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All that is required to "prove"service is a Certificate of Service, supported by a statement of truth, that the Claim Form and so on were posted to an address as the last known address. Service on a limited company is, of course, on the registered address.

This did not seem much of a problem to me when I acted for claimants and was scrupulous in ensuring that the Certificate of Service was correct and, where appropriate, that insurers were advised of service.

Since I started acting for defendants via insurers, I have found it a little more worrying. The first I hear of proceedings can be when I get a judgment forwarded by the defendant or the Notice of Proposed Allocation, sometimes a little late to get the judgment set aside.

Querying service with the claimant solicitor usually gets the Claim Form &c, with a signed Certificate of Service. I am kind of curious at that point as to why all the documents other than the Claim Form &c have been forwarded. I can see that it is possible that the Claim Form was lost in the post (and can also see that it may have been received and put in the "pending tray"), but it sometimes does not make much sense.

You can't go behind the Certificate of Service supported by the statement of truth, but I do wonder if there are a few (very few) unscrupulous people out there....

It seems to me that the service rules need a bit of beefing up - Royal Mail and DX offer services that include proof of posting for minor expense and I cannot see why that should not be made a requirement to prove, at least, that the material was posted.

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