small claims

my brother got into an accident where someone else backed into him. the lady tried to file a claim through our insurance but it was denied and they did not have insurance at the time of the accident and her plates were swapped from another vehicle. we are trying to pursue this through small claims court, but the defendant is refusing to be served at home(refusal to answer door and i am sure they know that they are being pursued by us). what can he do? if she works can she be served there? is there a way for us to force them to accept documents to be served? we live in north west arkansas area.

In Texas, a defendant can be personally served anywhere that the defendant can be found, whether at home, at work, at a friend's or relative's house, etc. The process server will make a few attempts to personally serve the defendant at the home address. At some point, if the process server believes that the defendant is intentionally evading service, the court will allow service by some other method. Those methods can include service by mail, service upon someone else at the residence, or by attaching the papers to the front door of the residence. You cannot force someone to accept service of the court papers, but they cannot avoid the lawsuit just by avoiding service. There is always some way to get a defendant served.

Not familiar with Arkansas statutes but generally where the defendant avoids service, you can service at work by servicing his/her employer/supervisor. There are a bunch of other ways to service too. Generally, service by advertisement should be an absolute last resort because it is often defeated in Court.

If the vehicle does not have insurance then its hard to take the claim from the court and the company and this just harm less like number plates.