Registered Agent for Service of Process

By law every South Carolina LLC registers the name and address of a South Carolina resident who becomes the LLC’s “registered agent for service of process.” This is the name and address third parties will be given by the Secretary of State as the person and place they are to service summons and complaints for law suits against the LLC.

This is an important position because service on the registered agent is legal service on the LLC. Service is accomplished by mail and on the date of service the clock begins to run on the LLC’s time to respond or be held in default in the lawsuit.

LLCs do not need attorneys as registered agents and individual LLC owner/members can act as their LLC’s registered agent. However, an attorney makes an excellent agent for service because attorneys understand the need to respond to lawsuits quickly and the danger of defaulting in a lawsuit. Further, the only LLC mail sent to a registered agent are summons and complaints and occasional junk mail. As part of the LLC Package I offer to act as the registered agent for service of process.

“But when notice is a person’s due, process which is mere gesture is not due process.” Justice Robert H Jackson, Mullane v. Central Hanover Tr. Co., 339 U.S. 306, 315 (1950).