Service of a Supoena

[FrustratedWife]

My XH is to appear in court on the 18th of this month. He is required to appear to answer why he should not be in contempt for failure to pay over 60K in child support and other debts. He failed to appear in January and the subpoena was ordered.

My attorney is trying to have the sherriff serve the subpoena on him. (I am in IL, XH is in MS)

When the sherriff went to the home of his in-laws, where XH has been living, they told the sherrif that XH had moved to Louisiana. They would not give an address, nor has XH notifed me of a move. They tried serving it at his job (a different county than where he lives) and they said he did not work there. (which we are sure is a lie)

Can the subpoena be served to his last known address (the in-law's home)? Should I hire a private company to wait and see if they can "catch" him at home?

[socrateaser]

I believe what you actually mean is that you are attempting to serve a summons and complaint/petition/motion for contempt on your ex. If he is 60K in arrears then the contempt is likely criminal in nature, which means that he must be served "personally," so that there can be no question that he knows that his liberty interests are at stake.

You need to determine if you can actually collect any substantial amount of money on this issue. If you can, then it may be worth it for you to hire a private process server or investigator to stay on his trail until he is served. If the end result is that you will get little or nothing from the action, except the satisfaction of a contempt citation, then you may want to just let it go.

Technically, an arrears of the size you describe is a federal felony offense, which, if you could get the local DA or US Attorney to prosecute, would allow a felony warrant to issue, and that would result in your ex's arrest followed by extradition proceedings from MS to IL. But, frequently, law enforcement will not prosecute this type of matter, because so many other more violent crimes are pressing.

You can ask the court to permit you to effect service by publication, i.e., by publishing notice in a local MS newspaper reasonably likely to  be read by your ex. But, before you do this, you need some more precise evidence of his actual whereabouts to show the court.