When does a document served under the delivery provision take effect, and does electronic delivery count as reaching the recipient at the same moment?
General information · Not legal advice
Material to check
In a practice file, we read the cover of the served document for the date it arrived, any proof of service recording that arrival, and, where delivery was electronic, the paper showing the address the recipient had designated and the record of when the message was stored there.
These are types of material to look for, not evidence already verified by PRO SE.
Where readings differ
One reading takes the general rule as written: a document served in accordance with the delivery provision takes effect from the moment it reaches the person who is to be served, so the effect turns on arrival at that person rather than on the date the agency sent it.
Another reading reads the proviso as a rule of deeming for electronic delivery only: there the document is treated as having reached the recipient when it is stored, not when opened, at the email address the recipient designated, the electronic mailbox on the local tax integrated information communication network, or the electronic notice box on the connected information network.
Your judgment
If the file shows storage at an electronic address it cannot trace to the recipient's own designation, on which paper does the date of effect turn?
PRO SE does not make this decision or keep a case record on this public site.When to reconsider
We revisit this card if the provision is amended to change the places where electronic delivery is deemed to arrive, or if a decision clarifies what showing proves that an electronic address was designated by the recipient.