We serve all papers in all 50 states. Fees are automatically calculated at checkout based on the service address.
ROUTINE — $150 (First attempt within 3–7 business days)
RUSH — $250 (First attempt within 24–48 business hours)
SAME-DAY — $300 (First attempt the same business day when documents are received during normal business hours)
EMAIL/MAIL — $75 (Where permitted; completed within 24–48 business hours from time of receipt)
STAKE-OUT — $425 (Includes 1 hour waiting time; each additional hour $150)
Includes 3 attempts (morning/afternoon/evening) + notarized Affidavit of Service/Due Diligence. Additional individuals: 50% off (same address/same order).
Place Order Online | Call (800) 774-6922
Franklinton Columbus Process service, also known as “service of process,” is the procedure employed to give appropriate notice of initial legal action to another party (such as a defendant), court, or administrative body in an effort to exercise jurisdiction over that person so as to enable that person to respond to the proceeding before the court, body, or other tribunals. Notice is furnished by delivering a set of court documents (called “process”) to the person to be served; process service is performed by a process server.
Our Franklinton Columbus process servers serve all types of legal documents, including summons and complaints, divorce papers, family court documents, subpoenas, citations, small claims court cases, orders to show cause, petitions, and discovery documents, evictions, landlord/tenant notices, motions, and more. We are a full-service process server agency providing services to federal, state & city agencies, law firms, attorneys, and the general public in Franklinton Columbus.
Process service of court documents in Franklinton Columbus is performed by experienced Franklinton Columbus process servers, who meet the requirements set by the jurisdiction in which they operate. At Undisputed Legal, Inc., we specialize in locating and serving court cases on evasive defendants and witnesses. For more detailed information on all jurisdictions, please visit our rules and laws page, Ohio Rules of Civil Procedure. For instructions on How To Serve Legal Papers in Ohio.
Franklinton Columbus process servers can serve a wide range of legal documents, including summons and complaints, divorce papers, family court documents, subpoenas, citations, small claims court cases, orders to show cause, petitions, discovery documents, evictions, landlord/tenant notices, and motions. This comprehensive service gets all necessary legal paperwork properly delivered in accordance with court requirements.
In Franklinton, we offer Routine, Rush and Same-Day service, along with Email and Mail service and Stake-Out service; the current rates and what each includes are set out in the pricing section above.
Undisputed Legal provides GPS-verified Affidavits of Service, personalized real-time email status updates, and an emailed copy of the affidavit before mailing. Additionally, new clients receive a free basic skip trace to help locate difficult-to-find defendants or witnesses.
Yes, process servers in Franklinton Columbus must meet the requirements set by their jurisdiction, so that all service of process is performed by experienced professionals in compliance with Ohio’s legal standards.
Undisputed Legal specializes in locating and serving documents to evasive defendants and witnesses using advanced skip tracing and diligent process serving techniques. For assistance with difficult cases, you can contact Undisputed Legal at 800-774-6922 to discuss tailored strategies for effective service in Franklinton Columbus.
Service of a summons and complaint in a civil action in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, General Division is governed by Rules 4 through 4.7 of the Ohio Rules of Civil Procedure. Under Civ.R. 4(A), “Upon the filing of the complaint the clerk shall forthwith issue a summons for service upon each defendant listed in the caption.” Civ.R. 4.1 states that “All methods of service within this state, except service by publication as provided in Civ.R. 4.4(A), are described in this rule.” The rules make the clerk of the court the first server: under Civ.R. 4.1(A)(1)(a), evidenced by a return receipt signed by any person accepting delivery, service of process “shall be by United States certified or express mail unless otherwise permitted by these rules,” and under Civ.R. 4.1(A)(1)(b), unless the serving party instructs the clerk otherwise, “the clerk may make service of any process by a commercial carrier service utilizing any form of delivery requiring a signed receipt.” Personal and residence service are made on the plaintiff’s written request: Civ.R. 4.1(B) provides that “When the plaintiff files a written request with the clerk for personal service, service of process shall be made by that method.” In Franklin County the summons issues from the Franklin County Clerk of Courts; the Ohio Clerk of Courts Association lists the Franklin County Clerk of Courts at 373 South High St., Floor 23, Columbus, Ohio 43215, telephone 614-525-3600, and the clerk’s own site was not reachable when this page was composed. Personal and residence service of common-pleas process in Franklin County runs through the Franklin County Sheriff under Civ.R. 4.1(B)(1) and (C)(1), or through a person designated by court order under Civ.R. 4.1(E); process of the Franklin County Municipal Court goes to the court’s bailiff. Our work in Columbus is the service the rules open to a private server: personal and residence service as a person designated by court order under Civ.R. 4.1(E), subpoenas under Civ.R. 45(B), the skip trace that locates the defendant, and the documented record of every attempt. The methods are these:
Service in Ohio is directed from our Chicago office, 155 North Wacker Drive, 42nd Floor, Chicago, IL 60606, telephone (312) 267-1227.
