Do You Know Who Your Process Server Is?

Do you have any idea who is really handing your process service?

There are a lot of new companies popping up that claim to be experts in the industry of process serving. Usually offering process serving for a much lower rate or “non-serve, no charge”, those companies act as sort of a middle man between accepting your legal documents and then handing them over to independent contractors who they cannot control.

What are the most common issues?

The biggest and most obvious problem with this type of practice is the large volume of individuals who are performing the job without sufficient training and the much-needed knowledge of specific laws and rules that need to be followed.

If you use independent contractors, you cannot implement specifications regarding the way they should complete their work. What that means is you cannot tell them how they should serve, or when to serve, or even what ethical grounds they should stand on.

Often, this type of companies also lack the knowledge to detect and correct any errors before service is sent out. There are instances when service packets are carelessly sent in without all the necessary documents. With the help of a seasoned process service company, the office should be able to catch this kind of issue and report them back to you before the service is sent out.  This will save a lot of precious time and make sure services are considered valid and acceptable to the court.

Without proper training and sufficient knowledge of the service rules, as well as the nuances that are related to due diligence, the quality of service is lessened and even puts the ability for private process servers to effectuate service at risk. If these process servers complete service improperly, the court could see it as a reason to implement stricter rules regarding the use of private process servers.

So how do you know that a company is indeed handling the services themselves? How do you know if they are simply passing the work to independent contractors?

One sign is the lack of information on the company’s history or the people behind the operations. It is also fishy if they only have a PO Box listed as their address.

Remember to always be sure you know who is actually handling your process service. Is it really a dependable process service company with their own employees or a paper broker who uses independent contractor?

If you want to be sure that you’re using the right process service company that you can trust, contact Select Document Services Inc.