Art. 1232 Personal service

Personal service means someone official, like a sheriff or process server, hands the court papers directly to the person who needs to receive them. This is the most direct way of officially notifying someone that they're involved in a court case.

The officer doesn't need to get the person to physically accept the papers or touch them. As long as the officer offers or presents the documents to the right person, that counts as valid service. If the person refuses to take the papers or walks away, the service can still be considered complete because the officer made a genuine attempt to hand them over.

This rule matters because proper service is what gives a court the power to make decisions affecting someone's legal rights. If papers aren't served correctly, a case can be delayed or even thrown out. Knowing that personal service just requires the officer to offer the papers, not force someone to accept them, helps explain why someone can still be considered "served" even if they tried to avoid it.