Art. 1234.Domiciliary Service

Domiciliary service is Louisiana's own term for a method common-law readers might recognize as "substituted service": rather than handing the citation to the defendant directly, the officer leaves it at the defendant's home with someone else who lives there and is old and responsible enough to be trusted with it. Louisiana doesn't use the phrase "substituted service" — Article 1234 calls it domiciliary service, and treats it, under Article 1231, as carrying the same legal effect as personal service in most cases.

Two things have to line up for domiciliary service to work. First, the location has to be the defendant's dwelling house or usual place of abode — not a workplace, a relative's house the defendant occasionally visits, or a former address. Second, the person who accepts the citation has to reside in that same household and be of suitable age and discretion, meaning old enough and responsible enough to be expected to pass the papers along to the defendant.

Domiciliary service exists because requiring an officer to catch the defendant in person every time would make service unreasonably hard. By allowing delivery to a responsible household member at the right address, the rule balances the defendant's interest in actual notice against the practical difficulty of always finding someone at home.