Service of Process

The practical questions in a Nigerian action are three.

Can the defendant be served personally. If they can be found, personal service is straightforward and it forecloses argument.

If not, what substituted method will the court accept. Nigerian courts have ordered service by pasting at the last known address, by publication in a newspaper, and increasingly by electronic means including email and messaging applications where the applicant can show the defendant uses that channel. The application must set out what attempts at personal service were made and why the proposed method will reach the defendant.

And is the defendant outside the jurisdiction. Service outside Nigeria requires leave of the court and follows a different procedure, and serving a foreign defendant without leave is a defect.

On the defence side, service is the first thing to examine. Defective service is a jurisdictional objection, and it is one of the most frequently raised preliminary points in Nigerian litigation.

The affidavit of service is the document that proves it. A claimant should ensure it is complete and accurate, because it is what the objection is tested against.

Two opposite problems arise from the same rules.

For claimants, defective service is a leading cause of delay. A case is filed, service is effected in a way that does not comply, the defendant raises a preliminary objection, and a year is lost before the substantive claim is heard. The objection is frequently taken on the basis that substituted service was effected without an order, or that the order obtained did not cover the method actually used.

For defendants, particularly companies, valid service at an unmonitored address is a leading cause of default judgment. A company registered years ago at a lawyer's office or a serviced address it no longer uses is validly served there, learns nothing, and discovers the judgment when an account is frozen.

Both problems have the same practical answers.

Claimants should attempt personal service properly, document the attempts, and apply for substituted service with a method the court will accept and evidence that it will reach the defendant.

Companies should keep the registered office address current at the CAC and ensure somebody actually opens the post there. That single administrative habit prevents the most common way Nigerian companies lose cases they never knew existed.

Electronic service is developing. Courts have permitted service by email and messaging applications in appropriate cases, and an applicant proposing it should provide evidence that the address or number belongs to the defendant and is in current use.

Three routes by which court process reaches a party.

Personal service is handing the document to the individual. It is the norm for originating processes and it forecloses argument about whether the defendant received it.

Substituted service is any court ordered alternative where personal service is impracticable: pasting at the last known address, newspaper publication, or electronic means. It requires an application supported by evidence of the attempts made, and an order permitting the specific method.

Service on a company is effected at the registered office, and delivery there is effective whether or not any individual saw it. That is why the address on the CAC record is a litigation risk rather than a compliance detail.

A claimant should choose the correct route and document it. A defendant should check which route was used and whether it complied.

Personal service is impossible against a defendant who cannot be found or who evades, which is why the substituted route exists.

Substituted service also requires an order, which takes time, and a method the court will accept may not in fact bring the process to the defendant's attention.

Service abroad is slow and procedurally demanding.

And the rule that service at a registered office is effective produces genuinely harsh outcomes for companies that moved without updating the record, though the answer to that is administrative rather than legal.