Service of Process: What It Is and What We Do With It

If your Maine business ever gets sued, the lawsuit doesn't arrive by regular mail or a phone call — it arrives as service of process, delivered in person to whoever is on file as your registered agent. That's the entire reason Maine requires every registered entity to keep one.

What Qualifies as Service of Process

• Summons and complaint — the paperwork that opens a civil lawsuit against your business
• Subpoenas — a court order to hand over records or show up and testify
• Garnishment orders — court-issued collection actions tied to a debt
• Other formal legal notices that state law requires to be delivered directly to a business entity

Bills, sales pitches, and routine correspondence don't count, even when they show up at the same address.

Why Your Registered Agent Handles This, Not You

Maine follows the Model Registered Agents Act, which is why every LLC, corporation, and out-of-state entity registered here has to name an agent with a real Maine street address. Courts and process servers need one dependable place to deliver legal papers — if your listed agent isn't there to accept them, a judge can allow the case to proceed through alternative means, up to and including a default judgment entered while you never knew you'd been sued.

From Delivery to Your Inbox

1. A process server or sheriff hands the documents to our Maine office during business hours.
2. We scan the full packet that same business day — this step has no daily or annual cap.
3. You get an email the moment the scan is posted to your account portal.
4. You (or your attorney) read it and respond inside whatever window the court has set.

We're not attorneys and don't weigh in on the case itself. Our job stops at getting the documents into your hands fast enough that the deadline doesn't beat you to it.

Response Windows Are Short

Once you've been served, the countdown to respond typically runs in days, not weeks. Same-day scanning is built into the base $99/year plan specifically so a slow mail day, an unopened envelope, or a missed hand-delivery never eats into time you actually have to act.

Not the Same as General Mail

Handling service of process is a distinct job from handling everyday business mail, and we don't blur the two. Our Maine address exists to receive legal and state-required paperwork, which we scan and deliver digitally at no extra charge. If routine government correspondence lands here by mistake, we'll scan your first three pieces each year free of charge; beyond that, or if you'd rather have the physical piece mailed to you instead of just the scan, that's a separate per-piece fee.

Get Started — $99/year

Want more background? See what a Maine registered agent actually does or browse the FAQ.