Served 123 LLC arranges New York service of process in all 62 counties, from Suffolk to Erie, with up to three attempts per address. Under CPLR 2103(a), except where a law or court order provides otherwise, any person who is not a party and is 18 or older may serve, and CPLR 308(2) allows delivery to a person of suitable age and discretion at the defendant’s home or actual place of business, followed by a mailing. In New York City, the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection requires a Process Server Individual license of anyone serving process five or more times in a calendar year.
Send the filed summons and complaint, or summons with notice, online with the New York address where the person or company can be found.
A written quote for that county, listing cost and turnaround, reaches you before any work begins.
You receive the server’s affidavit of service with the details and the description of the person served that CPLR 306 calls for.
Request a free written quote. Each address starts in New York. Serving someone in another state? Change the first address’s State and we take you to that state’s page with your entries kept.
CPLR 306-b allows 120 days after the action is commenced by filing the summons (CPLR 304). The filing day is not counted (GCL § 20), and a last day on a weekend or public holiday carries to the next business day (§ 25-a).
Article 3 of the Civil Practice Law and Rules governs service of a summons, Article 23 subpoenas, and CPLR 3119 subpoenas from other states; the General Business Law adds the Sunday rule and, in New York City, the rules for process servers.
Except where otherwise prescribed by law or order of court, papers may be served by any person not a party of the age of eighteen years or over.
Rules verified October 2026 against the current consolidated laws published by the New York State Senate: CPLR 304, 306, 306-b, 307 through 318, 320, 2004, 2103, 2106, 2302, 2303, 3119 (as amended in 2025) and 3211; General Construction Law §§ 20, 24 and 25-a; Election Law § 8-100; General Business Law §§ 11, 13, 89-bb, 89-ff and 89-ll; County Law § 650; Business Corporation Law §§ 306 and 307; and Limited Liability Company Law §§ 303 and 304. Also New York City Administrative Code §§ 20-403 to 20-405 and the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection’s Process Server Individual license checklist and the Unified Court System’s form UCS-SUB1 (05/2026). General information, not legal advice. The official text controls.
CPLR 307 through 312-a name whom to serve for each kind of defendant, and Served 123 covers the New York routes shown here in one order: personal delivery, suitable-age delivery, affix and mail, companies and the Secretary of State, mail with an acknowledgement, service outside the state, and court-directed service or publication. The county sheriff’s service is the one route it leaves out.
Every route above, one order.
Get a Free Quote Online →Under CPLR 306(d), a sheriff or other authorized public officer proves service by certificate and anyone else by affidavit. CPLR 2106 lets a statement affirmed true under the penalties of perjury stand in place of an affidavit with the same force and effect. CPLR 306 sets the contents, and in New York City, GBL § 89-ff adds the server’s license or registration number wherever one is required, and the name and address of any process serving agency that gave the server the papers.
After suitable-age or affix-and-mail service, service is complete only ten days after the proof is filed with the clerk, and the defendant’s thirty days to appear run from that point (CPLR 308(2), (4); 320(a)).
For attorneys, collection teams, insurers and self-represented parties with someone to serve anywhere from Brooklyn and the Bronx to Buffalo and Plattsburgh.
Send the filed summons and complaint, or summons with notice, online with the New York address where the person or company can be found.
A written quote for that county, listing cost and turnaround, reaches you before any work begins.
A New York process server works the address and records the date, time and address of each attempt, which CPLR 306(c) requires the proof to list if affix and mail follows.
You receive the server’s affidavit of service with the details and the description of the person served that CPLR 306 calls for.
CPLR 306-b allows 120 days from filing in most New York actions, so the tier you pick usually follows your own schedule; the exception is a case with a limitation period of four months or less, where service is due within fifteen days after it runs. Preferred, Next-Day and Same-Day set when the first attempt is made; a first attempt is not service.
What You Get Back
From Kings, Queens and New York County to Hamilton and Schuyler, find your county on the map or in the list to start a quote.
Each answer names the New York statute or rule behind it. General information, not legal advice.
CPLR 306-b counts the 120 days from commencement, which is the filing of the summons and complaint or summons with notice under CPLR 304. If service is not made in that time, the court, upon motion, must dismiss without prejudice as to that defendant, or extend the time on good cause shown or in the interest of justice. CPLR 2004 also lets a court extend a statutory time for good cause, before or after it expires.
Copy LinkA person of suitable age and discretion at the defendant’s actual place of business, dwelling place or usual place of abode in the state, under CPLR 308(2). A mailing follows within twenty days, to the last known residence or, marked personal and confidential with nothing on the outside showing that it is from an attorney or concerns an action, to the actual place of business. The proof is filed with the clerk within twenty days of the later step, names the person who took the papers with the date, time and place, and service is complete ten days after filing.
