The clerk promptly issues a Kansas subpoena incorporating the foreign terms, with the names, addresses and telephone numbers of all counsel of record and unrepresented parties, assigns a case file number and dockets it as a civil action. It is served under 60-303, and under 60-245(b) a subpoena commanding attendance must come with the fees for one day’s attendance and mileage; K.S.A. 28-125 sets a per-day witness fee and mileage when the distance is more than one mile. A subpoena for documents or an inspection alone needs a notice served on each party first. Motions to quash, modify, enforce or protect go to the court in that county.
Copy LinkUpload the issued summons, the petition and the Kansas address, and a written quote comes back before any work begins.
