I am a trial broker, not a lawyer, and this article is my opinion, consult a lawyer if you need legal advice. This article only covers how you can discover the actual address of a judgment debtor so that a process server can serve you legal documents.
USPS mailboxes and Private Mail Boxes (PMB) are becoming more and more popular, the main reasons being because they help people increase their privacy and personal security. People want privacy, especially people who owe money in civil lawsuits.
Increasingly, people are turning to private PO Box stores, like The UPS Store, because they often have more features at a better price than what the USPS Post Office offers.
Some judgment debtors go out of their way to live “off the grid” and try to have only their PO box show up in any public records data search.
To recover a judgment, you often must personally serve the debtor to compel him, and sometimes third parties, to appear in court to try to discover information that may lead to the debtor’s available assets.
When a debtor goes to great lengths to hide behind a PO Box or PMB, someone usually must be hired to find the debtor’s other (physical) address, hopefully the address where the debtor lives.
To find this information, you can hire a private investigator or lawyer, or you can save money and hire a process server. The only reason you may obtain this private information from a process server is to serve legal process.
If you want to find a lost love, lost relative, lost friend, etc., you should hire a licensed private investigator. If you just need to be able to serve legal documents on someone, by hiring a process server, then the law allows the process server to find the debtor in order to serve the legal documents.
Most people cannot do this on their own, however the information here can help readers to be better informed and prepared. You can save money by hiring a process server, or you can hire a lawyer or private investigator.
My knowledge is based in California, but the same concepts should apply in many states. In California, the laws that apply are primarily California Codes of Civil Procedure (CCP) 415.xx, 416.xx, and 706.101. Also, California Business and Professions Code (BPC) 17538.5, and Federal Regulations ZIP Code – 39 CFR section 265.5, and the National Postal Mail Manual.
When you need legal documents served on someone, there’s a difference between store drop boxes, known as a Commercial Mail Receiving Agency (CMRA), and a US Post Office. Legal documents can be served at a CMRA because someone is always available during business hours, who can accept the process service, on behalf of the box holder, who can also sign receipts.
At the US Post Office, you cannot serve the box holder, but the process server can obtain the physical address of the box holder. After that, you can have the judgment debtor served.
If the debtor’s address on file with the PMB turns out to be incorrect, you can have the UPS Store block the box and deny the debtor access to their mail until the box holder provides documented proof of their current physical address on a PS1583 form. reviewed.