It’s a common misconception that proofs of service for a US District Court Summons don’t need to be notarized. After all, the form itself (provided by the court!) doesn’t have a notary block of any kind. But if you read the applicable statute FRCP 4 (L)(1), you’ll quickly see that most proofs WILL need to be notarized:
Affidavit Required. Unless service is waived, proof of service must be made to the court. Except for service by a United States marshal or deputy marshal, proof must be by the server’s affidavit.
And don’t believe what the court clerk tells you either – there’s a reason they aren’t allowed to give legal advice. I spent several years as a paralegal believing that the proofs provided to me by my process server were good to go as-is. (Without any notarization that the server was swearing an oath to the veracity of their statement.) And my co-workers didn’t know any better either. Even many attorneys don’t pay attention to this statute, either.
The challenge is that the form was created back when most service was done by the US marshal’s office. And it never (apparently) occurred to the court that they might need to update it. I was gifted this bit of history by the current President of the Oregon Association of Process Servers (Aaron Crowe) when I mentioned that one of my clients was asking for their federal proof to be notarized. Mr. Crowe is often called to testify as an expert witness about whether or not service of a summons was done properly. He concurs that the FRCPs require a proof of service for a summons to be notarized.
Thankfully, this requirement does NOT apply to proofs of service for subpoenas or other documents. Enjoy!
By Tea Godfrey, Solid Serve Legal