§ 140A.054.Service; Proof of Service

Service rules for demands and for the petitions that challenge or enforce them.

Subsection (a), for individuals: service may be made by delivering a duly executed copy to the person to be served, or by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, to their residence or principal office or place of business.

Subsection (b), for everyone else — companies, partnerships, associations — delivery goes to a person to whom delivery would be appropriate under state law if the demand or petition were process in a civil suit.

That borrowing is the sensible choice. Rather than write a second set of rules about registered agents and corporate officers, the section imports the ones already in place for serving citation.

Subsection (c): a verified return by the individual serving the demand or petition, setting forth the manner of service, is proof of service. Where service was by registered or certified mail, the return must be accompanied by the return post office receipt.

All three subsections cover petitions as well as demands — both the recipient’s petition to modify or set aside and the attorney general’s petition to enforce.

That matters because those petitions travel in both directions. The same rules govern the state serving a demand and a recipient serving a challenge to it.

The mail option is conditional on the receipt. Ordinary mail will not do, and without the post office receipt the return does not prove service.