Why We Email the Complaint, Even When It’s Not Legally Required

When a lawsuit is filed, the process of notifying the defendants that they have been sued — known as “service of process” — must follow strict rules, including personal or special delivery requirements. Until properly served, defendants are not obligated to respond to the lawsuit unless they waive this formal service process. Typically, a defendant has 20 days to respond, but the government gets 60 days.

We take these service requirements seriously and follow them meticulously. This means using the U.S. Postal Service to send the necessary documents by certified mail to the government agency’s designated physical address. Unfortunately, printing and mailing take time, even though we initiate the process immediately to ensure that the agency is formally obligated to respond as soon as possible.

In addition to publishing their physical postal addresses, many government agencies also publish an email address for receiving lawsuit-related correspondence. While simply emailing the lawsuit papers will not meet the legal requirements for service of process, we believe in taking extra steps to expedite the process. That’s why we send digital copies to these email addresses in addition to mailing the official paper documents.

This proactive measure ensures that the agency is aware of the lawsuit immediately, potentially speeding up their response — even before they’ve received the official papers. It’s an extra step we take to advocate for efficiency and accountability.