The sign above the door says one thing. The receipt says something slightly different. The website footer, if you look closely, says a third thing followed by "LLC".
Only one of those is the party you can sue, and picking the wrong one is among the most common ways an otherwise sound claim fails. Courts are dealing with a legal person, not a shopfront, and a judgment against a name that does not legally exist is not worth the paper it is printed on.
Collect every name you already hold
Receipts, invoices, contracts, emails, signage, the website footer. Legal names often appear in small print.
Search the state business entity register
Free and public in most states, run by the Secretary of State. Search the trading name to surface the registered entity.
Establish the entity type
Sole proprietorship, partnership, LLC or corporation. This determines who is liable.
The answer changes who you name
Record the exact legal name
Punctuation, suffix and spelling as registered. 'Inc' and 'Incorporated' are not interchangeable on a claim form.
Check the entity status
Active, suspended or dissolved. A suspended entity changes the picture.
Note the agent for service of process
Name and address as registered. This is usually who gets served.
Check for a fictitious or assumed name filing
Links a trading name to the entity behind it, sometimes at county level.
All of this is public record and most of it is free. It is an hour of work that decides whether the claim is enforceable.
Entity type decides who is liable
This is the part that changes the answer, so it comes before everything else.
A sole proprietorship is not a separate thing. There is no legal entity apart from the person running it. The claim is generally against that individual, and courts commonly want the person named, often with the trading name attached in a form such as Jane Smith, doing business as Riverside Plumbing. The proprietor's personal assets are exposed because there is no separation to begin with.
A general partnership typically means the partners can be liable, and the rules on naming the partnership and the individual partners vary by state.
An LLC or corporation is a separate legal person. It can contract, be sued and hold assets in its own right. The claim normally goes against the entity itself, and the owners are not personally liable simply by virtue of ownership. That separation is the point of forming one.
The practical consequence is direct: suing the owner of an LLC personally for a debt of the company will usually fail, and suing "Riverside Plumbing" when no such entity exists will usually fail too. Establish the type first.
Where to look
The Secretary of State business entity search. Free and public in most states. Searching the trading name usually surfaces the registered entity, its exact legal name, its status, its formation date and its agent for service of process. California's Secretary of State runs such a search, and its courts' self-help guidance points people to exactly this route for finding a business address or agent.
The documents you already have. Contracts, invoices, receipts, terms of service, order confirmations and email footers. Legal names appear in small print far more often than people expect, frequently alongside a registration number.
The website. Footers, terms and conditions, and privacy policies usually name the operating entity, because they have to.
County records. Fictitious or assumed name filings are held at county level in several states.
If the business operates in more than one state, the entity may be registered at home and foreign-qualified elsewhere, which means more than one register carries a record and an agent.
The guide to establishing a legal name for a claim form covers the mechanics of this search in more detail.
Getting the name exactly right
Courts are literal about this, and small deviations cause real problems.
Copy the name as registered - the suffix, the punctuation, the spelling, and any "The" at the front. Riverside Plumbing Services, Inc. is not Riverside Plumbing Inc, and the difference can matter when a judgment is later enforced against a bank account or a property record.
Where a trading name is involved, many courts prefer both: the legal entity, then the trading name in a "doing business as" form. Ask the clerk how your court wants it written. It is a thirty-second question that avoids an amendment.
Service is different for a company
Having the right defendant is half of it. Reaching them in the manner the rules require is the other half, and the rules differ from those for an individual.
An entity is generally served through its agent for service of process - the person or company it designated to receive legal documents, whose address is on the public register. In many states, service on certain officers or managers is also effective.
Handing papers to whoever is behind the counter at a branch commonly does not satisfy the rules, even though it feels like the natural thing to do. The person accepting them has no authority to accept service, and the defect may not surface until the hearing.
Two further situations arise often:
The agent has moved or resigned. Registers go stale. Most states provide a fallback, frequently service on the Secretary of State itself, with its own procedure and fee.
The entity is suspended or dissolved. Service rules change, and the claim may need different handling entirely.
The service of process guide covers the methods and the proof requirements in full.
Before filing against a business
Gather every document carrying a name
Receipts, invoices, contract, emails, order confirmations.
Search the Secretary of State entity register
Free in most states. Search the trading name.
Identify the entity type
Sole proprietorship, partnership, LLC or corporation - it decides who you name.
Copy the legal name exactly
Suffix, punctuation and spelling as registered.
Check the entity status
Active, suspended, dissolved. Each changes the approach.
Record the agent for service and their address
This is usually who must be served.
Search fictitious or assumed name filings
Links the trading name to the entity. Sometimes county level.
Check whether it is registered in your state too
Out-of-state businesses often foreign-qualify and have a local agent.
Ask the clerk how to format the name
Entity plus 'doing business as' is commonly preferred.
Confirm the service method for entities
Different from serving an individual. Counter staff usually cannot accept.
Print and date your register search
Evidence you named the party the public record identified.
Check venue against the business address
Where it does business, not only where you dealt with it.
Entity records, fictitious name filing systems, service rules and the treatment of dissolved entities are all state-specific. Confirm with the Secretary of State and the clerk of the court where you intend to file.
Suing a landlord or a property manager
Worth calling out, because it confuses people routinely. The person who collects the rent is often not the party to the lease.
A property manager frequently acts as agent for an owner who may be an individual, a trust or an entity. The lease names the party you contracted with; the register tells you what that party is. Where a deposit is in dispute, identifying the correct party before filing is the difference between a judgment that can be enforced and one that cannot - the security deposit documentation guide covers the evidence side of those claims.
Proving the claim once the party is right
Naming the correct defendant gets the case in front of a judge. It does not win it.
Business disputes usually turn on documents: the contract or terms, the invoice, what was promised, what was delivered, and the correspondence in between. Where the dispute concerns work done badly or goods supplied damaged, photographic and video evidence frequently carries the day, and it is worth gathering to a standard the court will accept rather than as casual phone snaps.
When to take advice
This describes how to identify and serve a business defendant in general terms. It does not tell you who the correct party is on your facts, whether an owner might be personally liable, or how to proceed against an entity that has been dissolved.
Speak to a licensed attorney in your state if the business has closed or dissolved, if you believe an owner should be personally liable despite the entity structure, if the amount at stake is substantial, or if service has already been attempted and challenged. The Secretary of State can confirm entity details and agent information but cannot advise on who to sue, and the clerk of the court can explain formatting and filing requirements without advising on the merits.