County Court Rules (Northern Ireland) 1981

Process servers and their duties

2.—(1) The name and address of every person appointed as a process server or removed from or otherwise ceasing to hold the office of process server shall be published in such manner and at such times as the judge thinks expedient.

(2) Every process server who holds office at the date of coming into operation of these Rules shall at the first sittings after such date of the court for the division in which he acts as process server, and every process server appointed after the coming into operation of these Rules shall on appointment, take the oath set out in Form 38.

(3) Subject to the provisions of this Order, a process server shall serve all civil bills and other documents received by him for service.

(4) Every process server shall keep, in such form as may be approved by the judge, a book in which he shall enter the following particulars in relation to every civil bill or document received by him for service, that is to say—

(a) the names of the plaintiff and defendant;

(b) the cause of action;

(c) the date on which he received the civil bill or document for service;

(d) the date on which he served the civil bill or document;

(e) the place where and the name or description of the person on or with whom the civil bill or document was served or left; or if the civil bill or document has not been served on or left with any person, the reason why service has not been effected.

(5) A process server shall not accept for service—

(a) any copy of a civil bill unless it is accompanied by the original civil bill;

(b) any civil bill not duly stamped.

(6) Every process server shall compare with the original every copy of each civil bill received by him for service, and before serving such copy shall endorse his name thereon; and after effecting service shall endorse on the original civil bill a statement of the day of the week and date upon which, the manner in which, and the place where such service was effected, and as to the person (whether the defendant, the husband or wife of the defendant or a relative or employee of his) on whom the civil bill was served, and shall sign such statement.

(7) On or before the day following the last day for service, each process server shall return every original civil bill to the solicitor or other person from whom he received it.

(8) As soon as possible after service of a summary civil bill, the process server shall return the original, duly endorsed as to service, to the plaintiffs solicitor.

(9) It shall be the duty of every process server to attend the sittings of the court for the division or part thereof for which he has been appointed and produce his book or books, or in his unavoidable absence to cause such book or books to be so produced.

(10) In the event of the unavoidable absence or of the illness or death of a process server, his book or books shall be so produced and verified by some person who can swear to the handwriting of the process server, and on being so verified shall be prima facie evidence of the matters entered therein.

(11) Where personal service has been effected but the process server does not know of his own knowledge that the person served is the defendant, satisfactory proof of the identity of the person served must be given.

(12) Process servers shall lodge their books in the Office when and so often as the judge may direct; and books so lodged shall be kept as part of the records of the court.

(13) The oath to be taken by a process server at each sitting of the court shall be in Form 39.