Serving Papers (Service of Process)

What is Service?

"Serving papers" means delivering a copy of the papers you file with the court to the other parties in your case. You have to do this for almost all the papers you file with the court. 

How you must deliver these papers depends on where you are at in your case. What step are you on in your case?

There might be different requirements if you are serving someone who is a respondent in an adoption case, or a defendant in an eviction case. Contact the Self-Help Center or see our page on Finding Legal Help if you aren't sure about how to have your papers served.

Serving the Complaint or Petition (or serving a Motion to Enforce) to start a case

If you are:

• starting a new case
• filing a petition to modify 
• filing a Motion to Enforce Order
• asking for someone to be found in contempt of court

then you must have the other parties in your case served personally or by mail - with a signature required for delivery. If the other party is willing, they can accept service. 

If you are starting a new case (including a petition to modify), make sure you include a summons with the papers to be served.

Learn about the different ways to serve someone below. 

 Service of Other Papers (after a case is started)

Service is usually more relaxed after the summons and complaint or petition have been served. Everything filed with the court and every order or judgment must be served under Utah Rule of Civil Procedure 5.

Who must be served

The papers must be served on:

• All parties in the case.
• If a party is represented by a lawyer, on their lawyer instead of the party. 
• If a party is represented by a licensed paralegal practitioner (LPP), on their LPP instead of the party (Utah Rule of Civil Procedure 86)

How the papers can be served

These papers can be served by:

• Mailing them to the last known address provided.
• Handing them to the person.
• Emailing them to the most recent email address provided.
• Filing the papers in MyCase - the system will automatically serve anyone who has a MyCase account or who has a lawyer. See the MyCase page for more information.
• Leaving them at the person's office with a person in charge or in a receptacle meant for deliveries.
• Leaving them at the person's home with a person of suitable age and discretion who lives there.

Service by mail or email is complete when sent.

You complete a Certificate of Service or Proof of Service form that describes how and when you served the papers. Most court forms have this as the last page of the form. If you need one for your own papers, you can find it in the Forms section of this page.

Example certificate of service 

In the example below, the defendant served Larry Landlord with a copy of the form. They sent it by email to Larry's email address at Larry@landlord.com on March 3, 2025. 

You can always serve papers like you are starting a case

There are some situations in which you may want to follow the requirements for serving someone using one of the methods required for serving a complaint or petition. For example, you may serve the judgment debtor with a notice to attend a hearing to identify property by mail or email or any other service methods for serving other papers. However, if the debtor does not attend the hearing and you want to ask the court to issue an arrest warrant to force attendance, you must have served by personal service.

Finding People for Service of Process

• Finding People for Service of Process

Forms

The forms you need depend on your case. What is your case about?