How to Serve an LLC or Corporation in Texas

A business is not a person, so it gets served differently

When you sue a person, the process server's job is to find that person. When you sue an LLC or a corporation, there is no single body to find. The company can only receive legal papers through a person the law recognizes as able to accept them for it.

Get that person wrong and you can end up with a serve that looks done but can be attacked later. Get it right and serving a business is often easier than serving an individual, because the company already told the State where its papers should go.

Start with the registered agent

Every Texas LLC and corporation, and every out-of-state business registered to do business in Texas, is supposed to keep a registered agent and a registered office on file with the Texas Secretary of State. The registered agent is the person or company that agreed to receive legal papers for the business. The registered office is the street address where that agent can be found during business hours.

That is your first stop. Before anything else:

• Pull the entity's record from the Secretary of State. Use the exact legal name, not the name on the sign out front. A shop called one thing may be owned by an LLC called something else entirely.
• Check it right before the serve. Businesses change agents. A record you pulled when the demand letter went out may already be out of date.
• Make sure the citation names the entity correctly. The legal name, the entity type, and the agent should line up. If they do not, raise it with your attorney before the server goes out, not after.

Many businesses use a commercial registered agent service. That is good news. Those offices exist to accept papers, and the serve is usually routine.

Other people who may be served

The Texas Business Organizations Code also names certain people who can be served for an entity — for a corporation, for example, its president and vice presidents. Who qualifies depends on the type of entity, and the code is what governs, not habit or what worked on a different case.

What does not qualify, in the ordinary case, is whoever happens to be standing at the counter. A cashier, an office assistant, or a shift manager who is not an authorized agent is not the company for purposes of service. Handing them the papers and leaving is one of the most common ways a business serve goes wrong.

If the server arrives and the right person is not there, the right move is to document the attempt and come back, not to hand the papers to someone else because it is convenient.

When the registered agent cannot be found

Sometimes the registered office is an empty suite. Sometimes the named agent left years ago and nobody updated the filing. Texas has a backup for that.

According to the Texas Secretary of State's guidance for people serving process, the Secretary of State can be served for a Texas entity when the entity fails to appoint or maintain a registered agent, or when the registered agent cannot be found at the registered office with reasonable diligence. Out-of-state entities have additional grounds, such as doing business in Texas without registering.

Two words in that standard do a lot of work: reasonable diligence. You need to be able to show real attempts at the registered office before going this route. That means the same kind of attempt record that matters for any hard serve — dated, timed, varied, and specific. We wrote more about building that record in serving someone who is avoiding service.

Service through the Secretary of State has its own requirements for what gets delivered and how. Read the current statute and the Secretary of State's instructions before you send anything, and let your attorney decide whether this is the right path for your case.

The paperwork has to match

A business serve is judged by its return, the same as any other. The return should make it clear, on its face:

• Which entity was served, by its exact legal name.
• Who received the papers, and in what capacity — registered agent, officer, or another authorized role.
• Where and when it happened.
• What was delivered.

“Served ABC Company by leaving with front desk” is the kind of return that invites a challenge. “Served ABC Company, LLC by delivering to its registered agent at the registered office” tells the court what it needs to know. For the full list of what belongs in a return, see what a return of service is and why courts reject them.

Common mistakes we see

• Suing the trade name instead of the entity. The sign says one name; the legal owner is another. Check the record.
• Using an old agent address. Pull the record again right before the serve.
• Serving the wrong employee. Convenience is not authority.
• Skipping straight to the Secretary of State. Without a diligence record at the registered office, that route is weak.
• Assuming a closed store means a closed company. The entity may still exist on paper, with an agent somewhere else.

What to have ready before you call a server

• The citation and every document that goes with it.
• The entity's exact legal name and a fresh copy of its Secretary of State record.
• The registered agent's name and registered office address from that record.
• Any other addresses you know about, such as a main office or the location you did business with.
• Your attorney's direction on who may be served if the agent is not available.

With that in hand, most business serves are straightforward. Without it, they can turn into the same chase as an individual who does not want to be found. If timing is your worry, see how long it takes to serve court papers.

This article is general information about how process serving and notarial acts work in Texas. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client or any other professional relationship. Court rules and statutes change; the current rule text and your own attorney govern. A notary public cannot advise you on which document to sign or which notarial certificate to use.