How to serve documents

Note: Mouse over any of the terms in green type to see a definition.

How to serve documents on the other party ("personal service")

Sometimes a legal process will require that a document be "served" on the other party or parties in your case. "Serving" a document means delivering it following the rules of court for that process, and often means personal delivery of the document to the person who is to receive it. It may be delivered by yourself or someone else, depending on what is permitted by the rules. An Affidavit of Service or Affidavit of Personal Service (Provincial Court only) can then be sworn or affirmed in front of a commissioner of oaths to prove in court that the document was received by the other party. Sometimes the court rules permit other ways of serving a document, such as by fax, or delivery to the other party's lawyer.

If you're not sure whether you need to serve or deliver a document, see the fact sheet on this website about the difference between serving and delivering documents.

Note: For more information about what to do if you cannot serve the documents (for example, if the other party is avoiding service), see our guide on how to arrange for substituted service.

If you have to personally serve a document, you can ask a friend to do it or hire a professional process server to serve the document for you. Sometimes you can serve the document yourself, but it may be better to have someone else do it for you in case the other party later claims that he or she never received the documents. Before serving a document yourself, make sure that you are allowed to do so. To do this, check the procedure for your particular situation in the relevant self-help guides on this website or contact the LawLINE or family duty counsel and ask.

You can find a list of process servers in the yellow pages of your telephone directory. You may want to get quotes from several process servers because prices vary. Confirm with the process server that he or she will provide you with a sworn Affidavit of Service (a document that proves to the court that the documents were served).

Note: For more information about what to do if the other party lives outside BC or outside Canada, see our self-help guide on serving documents outside BC. If you do not know where the other party lives, see our frequently asked questions about Court forms.

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Step-by-step instructions for serving the documents

1. Make the necessary number of photocopies of the documents you want to have served (to find out how many you need, see the relevant step of the appropriate self-help guide on this website or contact the LawLINE or family duty counsel and ask). Remember to include copies of any attachments.
2. Keep the originals together as one set. Make separate sets that contain one copy of each document.

Note: If you are serving the documents yourself, go to step 5, below.

3. Give the process server (a professional or your friend):
   • two copies of the documents,
   • a photograph of the other party,
   • the other party's address at home and at work, and
   • the other party's telephone number (so the process server can call to arrange a time for service).
4. If you do not have a photograph, give the process server a written physical description of the other party. Include height, hair colour, eye colour, and any other characteristics that might help the process server identify the other party. The process server will also have to ask the other party for photo identification at the time of service to prove that he or she knew it was really the other party who was being served.
5. The process server (a professional or your friend) must then:
   • take the two copies of the documents to be served — the copy to go to the other party and the Affidavit of Service copy — and compare them to the originals to make sure they are the same;
   • give one copy to the other party, and save the other copy to attach to the Affidavit of Service;
   • make a note of the time, date, and place (street, city, and province) where the documents were served (this information is needed to fill in the Affidavit of Service); and
   • prepare the Affidavit of Service (if you hired a process server, he or she will provide you with a sworn Affidavit of Service) and take the Affidavit of Service with the attached copy of all documents to a lawyer, a notary public, or a clerk at the court registry to swear or affirm that the documents have been served. (There is a fee for swearing the Affidavit of Service.) The lawyer, notary, or clerk will sign the Affidavit and stamp and sign each court document that was served to identify it as an exhibit. To do this, the lawyer or notary stamps a statement that says something like this: "This is Exhibit __ to the Affidavit of ______ (name) sworn before me in ___ (place) on ____ (date)" on each document that was served and then signs each exhibit."
   You can then use the Affidavit of Service as evidence that the documents were delivered to the other party.

Note: If you are having documents served by a friend or relative, he or she must attach copies of the served documents to the Affidavit of Service. Each copy must be marked as exhibit "[A, B, C, etc., depending on how many documents there are]" and must be signed by the notary public or lawyer before whom the Affidavit of Service is sworn. If the documents are not attached and properly marked, your Affidavit of Service will not be accepted by the court and you will have to have the documents delivered again.

Affidavits must be sworn by a commissioner of oaths. Lawyers and notaries public are always commissioners. Usually at least one person at the court registry or government agent's office is a commissioner. Ask about the fee, as different offices charge different amounts for the same service. To find out who else can act as a commissioner, see our fact sheet called Swearing an Affidavit — Who can do it.

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How to complete the Affidavit of Service

To complete the form, choose from the following options:

• Print the blank form and fill it out using a typewriter or by hand (print legibly, using dark-coloured ink).
• Download the Word form (Supreme Court only) and fill it out using a computer word processor.
• Open the PDF file (Provincial Court only), fill it out online, and print it.

Note: If you need help with these forms, see Filling out court forms — Who can help. See also our video clip, Selected Topics in Family Law #1: Affidavit of Service for more about what kind of information is needed in an Affidavit of Service.

There are two different Affidavit of Service forms to use, depending on which court your case is in.

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Note: Be sure to keep the completed and sworn Affidavit of Service with your file.