I was not married to nor have I seen my daughters dad in over 4 years he has not tried to contact us in any way nor does he pay child support. We have no idea where he is I want to file for full custody of my daughter who is 9 I cannot afford a lawyer so I will be doing it all alone. My question is if he cannot be served by the court with a notice of hearing that I have filed, what happens next? I live in California and last I knew he did too we now actually may live In the same city

I was not married to nor have I seen my daughters dad in over 4 years he has not tried to contact us in any way nor does he pay child support. We have no idea where he is I want to file for full custody of my daughter who is 9 I cannot afford a lawyer so I will be doing it all alone. My question is if he cannot be served by the court with a notice of hearing that I have filed, what happens next? I live in California and last I knew he did too we now actually may live In the same city

I hate these cases, its always so sad. But you need to prepare for the fact that he might fight, if you are wanting custody. I work for the government child support cases. Ask yourself these questions.

1.)Do you want child support? If yes then you can simply find a child support office by visiting you local DFACS
2.)If your aren't married, then is he on the birth certificate? If he isn't then you already have full custody. If he is then he has some rights, so read further.
3.) So he's on the birth certificate, but you don't want CS? Then simply ask him to fork over rights and go to the local court house and pay the fee for the papers or visit a lawyer.
4.)You want childsupport and the rights? Well you will need to file at the local CS center, file the papers for perturnity, wait for them to find him, and then go to court.

What is best is simply to carry on. If he just left you guys, then its just a simple case of Child abandonment and by law you are sole guardian. If you deny a pertunity test then you are sole guardian. But if you want CS then a test will be done and they will get him. But if he is on the Birth Certificate, he has some rights. But those can be throw about because they always do a pertunity test and during the court you will be given the option of shared or sole custody. If you want sole custody then there will be no CS.

Normally you can do service though publication.

but I guess I have to ask why, what is the current custody agreement ? He is not using any rights, so it does not seem getting more now has little value.