Service Times & Locations
Once a civil case has been filed, the task begins to serve the defendant. A defendant can be served at their residence or place of employment if it is in this county.
Possible Reasons for Delay
Service times varies as some defendants can be quickly served, but others may take several months to serve. This may happen for different reasons such as:
- No one will come to the door
- The server was given a bad address with no house number or apartment number provided
- No one is home as the defendant may work odd hours or on a swing shift
- The server cannot locate the residence as this could be a new subdivision
- There are dogs that will not allow the server to approach the property
- The defendant moved or the house is vacant
- The defendant is not in Carroll County
Filing an Answer
Once the defendant is served, they have a total of 45 days to file an answer. When they file their answer a court date will be set and you be notified by mail.