South Dakota Process Server Summons Service in All 66 Counties Under SDCL 15-6-4

Service, not filing, starts a South Dakota action

SDCL 15-6-3 points to 15-2-30 and 15-2-31 for when a civil action begins, and 15-2-30 answers it: an action is commenced as to each defendant when the summons is served on that defendant (or on a codefendant who is a joint contractor or otherwise united in interest).

SDCL 15-⁠6-⁠3; 15-⁠2-⁠30

Handing the summons to the sheriff to stop the clock

Under 15-2-31, delivering the summons, with the intent that it actually be served, to the sheriff or other officer of the county where a defendant usually or last resided, or, if a corporation is the defendant, of the county where it was established by law, transacted its general business or kept an office for business, counts as commencing the action only if service of the summons, or its first publication, follows within sixty days.

SDCL 15-⁠2-⁠31

Who may serve the summons

The sheriff or a constable of the county (or comparable political subdivision) where the defendant may be found; in the District of Columbia, the United States marshal or a deputy; or any other person who is not a party to the action and who, at the time of service, is an elector of any state. Served 123 LLC arranges service through local process servers who meet that test.

SDCL 15-⁠6-⁠4(c)

Indian country residents

Rule 4(c) has its own sentence for this: when the defendant is an Indian residing in Indian country, the summons may be served by a person who is not a party to the action and who is an elector of any state at the time of service.

SDCL 15-⁠6-⁠4(c)

How fast service must happen

No day count. The summons is served and returned with proof of service "with all reasonable diligence" to the plaintiff’s attorney, or to the plaintiff if unrepresented. The plaintiff or counsel may fix a time for service by endorsement on the summons, and service is then made accordingly.

SDCL 15-⁠6-⁠4(c)

What the summons tells the defendant

It requires an answer within thirty days after service of the summons, not counting the day of service, and warns that judgment by default may be rendered as requested in the complaint if no answer comes. Under Rule 12(a) the answer is due thirty days after the complaint is served, unless a statute or rule says otherwise.

SDCL 15-⁠6-⁠4(a); 15-⁠6-⁠12(a)

A summons served without the complaint

Allowed, but the summons must then state where the complaint is or will be filed. If the defendant appears within thirty days and demands the complaint in writing, it must be served within twenty days after the demand, and the defendant then has thirty days to answer or otherwise proceed.

SDCL 15-⁠6-⁠4(b)

Personal delivery to an individual

Rule 4(d) opens with "The summons shall be served by delivering a copy thereof," and for anyone not named in its special classes, delivery goes to the defendant personally.

SDCL 15-⁠6-⁠4(d), (d)⁠(8)

Leaving the papers at the dwelling

Only if the defendant cannot be found conveniently: a copy may be left at the defendant’s dwelling with someone over the age of fourteen years who resides there. Rule 4(e) counts this as personal service too.

SDCL 15-⁠6-⁠4(e)

Corporations, partnerships and LLCs

Deliver to the president, partner or other head of the entity, an officer, a director, or the registered agent. If none of them can be conveniently found, a copy of the summons and complaint may be left at any office of the entity within South Dakota with the person in charge of that office. The rule reaches domestic and foreign corporations and partnerships, limited liability companies, entities with fictitious names, and any entity required to have a registered agent with the Secretary of State.

SDCL 15-⁠6-⁠4(d)⁠(1)

Registered agents and the mail fallback

A registered agent is authorized to receive service of any process on the entity, delivered as a written document, except that a commercial registered agent may be served in any other form of record its 59-11-7 listing says it will accept, subject to the requirements stated there. If an entity that once filed a registered agent no longer has one, or the agent cannot with reasonable diligence be served, the entity may be served by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, addressed to its governors by name at its principal office; the names and address may come from its most recent annual report. That service is perfected on the earliest of the date the entity receives the mail, the date on a return receipt signed for the entity, or five days after deposit with the Postal Service if correctly addressed and with sufficient postage. If 59-11-16 service fails, a copy may be handed to the manager, clerk or other person in charge of any regular place of business or activity of the entity, if that person is not a plaintiff. Any other means the law provides still works, and a foreign entity is any entity that is not a domestic one.

