Beginning the Court Case

Beginning The Court Case

Serving the appropriate notice is only the first step in the eviction process. Once the notice period expires, and the tenant has not complied,  an unlawful detainer eviction lawsuit can be filed against the tenant. This law suit is a package of documents containing all the necessary allegations required by law, which entitle the landlord to regain legal possession of their property and potentially recoup all financial damages against the tenant.

Evictions are filed at the San Diego Superior Court in downtown San Diego. The Superior Court processes evictions for all of San Diego County, from Oceanside to National City, Ocean Beach to Jamul.

The law states that a third party must serve the eviction documents on each tenant. To speed this critical step up , we employ our own registered process servers, licensed and bonded, to serve the tenant.  In a game of cat-and-mouse, our process servers are trained to seek out and serve the defendant personally.

In some cases, personal service simply cannot be achieved. The Court process will carry on, but service of the summons will be done by other acceptable methods, either via substituted service or by the Court issuing an Order to Post the eviction to the tenant’s door.  This type of service prevails if the tenant insists or persists in being  evasive.  The time we wait for a tenant to file an answer depends on the type of service achieved, between 10 days and 2 weeks.  Be assured, our process servers work diligently to effectuate service as fast as possible.