Hi, My friend has been put in jail. He was never served, and did not know of his court date. Did they infringe upon his rights? He travels alot with his job and he never got a notice of any court dates. Please help! Your knowledge of this will be greatly appreciated. Thank you. My e-mail is zipporah1981@yahoo.com for further inquiries. Thank you.
2007-07-09 05:35:35 · 9 answers · asked by Z1981 1 in Politics & Government ➔ Law & Ethics
He was paying child support from his check and he had informed family services where he was. He got laid off and When he started working again the child support came out of his check as usual. He never got a notice from family court. When he came home to south carolina. They arrested him and his neighbor told him he had a summons on his back porch.
2007-07-09 06:23:00 · update #1
He was laid off and accrued a balance. That is why they arrested him. I wanted to know if his rights were violated, considering they knew where he was and how to contact him and he was never served. Thanks!
2007-07-09 06:25:28 · update #2
If your friend is an illegal alien and was picked up for such, then of course they arent' going to send him a notice that they are coming.
Otherwise, it depends on the situation, the charges, and if he was caught in the middle of committing a crime. There are too many IFs to accurately decide whether anyone's rights were trampled.
EDIT:
Sorry, if he goes back and reads all his original child support paperwork, it will tell him that he is responsible for coming up with his support payments regardless of whether he is working or not. If there was a conference or contempt hearing, and he didn't show, then there was a bench warrant issued. He was served when he was picked up.
2007-07-09 05:42:49 · answer #1 · answered by Yahoo is Stupid 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It depends on the situation ... its hard to really say from the information you've given whether or not his due process right have been violated, but simply not being 'served' is not a violation, per se. If the court and/or law enforcement agency responsible for issuing the notice can prove they made a reasonable attempted to serve the warrant/court order then it does not matter if you friend was physically 'served.' In that type of a situation the court will simply issue a warrant for arrest to bring the person before the court, and settle the issue.
Ignorance of the law is never an excuse ... everyone is held accountable whether or not they know the rules.
2007-07-09 13:04:55 · answer #2 · answered by blursd2 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
You can bet he has been served. "Service" does not only consist of slapping a writ directly into the hand of the accused. Because he travels a lot, the process server probably couldn't get in touch with him personally, so applied for a Court Order for Substitutional Service. Under this court order, service can be done by mail, by posting a copy of the writ in a local court house, by publishing the writ in a local newspaper and (in some States) by nailing the writ to the door of his last known address. Often, when people are considered to be avoiding service, the process server will try to serve personally just once, then go for the Court Order. Check with the local court registrar to see if there was "an Affidavit of Service" and read it. It'll tell you how he was served.
2007-07-09 13:00:53 · answer #3 · answered by mindlinkadvantage 2 · 3⤊ 0⤋
It depends on the circumstances I think. The police may have tried a certain number of times to serve him with papers. After so many unsucessful tries, a warrant for arrest may have been issued. If a court date has been set already and he was required to appear and did not, a warrant is automatically sent out for arrest. I am not an expert by any means, so I could be wrong about it. The best thing to do is to research the local laws where the court date was set.
2007-07-09 12:47:11 · answer #4 · answered by InvaderZiM 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
If your friend travels a lot, the process of serving notice may have been difficult for the server, and they may have thought he was trying to dodge the papers. And depending on the State's statutes, he may have been found in default. If he didn't contact them to inform them of his layoff, they may have thought he quit on purpose to avoid wage garnishments. Boy, and I thought I pissed someone off. I'm dealing with the same problems and refuse to comply because the judge gave my kids to dads', stating in court, "A woman with small children does not belong working or hanging out in a bar. I was only working parent and dad was drunk in bar without job.
2007-07-16 05:01:18 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's hard to tell from the facts you've given.
I suspect he was jailed for contempt.
Not positive but I don't believe contempt of an existing court order that is being violated requires process service.
2007-07-16 22:50:30 · answer #6 · answered by bw 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
He can be arrested and held pending arraignment (which is what I assume you mean by "in jail", but he cannot be sentenced without a trial.
Service is normally a civil process; criminal law works differently. But generally, if he has not received formal notification (which is the point of due process service) then his attorney can challenge that in court.
2007-07-09 13:01:58 · answer #7 · answered by coragryph 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
There is no one answer here without knowing the exact course of events and what state this happened in. For correct information, your best bet is to talk to a lawyer in the city this occurred in.
2007-07-09 13:00:24 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
He needs legal counsel, not Yahoo Answers.
2007-07-17 11:10:37 · answer #9 · answered by LindaAnn 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