The Ohio Rules of Civil Procedure set out what is recorded and returned after process is served in Franklinton, Columbus. The rules speak of the server’s endorsement and return to the clerk; in common commercial practice the same record is called an affidavit of service.
The return. Civ.R. 4.1(B)(2)(a) provides that “When the copy of the process has been served, the person serving process shall endorse that fact on the process and return it to the clerk, who shall make the appropriate entry on the appearance docket.” Civ.R. 4.1(C)(2)(a) provides the same for residence service.
When service is not made. Civ.R. 4.1(B)(2)(b) provides that “When the person serving process is unable to serve a copy of the process within twenty-eight days, the person shall endorse that fact and the reasons therefor on the process and return the process and copies to the clerk who shall make the appropriate entry on the appearance docket.” In the event of failure of service the clerk follows the notification procedure of Civ.R. 4.1(A)(2), and the rule adds that “Failure to make service within the twenty-eight-day period and failure to make proof of service do not affect the validity of the service.”
The time limits. Civ.R. 4(E) provides that “If a service of the summons and complaint is not made upon a defendant within six months after the filing of the complaint and the party on whose behalf such service was required cannot show good cause why such service was not made within that period, the action shall be dismissed as to that defendant without prejudice” upon the court’s own initiative with notice or upon motion; “This division shall not apply to out-of-state service pursuant to Rule 4.3 or to service in a foreign country pursuant to Rule 4.5.” Under Civ.R. 3(A), “A civil action is commenced by filing a complaint with the court, if service is obtained within one year from such filing upon a named defendant.”
Amendment. Civ.R. 4.6(B) provides that the court, within its discretion and upon such terms as are just, “may at any time allow the amendment of any process or proof of service thereof, unless the amendment would cause material prejudice to the substantial rights of the party against whom the process was issued.”
The duty of the attorney of record. Civ.R. 4.6(E) provides that “The attorney of record or the serving party shall be responsible for determining if service has been made and shall timely file written instructions with the clerk regarding completion of service,” notwithstanding the rules that instruct the clerk to notify the attorney of a failure of service.
Waiver of service. Civ.R. 4.7(A) provides that a defendant subject to service “has a duty to avoid unnecessary expenses of serving the summons” and may be asked to waive it, with “a reasonable time of at least twenty-eight days after the request was sent” to return the waiver; “The waiver of service provisions in this rule only apply in civil actions in the courts of common pleas.” A defendant who timely returns a waiver “need not serve an answer to the complaint until sixty days after the request was sent” (Civ.R. 4.7(D)), and when the plaintiff files the waiver “proof of service is not required and these rules apply as if a summons and complaint had been served at the time of filing the waiver” (Civ.R. 4.7(E)).
Filing. The return goes to the clerk of the court that issued the process, who enters it on the appearance docket. For the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas that clerk is the Franklin County Clerk of Courts; the Ohio Clerk of Courts Association lists the Franklin County Clerk of Courts at 373 South High St., Floor 23, Columbus, Ohio 43215, telephone 614-525-3600.
Franklinton lies in Columbus, a city in Franklin County, Ohio, whose courts sit in three tiers: the county courts of Franklin County, the statewide appellate courts under the Supreme Court of Ohio, and the federal courts for the Southern District of Ohio, whose Eastern Division 28 U.S.C. § 115 seats at Columbus. Which court a matter belongs to determines where papers are filed and served; the courts below publish their own sites for filing procedures, locations and rules, and the Local Court Information below carries the detail for Franklinton.
Franklinton lies in Columbus, a city in Franklin County, Ohio, one of the state’s 88 counties. Civil actions of general jurisdiction are heard by the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, General Division, which the Supreme Court of Ohio’s structure document describes as hearing “Civil and criminal cases; appeals from most administrative agencies.” Its summons issues from the Franklin County Clerk of Courts; the Ohio Clerk of Courts Association lists the Franklin County Clerk of Courts at 373 South High St., Floor 23, Columbus, Ohio 43215, telephone 614-525-3600. Personal and residence service of that process is made by the Franklin County Sheriff or by a person designated by court order under Civ.R. 4.1(B)(1), (C)(1) and (E); process of the Franklin County Municipal Court, one of the municipal and county courts the same document states hear “civil actions up to $15,000,” is delivered to the court’s bailiff. Under Civ.R. 4(E) service must be made within six months of filing absent good cause, and under Civ.R. 3(A) an action is commenced by filing only if service is obtained within one year; the Columbus Ohio Process Service page carries the service detail for every Columbus neighborhood, Franklinton among them.
