Art. 5094.Duties; Notice to Nonresident Or Absentee

Once appointed, the attorney's central obligation is to try to reach the person they represent. Article 5094 requires reasonable diligence in communicating with a nonresident or absentee defendant, informing that defendant of the pendency and nature of the action, and of how much time remains to file an answer or otherwise assert a defense.

Paragraph B gives that standard a concrete floor. An attorney is deemed to have acted with reasonable diligence when the attorney sends the absentee a letter, by certified mail or commercial courier, to the last known address on file, attempting to locate the defendant and notify them of the appointment. That single, defined step satisfies the diligence requirement even if the letter never reaches the defendant, since the point of the standard is a real effort at notice, not a guaranteed result.

This obligation gives practical meaning to Article 5091's appointment mechanism. Appointing an attorney does the absent defendant little good if that attorney never tries to reach them; Article 5094 makes the attempt itself a legal duty, backed by the sanctions Article 5098 authorizes for a willful failure to perform it.