SDCL 59-⁠11-⁠16 to 59-⁠11-⁠19; 59-⁠11-⁠2(8)

Counties, towns, townships and school districts

A county: any county commissioner. A first or second class municipality: the mayor or any alderman or commissioner. A third class municipality: any trustee. An organized township: any supervisor. A school district: any member of the school board or board of education. A consumers power district: any member of its board of directors.

SDCL 15-⁠6-⁠4(d)⁠(2)

The State and its officers

Suing the State or one of its institutions, departments or agencies: serve the officer or employee the authorizing statute designates, and the attorney general. Title to state land: the commissioner of school and public lands and the attorney general. Otherwise, with no one designated: the Governor and the attorney general. A claim against a state officer, employee or agent arising from the office goes by certified mail to the attorney general, with an admission of service and a prepaid return envelope.

SDCL 15-⁠6-⁠4(d)⁠(5)–⁠(6)

Minors

Serve a parent or the person with custody; if the minor is over fourteen, the minor personally as well; and in every case the guardian, guardian ad litem or conservator, if there is one.

SDCL 15-⁠6-⁠4(d)⁠(3)

People declared incompetent, under guardianship or in an institution

Serve the guardian or conservator, the administrator or superintendent of the institution or the person having custody, and the person as well. When the administrator or superintendent certifies in writing that personal service would be unavailing or injurious and the certificate is filed, the court may order that service on the individual be dispensed with.

SDCL 15-⁠6-⁠4(d)⁠(4)

When a statute sets its own method

If a statute or rule specifies how process is served in a particular action, that manner is followed, and a statute providing for service on a party not a resident of or found within the state is followed on its own terms.

SDCL 15-⁠6-⁠4(d)⁠(7), 15-⁠6-⁠4(f)

Serving someone outside South Dakota

SDCL 15-7-2 makes a person subject to South Dakota courts for a claim arising from one of fourteen listed acts, done personally or through an employee, agent or subsidiary, among them transacting any business in the state and committing an act that results in a tort action accruing here. For such a claim, the person may be served outside the state in the same manner as inside it, with the same force and effect.

SDCL 15-⁠7-⁠2, 15-⁠7-⁠3

Nonresident motorists

Driving in South Dakota makes the Secretary of State the agent for process in suits growing out of that driving, for a nonresident, and for a resident who has been absent for ninety days or more in a row after the accident. Service is made by serving a copy on the Secretary of State or filing it in that office, together with payment of a fee, and it is sufficient only if the plaintiff mails notice and a copy to the defendant’s last-known address within ten days and attaches the plaintiff’s affidavit of compliance to the summons.

SDCL 15-⁠7-⁠6, 15-⁠7-⁠7

Defendants in a foreign country

By an internationally agreed means such as the Hague Service Convention. Where there is none: under the foreign country’s own law for its courts, as the foreign authority directs on a letter rogatory or letter request, or, unless that country’s law prohibits it, by personal delivery or by any form of mail requiring a signed receipt. The court may also direct the method. Anyone allowed by Rule 4(c) or by the law of that country, anyone serving under the applicable treaty or convention, or anyone the court or the foreign court designates by order may serve, and proof of mail service includes an affidavit or certificate of addressing and mailing.

SDCL 15-⁠6-⁠4(d)⁠(9)

Mail with a notice and admission of service

Any defendant may be served by mailing the summons, two copies of the notice and admission of service in the 15-6-4(j) form, and a prepaid envelope addressed back to the sender. The form tells a person signing for a corporation, partnership or other entity to write their relationship to it, and one signing for another person to write their authority. Once the admission is signed and returned, the answer is due within thirty days. If it is not returned within twenty days of mailing without good cause, the court orders the defendant to pay the costs of personal service.

SDCL 15-⁠6-⁠4(i)–⁠(j)

Publication completes on the last run

Service by publication is complete on the last publication the court ordered. If a defendant named in the publication order is served personally instead, service is complete on the date of that personal service.

SDCL 15-⁠9-⁠21

Filing the summons and proof

The original summons, if not filed before service, is filed with the court together with proof of service forthwith upon service. The court may allow a summons, other process or a proof of service to be amended at any time, unless the amendment would clearly prejudice the substantial rights of the person served.

