How best serve service of process successfully. Process service can get out of hand very easily. As the law goes, not all defendants will want to be served with the court documents. And because not receiving the court documents is an actual defense in court, they try and avoid the process server as much as possible.
For the most part, this is why people do not choose to do the process serving themselves. It is better to leave the job to a professional who has had to deal with such situations in the past and found a way to do it successfully.
If you are wondering who a process server is, let’s catch you up before we proceed. A process server is an individual who legally delivers copies of court documents to the parties involved in the case.
For instance, if a husband wants to divorce the wife, he will submit a divorce appeal to the court. Once the court approves the appeal, he has to make sure that the wife is served with a copy of the divorce appeal to notify her that there is a divorce case about to begin. The person mandated by law to serve the wife with a copy of the court documents is the process server.
How best serve service of process successfully
Now that we are all caught up, let’s look at how you can 3 ways you can ensure that you serve process successfully.
1. Information
It is impossible to proceed with any plan without enough relevant information. Before leaving the office or leaving the person who is sending you to serve the documents, ensure that you know all that there is to know about the person you are serving. Find out what the case is so you can prepare your mind for the kind of reception you might receive.
Ask the plaintiff (the person filing the lawsuit) whether they expect defiance from the defendant or not. Ask about such details as what the defendant looks like, what kind of car they drive and the plates if known, where they work and their best address.
Arming yourself with such information will give you a great foundation for your service.
2. Get creative
The one quality that will always serve you in being a process server is the ability to think on your feet. You are bound to face a lot of opposition in this job. You need to find creative ways of getting around the hurdles without going against the law.
For instance, in a situation where the defendant has refused to open the door on several occasions, you can make use of the neighbors. A neighbor will give you information on what time the defendant comes home, their general habits so you can find them and if another adult is living on the same premises. However, to avoid spooking the neighbor, it is best if you ask for the defendant by their first name so it looks like you two are friendly. For all your process serving questions, check out this FAQ on process serving.
3. Skip tracing
Skip tracing is a tool that process servers use to locate people where the original address is not valid or seems not to be working. This is a tool that you need to ensure you understand because you are bound to make use of it. There are many ways to do skip tracing, you can do skip tracing via
- Driver License search
- Surveillance
- Other methods which you will find here
The aforementioned points are just basic ways on how best serve service of process successfully. There are more points which you would learn along the way working as a process server.
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