Serving court papers — Indian River County, Florida

The Indian River County Sheriff's Office Legal Process Unit serves civil papers everywhere in the county, from Fellsmere and Sebastian to Vero Beach, Orchid and Indian River Shores.

State law fixes the job. Section 48.021 hands service to the sheriff of whichever county the person is located in (s. 48.021, Florida Statutes). A defendant who lives on a Fellsmere grove road, works at a Vero Beach office or owns a house on the barrier island in Indian River Shores is therefore served through the same county unit, whichever city or town the address sits in.

The Sheriff places the unit in the Judicial Services Division and describes it as responsible for serving and executing all legal process generated by the court system, including summons, subpoenas, garnishments, injunctions and evictions (Legal Process Unit). It takes work from government agencies, law firms, individuals filing on their own and senders in other counties and states, so a New York creditor with a Florida judgment and a self-represented landlord in Gifford use the same office.

The unit works out of the Indian River County Courthouse. Mail for the unit goes to Suite 232 of the courthouse, 2000 16th Avenue #232, Vero Beach, FL 32960, and its phone, (772) 978-6002, is staffed on weekdays from 8 to 5 (Sheriff Legal Process page). Sheriff headquarters at 4055 41st Avenue keeps a public lobby open until 7 pm on Tuesdays and until 5 pm on the other weekdays.

Each paper the Indian River County Sheriff serves costs $40.00, every additional defendant needs its own fee and service packet, and the Sheriff refunds nothing.

The schedule sits on the Sheriff's civil services page, which also links an online Civil Process payment form (Services and Fees). Enforceable writs carry a $50 surcharge, and the page names possession and replevin writs as examples; executions that require seizure are handled under the levy rules instead. Long jobs cost more: once a deputy has spent half an hour on a call, each further hour is billed at $35 an hour, paid in cash on the spot.

The figures come from the Legislature, not the Indian River County Commission. Section 30.231 makes the service fees nonrefundable and says they are earned when each original request or service of process is made, so a defendant who turns out to have moved from Sebastian to another state does not trigger a refund (s. 30.231, Florida Statutes). It also prices advertising, conducting and closing a sale at $40 per step, and routes the money each month to the county's fine and forfeiture fund.

After a court enters judgment for a landlord, the Indian River County Sheriff posts the writ of possession at the rental and may complete the removal any time after a 24 hour waiting period.

The statute behind it is section 83.62. Once the landlord wins, the clerk issues the writ, the deputy posts it where it can be seen, and the 24 hour clock runs straight through weekends and holidays (s. 83.62, Florida Statutes). For a writ posted on a Vero Beach apartment door on a Friday afternoon, the 24 hour notice period therefore ends on Saturday afternoon.

The Sheriff's writs page lists what the landlord must do on the day (Writs and Levies). Someone representing the owner has to be there and has to get the deputies inside, with a key or a locksmith; if nobody does, the deputies do not go in. Only the people named on the writ are removed, and no one else goes inside until deputies clear the unit of every listed occupant, animals included. The landlord then changes the locks, and tenant belongings left in the home go to the property line right away. The Sheriff routes eviction questions to its civil process office in the courthouse, 772-226-3190.

Longer stays have their own arrangement. State law lets a landlord pay by the hour for a deputy to remain while locks change and belongings move, and the Indian River County Sheriff warns that a lengthy standby can call for an Extra Duty Deputy, booked through its Extra Duty coordinator at (772) 978-6126 (Legal Process Unit). For the earlier steps, the Sheriff's Landlord/Tenant page posts an eviction brochure, an eviction process flowchart, a 3 day notice to tenant form and several 7 day notice forms for landlords and tenants (Landlord/Tenant forms).

The Indian River County Sheriff cannot collect a judgment for a creditor; it seizes and auctions specific property the creditor identifies, after a deposit, proof of ownership and a published Notice of Sheriff's Sale.

The writs page is blunt: deputies do not chase payment on a judgment or lien; the law only lets them seize and sell property the creditor describes (Writs and Levies). The creditor delivers the writ of execution issued by the court, written instructions for levy that include a hold harmless clause, the deposit and an affidavit under section 56.27. Proof of ownership must come from county records: a Tax Collector printout for vehicles and boats, or a certified deed from the Clerk of the Circuit Court's recording office for land. Internet printouts are refused.

The sale itself is public. After deputies take the property, a sale notice is published in the Press Journal for 4 consecutive weeks, and the auction that follows takes only cash or cashier's checks and has no floor price. The creditor may make a credit bid up to the judgment, interest, levy costs and the $500.00 liquidation fee. Before the first publication, the Sheriff sends the defendant the notices and affidavit by certified mail, and a full payoff by the defendant cancels the sale.

Some property is out of reach. The Indian River County Sheriff states that real property protected by homestead exemption is not subject to levy, and that property titled to several people jointly, in the form of one name and another, cannot be levied when the judgment is against only one of them; property titled with or between the names can be. Levied property also carries every existing lien, which buyers are told before the sale.

Yes, for papers that do not require enforcement, Florida allows special process servers appointed by the Indian River County Sheriff or certified process servers, while writs that seize property or people stay with deputies.

Section 48.021 lets nonenforceable civil process and certain subpoenas and summonses be served by a special process server appointed by the sheriff or by a certified process server under s. 48.27, and leaves it to each sheriff whether to keep a special process server roster at all (s. 48.021). If the Indian River County Sheriff keeps such a roster, each person on it faces annual recertification by the Sheriff, carries an identification card and can lose the appointment if the Sheriff finds the duties are not being discharged faithfully.

Enforcement is a different matter. Writs of possession on a Sebastian rental, replevin of a boat stored in Fellsmere or a levy on a vehicle registered with the Tax Collector all run through the Legal Process Unit at the 16th Avenue courthouse, at the fees in the Sheriff's schedule (Sheriff fee page).

Last verified: October 12, 2026, on the Indian River County Sheriff's Office website.