How to Locate a Registered Agent
- 1). Verify the legal name of the company on which you want to serve official documents and the state in which it is registered. You can contact the company directly for this information or find it on paperwork you have received from the company. If you are unsure about the state of registration, you should start with the state in which the company is doing business.
- 2). Look up the Secretary of State's website for the state in which the company is registered. A list of websites for the Secretaries of State for all 50 states can be found on the State and Local Government on the Net website.
- 3). Search the applicable Secretary of State's website for a link entitled "Business Search," "Corporate Database" or something similar. You can search corporate records by entering the name of the company or any officer of the company. The on-line records will contain a list of information about the company, including the name and street address of the company's registered agent.
- 4). Ask the staff at your local courthouse about the procedure for serving legal documents. In some states, the clerk of court will give the documents to a sheriff's deputy, who will serve the registered agent with the papers. In other states, you may need to hire a professional process server to deliver the documents to the registered agent. You can find the names of professional process servers in your local phone book or through a general Internet search. You will pay a fee for the service, which varies depending on your location and the difficulty of finding the registered agent.