SDCL 15-⁠6-⁠5(d); 15-⁠6-⁠4(h)

How defective or slow service is raised

Insufficiency of process and insufficiency of service of process are Rule 12(b)(3) and (4) defenses, waived if left out of any Rule 12 motion the defendant makes while they are available, or if raised neither by motion nor in the responsive pleading (or an amendment allowed as of course). Separately, a defendant may move to dismiss for failure to prosecute, and the court may dismiss a civil case after written notice to counsel when the record shows no activity for one year, unless good cause is shown. If a limitation period is close, ask counsel.

SDCL 15-⁠6-⁠12(b), (h)⁠(1); 15-⁠6-⁠41(b); 15-⁠11-⁠11

Counting days under Rule 6

Leave out the day of the triggering act and count the last day, unless it is a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday or, for filing a paper in court, a day weather or other conditions made the clerk’s office inaccessible; the period then runs until the end of the next day that is not one of those. When the period is less than eleven days, intermediate Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays are left out. "Legal holiday" includes the 1-5-1 list. The court may, for cause, enlarge a period, and after it runs out may allow the act on motion for excusable neglect.

SDCL 15-⁠6-⁠6(a)–⁠(b)

Holidays and Sundays

SDCL 1-5-1 makes every Sunday a legal holiday and lists, among others, New Year’s Day, Juneteenth (June 19) and Native Americans’ Day (the second Monday in October); Statehood Day, November 2, is a working holiday. Under 1-5-2, legal process may be served on any of those holidays except Sundays. Sunday service is valid only when a judge of the court, for good cause, endorses permission on the process.

SDCL 1-⁠5-⁠1, 1-⁠5-⁠1.3, 1-⁠5-⁠2

Out-of-state subpoenas (UIDDA)

SDCL 15-6-28.1 to 28.6 govern discovery in South Dakota for a civil lawsuit brought in another state; "state" there includes a federally recognized Indian tribe. Asking the clerk to issue is not an appearance in South Dakota courts, but it gives South Dakota courts jurisdiction to enforce, quash or modify the subpoena, issue a protective order or resolve any other dispute about it, and sanction the requesting attorney for a violation of the South Dakota Rules of Civil Procedure. The issued subpoena must tell the witness of the right to petition the South Dakota court to quash or modify it, the rest of Rule 45 applies, and motions go to the court in the county where discovery is to be conducted.

SDCL 15-⁠6-⁠28.1 to 15-⁠6-⁠28.6

Serving a South Dakota subpoena

Anyone qualified to serve a summons may serve a subpoena, in the same manner, except that publication is not allowed, and early enough for the witness to travel to the place by ordinary means. The fees for one day’s attendance and the mileage allowed by law are tendered at service (not when it is issued on behalf of the State, a political subdivision, or an officer or agency of either), and the return states that payment or the witness’s signed waiver; unpaid and unwaived, the witness need not obey. A documents subpoena is preceded by a notice and copy served on each party, and every subpoena carries the Rule 45(a) warning in bold capitals above the signature.

SDCL 15-⁠6-⁠45(a)–⁠(c)

Where a deposition witness can be required to attend an examination

A South Dakota resident: only in the county where the witness lives, works or does business in person, or where a court order fixes. A nonresident: only in the county where the subpoena was served, or where a court order fixes, and a nonresident served in South Dakota must obey. Objections to inspection or copying are due within ten days after service, or by the compliance time if that is sooner.

SDCL 15-⁠6-⁠45(d), (g)

Rules verified October 2026 against South Dakota Codified Laws 1-5-1, 1-5-1.3, 1-5-2, 15-2-30, 15-2-31, 15-6-3, 15-6-4(a) through (j), 15-6-5(d), 15-6-6(a) and (b), 15-6-12(a), (b) and (h), 15-6-28.1 through 15-6-28.6, 15-6-41(b), 15-6-45(a) through (d) and (g), 15-7-2, 15-7-3, 15-7-6, 15-7-7, 15-9-7 through 15-9-21, 15-11-11, 59-11-2 and 59-11-16 through 59-11-19, as published by the South Dakota Legislature. General information, not legal advice. The statute controls.