Appeals from the Franklin County courts lie to the Tenth District Court of Appeals, at 373 South High Street, 24th Floor, Columbus, Ohio 43215, one of the twelve district courts of appeals whose three-judge panels provide, in the words of the Supreme Court of Ohio’s structure document, “Appellate review of judgments of common pleas, municipal and county courts”; above them sits the Supreme Court of Ohio, in its own words “the court of last resort in Ohio,” established by Article IV, Section 1 of the Ohio Constitution, whose Rules of Civil Procedure govern service.
For federal matters Franklin County lies in the Southern District of Ohio under 28 U.S.C. § 115, in its Eastern Division, for which court is held at Columbus, St. Clairsville, and Steubenville: the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio keeps its Office of the Clerk at the Joseph P. Kinneary U.S. Courthouse, Room 121, 85 Marconi Boulevard, Columbus, Ohio 43215, with office hours the court states as 9:00 – 4:00 Monday – Friday and telephone 614-719-3000. Appeals lie to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, which sits in Cincinnati at the Potter Stewart United States Courthouse.
Process service in Franklinton presents unique considerations due to its urban setting and mix of residential, commercial, and industrial properties. The neighborhood features a variety of housing types, including apartment complexes and older homes, which can complicate access for process servers. Additionally, Franklinton’s ongoing revitalization has led to an influx of new businesses and community organizations, increasing traffic and activity in the area. Utilizing a professional process server familiar with Columbus is crucial for effectively navigating Franklinton’s diverse landscape and getting legal documents served promptly and in accordance with Ohio law.
Submitting your documents for process service is made easy with multiple convenient methods provided. Choose the option that suits you best:
Payment Information:
Please note that we require pre-payment for all requests. We accept all major credit and debit cards for payment. Once your payment is processed, please include a copy of your sales receipt prior to faxing or emailing your documents.
Important Reminder:
For any further questions or inquiries regarding process servers, please refer to our “Frequently Asked Questions” page, which provides valuable information and insights into the process service procedure.
By choosing the most suitable option from the above methods, you can confidently submit your documents for process service. Our commitment to efficiency and security ensures that your legal papers are handled professionally and delivered promptly to the intended recipients. Thank you for choosing us for your process service needs.
New York: (212) 203-8001 – One World Trade Center 85th Floor, New York, New York 10007
Brooklyn: (347) 983-5436 – 300 Cadman Plaza West, 12th Floor, Brooklyn, New York 11201
Queens: (646) 357-3005 – 118-35 Queens Blvd, Suite 400, Forest Hills, New York 11375
Long Island: (516) 208-4577 – 626 RXR Plaza, 6th Floor, Uniondale, New York 11556
Westchester: (914) 414-0877 – 50 Main Street, 10th Floor, White Plains, New York 10606
Connecticut: (203) 489-2940 – 500 West Putnam Avenue, Suite 400, Greenwich, Connecticut 06830
New Jersey: (201) 630-0114 - 101 Hudson Street, 21 Floor, Jersey City, New Jersey 07302
Washington DC: (202) 655-4450 - 1717 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. 10th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20006
Houston, TX: (713) 564-9677 - 700 Louisiana Street, 39th Floor, Houston, Texas 77002
Chicago IL: (312) 267-1227 - 155 North Wacker Drive, 42 Floor, Chicago, Illinois 60606
Simply pick up the phone and call Toll Free (800) 774-6922 or click the service you want to purchase. Our dedicated team of professionals is ready to assist you. We can handle all your process service needs; no job is too small or too large!
Contact us for more information about our process serving agency. We are ready to provide service of process to all of our clients globally from our offices in New York, Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island, Westchester, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Washington D.C.
“Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction, and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives”– Foster, William A
How long does service take?
Routine service is typically completed within 3–7 business days. Rush service is generally attempted within 24–48 hours.
How many attempts are included?
Standard service includes up to three attempts at different times of day when required.
Will I receive proof of service?
Yes. Once service is completed, the signed affidavit will be uploaded to your secure portal.
What documents are required?
You must upload court-stamped documents or finalized copies ready for service.
Can I track the status of my case?
Yes. Log into your account at any time to view your case timeline and attempts.