November 29, 2022 – Senior Associate Attorney Ankur Trivedi won a Motion to Dismiss in DeKalb County. This case arose out of an automobile accident that occurred on September 10, 2019. Plaintiff filed her personal injury lawsuit on May 21, 2020. After suit was filed, Plaintiff did not personally serve Defendant. Subsequently, Plaintiff moved for Service by Publication which was granted. Plaintiff ran the publication and filed the publisher’s affidavit on January 25, 2022. On February 15, 2022, Plaintiff moved for default judgment alleging the Defendant had been properly served by publication and had failed to Answer. Shortly thereafter, Defendant filed a Notice of Special Appearance on March 14, 2022, raising service and jurisdiction, as well as Moving to Dismiss for lack of proper of service.
After a hearing on April 20, 2022, the Court denied both motions, finding that 1) Plaintiff failed to exercise due diligence in locating and serving Defendant and thus could not obtain personal jurisdiction over the Defendant; and 2) Plaintiff may still serve her uninsured/underinsured motorist carrier for recovery. Thereafter, Plaintiff failed to serve her UM/UIM carrier, and on May 09, 2022, Mr. Trivedi renewed the Motion to Dismiss. At the second hearing, the Court found that Plaintiff had failed to serve her UM/UIM carrier, and since the Court already made a finding that Plaintiff failed to serve Defendant properly, the Court dismissed the action with prejudice.
The case is Monique Laguerre vs Christen Jakulski, State Court of DeKalb County, CAFN: 21A02241
Read more about Attorney Ankur Trivedi here.
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