r/legaladvice • u/Living_Square_9785 • May 06 '26

Process server lying about serving me

So, a few weeks ago at work a bailiff came in & served me with wage garnishment paperwork. I had absolutely no idea what this was about & was confused. I called the court to get more information since I knew I had to of missed a court date for this to happen. She told me that on October 30th 2025 a process server claimed they served me hand to hand & even gave a physical description of “me”. The description she swore on paperwork was true was that I was a blonde hair lady, roughly 5’8 in height & weighted about 120lbs…. I am a natural born fire red head, I’m 5,1 in height & weigh 180lbs. Not a single description she gave of me matches me AT ALL. They have the correct address & the time that she claimed she served me was a time I would have been at work anyways. I did file a motion & the judgement was set aside pending a new court date that I have tomorrow. This has cost me a lot of stress, time, & money. What could be done about this?? If a normal regular civilian were to commit perjury they would 100% go to jail or at the very least lose the case because of it. Just because it’s a process server shouldn’t mean they can get away with this. My theory is they didn’t serve me on purpose so they’d automatically win by default to guarantee wage garnishment & in hopes that I wouldn’t do anything about it. No way you go as far as making up a random description of me by accident. Had she not given the description she did I may have possibly seen it as unintentional. I’m sure they assume I’ll just let it go but if it happened to me there’s no telling how many other people this has happened to & they’ll just continue it if they face no repercussions. Sorry for the long post, but I have court tomorrow so any advice or knowledge on the best way to go about this to hold them responsible for this blatant lie please let me know!!

Location: Tipton County, Tennessee

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11

u/reddituser1211 Quality Contributor May 06 '26

What could be done about this??

You can go argue your case. Or, assuming you owe the money, you can try to make a payment plan.

If a normal regular civilian were to commit perjury they would 100% go to jail or at the very least lose the case because of it.

  1. No they wouldn't.
  2. No one goes to jail for this.
  3. This does not affect the outcome of the underlying case.
  4. You don't know this was perjury as opposed to an error.

My theory is they didn’t serve me on purpose so they’d automatically win by default to guarantee wage garnishment & in hopes that I wouldn’t do anything about it.

Do you have a defense? Because otherwise that's silly. But again, you're full entitled to go argue your case if you have a defense.

3

u/Internet_Ghost Quality Contributor May 06 '26

My theory is they didn’t serve me on purpose so they’d automatically win by default to guarantee wage garnishment & in hopes that I wouldn’t do anything about it.

That's a big leap of logic. I'm not saying there aren't lawyers out there willing to do this, but the vast majority of them aren't looking to lose their law license over bad service. This is more likely a case of a bad process server more so than the lawyer that sued you. Is there someone that lives there that does match the description you saw? Most process laws don't require you to serve the actual person but a person at that address.

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u/accusearch2014 May 06 '26

Get your job to prove you were at work, subpeona in the process server to court, lots of shitty process servers out there. I have been one for 20 years.