Even practitioners well-accustomed to federal practice often overlook the critical rule regarding the deadline for removal when a defendant has been served through a statutory agent, an agent appointed to receive process by operation of law, such as a state insurance commissioner or secretary of state. Most courts have held that the thirty-day window for removal in such a situation does not begin to run until the defendant has received the complaint.
Originally published in Themis Advocates Group, The Advocate, Spring 2023.
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