Copy LinkOnly after personal delivery and suitable-age service cannot be made with due diligence. The summons is then affixed to the door of the actual place of business, dwelling place or usual place of abode and mailed, within twenty days of each other. Proof is filed with the clerk of the court named in the summons within twenty days of the later step, and service is complete ten days after that filing. CPLR 306(c) requires the proof to list the dates, addresses and times of the earlier attempts. If even that is impracticable, the court may direct another manner under CPLR 308(5).
Copy LinkGeneral Business Law Article 8-A applies only in cities of one million or more people. New York City’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection requires a Process Server Individual license of anyone serving process five or more times in a calendar year, with exemptions for attorneys admitted in New York and for government employees acting within the scope of their jobs (NYC Admin. Code §§ 20-403(a), 20-404(c), 20-405; NYC DCWP). Each affidavit of service states the server’s license or registration number where one is required, and the name and address of any process serving agency that gave the server the papers (GBL § 89-ff).
Copy LinkNot on a Sunday: General Business Law § 11 prohibits service or execution of legal process of any kind on Sunday, except in criminal proceedings or where a statute specially authorizes it, and makes such service absolutely void. Saturday service is allowed, but GBL § 13 makes it a misdemeanor to maliciously have civil process served on Saturday on a person who keeps Saturday as holy time and does not labor that day, or to serve that person with process returnable on Saturday.
Copy LinkCPLR 306(d) calls for an affidavit from any server other than a sheriff or public officer. CPLR 2106 lets a statement affirmed true under the penalties of perjury, in the form the rule sets out, be used in a New York action in place of an affidavit with the same force and effect. CPLR 306(a) and (b) set the contents: the papers served, the person served, the date, time, address and manner, facts showing that an authorized person served in an authorized manner, and a description of the person served including gender, race, hair color, approximate age, weight and height.
Copy LinkA corporation is served on an officer, director, managing or general agent, cashier or assistant cashier or another agent authorized by appointment or by law (CPLR 311(a)(1)), or on its registered agent or, if domestic or authorized foreign, the Secretary of State under Business Corporation Law § 306. An LLC is served on a member in New York if the members manage it, a manager in New York if managers do, an agent authorized by appointment or a designated person (CPLR 311-a), or, if domestic or authorized foreign, through the Secretary of State under LLC Law § 303. A foreign corporation or LLC not authorized in New York may be served through the Secretary of State under BCL § 307 or LLC Law § 304, followed by the plaintiff’s own notice by personal delivery outside the state or registered mail and an affidavit of compliance filed within thirty days; service is complete ten days after that filing.
Copy LinkNew York adopted the Uniform Interstate Depositions and Discovery Act as CPLR 3119. A party submits the out-of-state subpoena to the county clerk where discovery is to take place, with the court system’s Out-of-State Subpoena Affirmation (UCS-SUB1), affirming under penalty of perjury that the subpoena is not related to an investigation or proceeding seeking to impose liability or other consequences for legally protected health activity, or that it is related to one but falls within an exception in CPLR 3119(g)(1)(i), naming which exception applies. The clerk promptly issues a New York subpoena that incorporates its terms and lists the names, addresses and telephone numbers of all counsel of record and of any unrepresented party. A New York attorney retained by a party, who receives the original or a true copy of the out-of-state subpoena, may issue it instead, with the same affirmation. It is then served under CPLR 2302 and 2303, with the witness fee and travel expenses tendered in advance.
Copy LinkCPLR 312-a allows first class mail with two copies of the statement of service by mail and acknowledgement of receipt and a prepaid return envelope. Service is complete only when the signed acknowledgement is mailed or delivered back, which must happen within thirty days of receipt; if it is not returned, the plaintiff serves another way and the court taxes the reasonable expense of that service. The signed acknowledgement is itself the proof of service.
Copy LinkTwenty days after service in most cases, such as delivery to the defendant or to a corporation’s officer. Thirty days after service is complete when the summons was delivered to a state official authorized to receive it (the Secretary of State for a corporation or LLC), or was served under CPLR 303, 308(2) through (5), 313, 314 or 315 (CPLR 320(a)). After CPLR 312-a mail service with the complaint, the answer is due twenty days after the signed acknowledgement is mailed or delivered (CPLR 312-a(b)). An objection to service raised in the answer is waived if the defendant does not move for judgment on it within sixty days after serving the answer, unless the court extends the time for undue hardship (CPLR 3211(e); not in a proceeding to collect a consumer-credit debt from a consumer defendant, or in RPAPL 711(1)-(2) proceedings). A defendant served other than by personal delivery or delivery to a Rule 318 agent may be allowed to defend within one year after learning of a default judgment, but no more than five years after its entry, if the court finds the defendant did not personally receive notice of the summons in time and has a meritorious defense (CPLR 317; not in divorce, annulment or partition actions).
Copy LinkUpload the filed summons with the address. A written quote comes before any work begins.
