Service of process in Jamaica

This is the part that catches out firms instructing Jamaica for the first time. An address that looks incomplete on paper is often perfectly serviceable — and an address that looks complete is sometimes nowhere near enough.

Inner Jamaica is hill and gully country. The question is never how far an address is on the map but how long it takes to reach. Twelve miles inland can be an hour and a half of climbing, and a route that is passable in the morning may not be after heavy rain or when a truck has tipped over, or the pot holes have turned into a crater. When we quote you, we are quoting for the time the road takes, not the mileage.

Many Jamaicans are known locally by a nickname rather than the name on the writ. John Brown may be known in his district as “Mass Blood”, “Rat”, “Blackie” or “Ting Man”. If you ask for John Brown in the district, you may be told truthfully that nobody of that name lives there.

Or, it will raise suspicion, and the person you asked will say they don't recognise the name. That same person may then call the Defendant/Respondent to say a suspicious person was asking for them — ending the process server's element of surprise.

If your client, your instructing attorney or the plaintiff knows a nickname, send it to us. It is often the single most useful line in the file.

In much of rural Jamaica post is collected from the local post office rather than delivered to the door, so a postal address in a file may be a collection point and not a residence. Tell us if the address you hold came off correspondence — it changes how we approach it.

Service can be done at the local post office. We simply attend and confirm with that local office the Defendant/Respondent receives mail there. We can serve by posting the documents through the Jamaica Postal Service — obtaining the Post Mistress name and Proof of Postage (a photo), then checking back seven days later to confirm the documents have been collected.

Most Jamaicans only visit their local post office about once a week, if they're expecting anything, and maybe two or three times a month to collect utility bills.

Once we've confirmed the package has been taken, we provide an Affidavit of Substitute Service stating the dates and time delivered or confirmed collected.

A physical description, an age, an occupation, the name of a partner or relative, a workplace, or the kind of vehicle someone drives will all help us confirm we have the right person before the documents change hands. Where the defendant is one of several people of the same name in a small district, that detail is what prevents a bad serve.