AKA How to Stretch Your Process Service Dollars!
You might be sabotaging your own efforts
As our client, when you hire a process server, you expect that your document will be served quickly and efficiently. We want that, too. In fact, we want that more than you do because this is our business, and faster is better for both of us. So, what if I told you that you might be sabotaging your own efforts?
The most difficult serves for us are the bare bones serves: a name and an address. This is, quite unfortunately, the norm. And far too often, the people who hire us know absolutely nothing about the service that they are sending. This situation forces us to do the most work: checking Facebook, checking all the other social media, searching the internet at large, etc, if we have time to do any of that. And when we get really busy, we sometimes just do not have time. That means knocking on a door with no preparation at all. Sometimes we get lucky and get a service done personally on the first attempt. Love that! Sometimes, they don’t live there; sometimes they do and they are lying. That means more trips, and more trips generally means more money. It definitely means time wasted.
So do we fix this?
Really, it comes down to intake and transparency. Intake at the law firms, intake at the process serving clearinghouses, to make certain that all of the pertinent information is obtained. Transparency to be make sure that pertinent information is shared. It seems that far too often, process servers are viewed as outsiders – and I suppose that we are – but it pays to remember that we are on your side. We want to get your defendant served! We hate affidavits of attempt with a fiery passion!
Here is what you can do: provide all the relevant information that you have immediately at the start of the service. Please don’t trickle info out to us a little at a time, a little bit after every failed attempt.
Provide all information immediately at the start of the service
This is the kind of info we crave:
i. Full names, including maiden names and known aliases.
ii. Complete valid addresses: please check them on Google Maps and in Streetview (especially, Streetview because Google Maps thinks every address is there somewhere).
iii. Photos: because some defendants lie. Believe or not, they do lie sometimes!
iv. Vehicles, including make and model and color.
v. Places of Employment (POE) and work schedules. Usually not the first attempt, but these can really help when residences don’t pan out: especially for examinations: it is much harder for your defendant to hide at work.
vi. Dates: does your Claim or Summons run soon? Does an examination or motion need to be served a number of days in advance?
vii. Personality: is your defendant dangerous? a compulsive liar?
viii. Anything else relevant that you can think of!
So, to sum up: Remember we are on your side! Do good intake and get that information! Provide said information up front! Pay your bill on time! ?
