Service of Process is the procedure employed to give legal notice of a court or administrative body's exercise of its jurisdiction, to enable a response to a proceeding before the court, body, or other tribunal. Usually, notice is furnished by delivering a set of court documents (called "process") to the person to be served.
With respect to the insurance industry, all insurance companies transacting business in the District must appoint an agent to accept service on their behalf.
The agent accepting service on behalf of the company must be located in the District or within a ten mile radius of the territorial limits.
The Commissioner does not get involved in the accepting of service unless two conditions exist. The first condition is that the company licensed to transact business in the District does not have an registered agent on file with the Department to accept service. The second condition is if the company named in the document refuses to accept service for whatever reason.
In these two instances, the Commissioner would perform a one-time courtesy service upon said company by sending the documentation to the attention of the company's General Counsel at their principle address on record.
A database of registered agents on file for insurance companies will be available soon. For additional information or help with the Department’s service of process for insurers, contact Mrs. Michelle Mathis at [email protected].