Titanium Legal takes pride in being a part of upholding the due process of law, and extends our appreciation and thanks to all of our staff and process servers that continually perform their duties with the utmost integrity. Not everyone is cut out to be a process server. The role necessitates a certain combination of tact, intuition and determination that ensures that our legal processes are upheld.
While process serving is an integral part of the legal system, and there have been laws put into place to protect the industry, process servers, like any other profession, can face any one of a number of challenges when performing their duties. This article provides a brief overview for those of you that may be interested in learning more about what we do.
What Process Servers Do
Process servers serve civil and criminal complaints, garnishments, injunctions, eviction notices, and any other legal documentations allowed by state and federal courts.
As a process service company, both our internal staff and our process servers that work out in the field, play an important role within the justice system. The courts rely on us to make every effort to track down businesses or individuals in order to serve a summons. For instance, we guarantee a certain amount of service attempts within an agreed upon time frame. Until the defendant or witness is served, we will attempt those services at varying times throughout the day and week (generally morning, afternoon, evening and on a weekend day, unless otherwise directed).
Some might believe that the Service of Process is a relatively easy profession; however, this type of work is uniquely challenged in that it can pose inherent difficulties, such as ‘time and place’ challenges, as well as the more rare potential for harassment of the servers themselves.
Some of the issues faced by a process server can include: missing recipients, issues with jurisdiction, threats, evasive defendants and witnesses.
Missing Recipients
While plaintiffs provide us with a service address to serve the servee, there are times that the recipient can’t be found. This could be due to a change in address (such as a move to a new state, often without a forwarding address), or the result of the servee being temporarily out of town.
At times we are tasked by the plaintiff to attempt to locate the individual to serve them. Our process can include anything from old fashioned sleuthing methods to the use of skip-tracing location software.
Evasive Witnesses and Defendants
Perhaps the most common issue that process servers deal with are evasive servees. This includes the defendant or witness, named on the summons, pretending not to be the recipient, not answering the door, or an outright refusal to receive a summons.
It’s generally a given that most servees are not happy to be receiving a summons, and the reason some will do their best to avoid being served. They understand that once they are officially served, they must appear in court on a given day to provide testimony or a defense. To not appear after being summoned can lead to a judge issuing a warrant for their arrest. However, if they are not served, they oftentimes cannot legally be punished for not appearing in court.
In rare instances, process servers might feel, or literally be, threatened for merely performing their due diligence duties. However, professional process servers are apprised of the most common issues that might arise, and are therefore equipped with the right knowledge and resources to deal with such situations appropriately to avoid escalating a possible negative encounter.
Issues with Jurisdiction
Every state has its own set of regulations and guidelines for certifying process servers, as well as the process itself. This means that process serving certifications generally aren’t transferable to other states or counties.
In the case where the witness or defendant has moved to another state, the process serving company will need to arrange for a server, with that state’s proper certifications, to serve the summons (most larger process companies, such as Titanium Legal, will have process servers geographically available throughout the United States).
In closing …
We’d like to, once again, extend our appreciation to all process servers and the companies they serve for, that regularly and with the utmost integrity & determination perform their due diligence. Our legal system would not be the same, or as fair without you!
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