If you are a partner in a law firm or managing one and need to serve out a formal complaint or lawsuit to defendants or respondents, the whole process can get quite tricky. It might not be as simple as you think. The reason why this is the case stems from the basic and simple fact that people don’t like getting sued. And you’d be surprised as to how creative and sneaky people can get in avoiding personal service.
In the United States, to get hailed into court, you need to serve legal papers to the person that you are suing. You need to work with a process server company is creative enough, relentless enough, and smart enough to get around the tricks people use. There are tons of tricks that people who don’t want to be sued or found would employ just to avoid the legal paperwork that would force them to show up in court. The litigation process doesn’t start unless that person is given legal notice according to US law.
The problem is, it’s too easy to retain the services of process servers that really won’t do your legal docs any justice. No pun intended. Seriously. They just can’t seem to get the job done because if they’re dealing with a particularly hard nut to crack. They might not have what it takes to get your legal paperwork in the right hands. At the very least, you need to retain process servers that don’t give up. Here are the qualities the top notch process servers have in common:
They find opportunities
Getting served with legal paperwork that informs you that you are being sued can be very traumatic. This is especially true for somebody who has been sued before. So if they can smell or get the vibes that somebody’s going to sue them, they can do all sorts of scheduling tricks, they can make all sorts of arrangements so they “disappear.” The best process servers find the right opportunity to service the legal paperwork to the person that you’re trying to sue. They have the patience and they make the opportunities where the person becomes vulnerable to being served. This takes experience and this definitely takes creativity. It involves more than just simply going by a checklist or hunch.
They are accurate
One of the biggest reasons why some process servers screw up serving lawsuits and completely miss the mark is because they are inaccurate. They go to the wrong address, or they get the timing wrong, or they get some sort of detail wrong. You know you’re dealing with a real professional when they pay high attention to detail and they ensure that the details of the person that you want served are accurate.
They focus on the right timing
If you’re dealing with a potential defendant that is very sneaky and evasive, it can all boil down to timing. You need to work with a company that knows how to time service properly. This minimizes conflict and potentially violent confrontations or evasions.
