Sec. 4. (a) A county sheriff acting as a deputy of the sheriff of the supreme court may:

(1) enclose any process, rule, or order of the court that the county sheriff receives;

(2) direct the process, rule, or order to the sheriff of the supreme court; and

(3) deposit the process, rule, or order in a post office in the county sheriff's county ten (10) days before the return day of the process, rule, or order.

A county sheriff that complies with this subsection is not liable for failing to return the process, rule, or order.

(b) If money must be returned with a process, rule, or order described in subsection (a), the county sheriff may transmit the money by mail, enclosed with the process, rule, or order, addressed to the sheriff of the supreme court. However, the testimony of the postmaster that the payment was mailed is necessary to exempt the county sheriff from liability.

(c) In case of the return of any process, rule, or order of the court described in subsection (a) by any county sheriff, unserved or unsatisfied, the sheriff of the supreme court may visit any county and personally serve the process, rule, or order in the same manner provided by law for the service by county sheriffs. For this service, the sheriff of the supreme court is entitled to receive, for the distance actually traveled in going to and returning from the county seat of the county where the process, rule, or order is to be served, and from the county seat to the place where the process, rule, or order is served, a sum for mileage for each instance equal to the sum per mile paid to state employees and officers plus those other fees allowed by law to county sheriffs, with the rate for mileage to change each time the state government changes its rate per mile. The sum for mileage and fees shall be imposed as costs in the case in which the process, rule, or order is issued, and shall be collected as other costs.

[Pre-2004 Recodification Citation: 33-15-7-4.]

As added by P.L.98-2004, SEC.3.