WomensLaw serves and supports all survivors, no matter their sex or gender.

Hotline

Court Procedures / Evidence / Service

Interstate service: A lives out of state. Will sheriff in that state serve an RO from V's state

In general, when an order is being served within the state of FILL IN V’sSTATE, the court sends it to the sheriff for service, as we explain on our website here: LINK TO THE STEP RE: SERVICE  I don’t know whether or not the court will send the papers to the sheriff in another state for service but you may be able to call the court clerk where you filed the order to find out.  Here is a link to courthouses in your state if you want to look up the one where you filed:LINK

If the court will not arrange for service, another possibility for someone who needs papers served in another state is to call the sheriff in that state to see if they would be willing to serve a foreign protective order (as out-of-state orders are commonly known). Or, hopefully, the petitioner’s local sheriff may call the out-of-state sheriff to arrange it if requested by the petitioner. If you decide to call, you may want to find out if they may charge a fee and how the papers need to be sent to them (by the court directly, by the victim, etc.)  Also, since whoever serves a protection order needs to fill out an affidavit of service form that needs to be returned to the court as proof of service, this is also something to be aware of. It may take some coordinating to get this form filled out by someone out of state and filed in court. Here is a link to the sheriffs’ offices so you can find one in the abuser’s state if you need to (just change the state on the drop-down menu):LINK

If the out-of-state sheriff will not do the service, the petitioner may have to hire a process server in the respondent’s state to serve it if this is permitted by the court - I don’t know your court’s rules on service.

Again, all of this information is just generalized information, not specific to the laws of V’S STATE or the respondent’s state.  Perhaps a lawyer or the court clerk may be able to answer specific questions that you may have.  Here is a link for lawyers LINK and the link for courthouses is above in case you want to call.

Lastly, here is some information on protective orders in case that is useful:LINK and some information on how to prepare oneself for court: http://www.womenslaw.org//simple.php?sitemap_id=32&lang=en

© 2008–2024 WomensLaw.org is a project of the National Network to End Domestic Violence, Inc. All rights reserved. This website is funded in part through a grant from the Office for Victims of Crime, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. Neither the U.S. Department of Justice nor any of its components operate, control, are responsible for, or necessarily endorse, this website (including, without limitation, its content, technical infrastructure, and policies, and any services or tools provided). NNEDV is a 501©(3) non-profit organization; EIN 52-1973408.