There are times in people’s lives when they need to take someone else to court for various reasons. During such times, it is a legal requirement that the opposing party be notified, in writing, of a few key details. Some of these details include the date they are to appear in court, the location of the court and the reason they are being asked to go to court in the first place. The person who delivers the papers needed to notify someone of any type of legal action being taken on them is a PROCESS SERVER. Here is everything you need to know about the three process server companies
An event has occurred in which you come to the realization that you need to take legal action on someone. Let’s face it… these times are stressful enough. The last thing you need to worry about is trying to properly educate yourself on what legal requirements are needed to make this happen.
A process server is already educated on all legal requirements that are needed in order to serve someone with papers. Their job is to make your life easier and assist you in one of the most stressful and difficult times in your life.
In fact, in most situations, it is not possible for a court case to take place at all without service of process. It is also required that the person who delivers these papers NOT be any of the court parties involved in that case. This rule exists to keep things fair on all sides by making sure the person delivering the papers is impartial.
As previously mentioned, the job of a process server exists to make your life easier. How do they do this?
Everyone should be familiar with the story of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”, right? Goldilocks went wandering through the woods and came upon a house in which she decided to break in, after no one answered. While inside, she saw three bowls of porridge. Realizing she was hungry, she tried all three bowls until she found the one that was the best temperature to satisfy her needs. The first bowl was too hot. The second bowl was too cold. The third bowl was “just right”.
During her short time in the bears’ home, she managed to break in, steal their food, damage the baby bear’s chair and sleep in the baby bear’s bed, startling the bear family when they arrived back home…
Goldilocks sure broke a lot of laws. It sounds like the three bears may need to hire a process server.
Once you have come to realize that you need to hire a process server, you'll want to make sure they are accredited by the National Association of Professional Process Servers. However, finding the one that best meets the needs of you or your law firm can be overwhelming. To make this process much easier, consider the Goldilocks story. There are different types of process serving companies out there.
The first type of company is a “small” company (also known as a Mom and Pop Shop). These smaller companies could have been in business for decades.
They are helpful in the sense that they will often have actual humans available to give you support when you need it. Usually, they will have established relationships with their clientele. Also, depending on the process server, they can generally provide pretty consistent results.
However, there are some things that occur consistently with these types of companies that would make them “too small” to meet your needs. One example is that they will usually only be able to provide support to you locally (such as within a 20-30 mile radius of where they are located).
Therefore, if you are faced with a situation in which you need to serve papers to someone who is located outside of this radius (such as located in a different state), you would then need to release them of their help and spend more time locating a different process server who could deliver the papers where they are needed. Needless to say, this would prove to have wasted your precious time by going with such a company.
Further issues often arise with these smaller companies, such as their personal life issues. For example, you have hired this company. Then all of a sudden, someone from that company turns out to be sick or goes on vacation. Now, they have to put your needs on hold until they are no longer sick or they return from their vacation. This would cause unnecessary frustration for you because you would then need to figure out what to do in order to get your papers served.
In the event that you need to serve someone with papers, the last thing that you need to worry about is wasting time and then having to scramble to find someone who is available. Time is of the essence.
Additionally, these smaller companies tend to lack the technology that could best serve ALL of your needs. You may not even realize how vital technology can be in times like these.
Think about this… you would want to be notified of all progress pertaining to your case. For example, you would want to know each time the process server that you hired has attempted to deliver papers to the defendant involved in your case.
You would also want to know if the process server has run into any issues during their work, such as realizing that the address given for the defendant was a “bad address” (meaning that the defendant can no longer be found at that address). If a process server runs into a “bad address”, additional measures would then need to be taken to track down the defendant.
On the other hand, you would also want to be notified as soon as possible when the papers have been successfully delivered. When a process serving company is “small”, it will likely not have the technology available to give you these updates “in real time”. Then you would be required to take more time out of your schedule to either call or email them to ask about updates… then wait even longer until they are “on the clock” and can respond to you.
Smaller process serving companies generally have limited services that they can offer you. Their services usually only include process serving. They do not think about what additional services you will need in order to make your overall experience BETTER.
Oftentimes, these smaller companies will not offer to file the “return of service” or “proof of service” (either by hand or through e-filing). This is usually an extra step for them that they do not want to add to their services. Can you imagine how nice it would be to not have to worry about filing the return of service with the court?
The second type of company is a “large” company. They are helpful in the sense that they do reach nationwide, unlike smaller companies.
While their orders usually move consistently through the process, that does not mean that they move quickly through the process. Whatever speed that the company’s workflow has been created at, is the speed that the orders will generally move. This depends on the amount of volume that they have at any time. This means that it is difficult to change the speed at which your papers will be served. Understandably, this poses a problem for you because your papers should always be delivered as soon as possible. Your needs are important and should be treated as such.
In terms of technology, unlike small process serving companies, these larger companies have a lot of solutions to offer. That being said, they tend to go too far with this.
For example, whenever you are dealing with a larger nationwide company, anytime a problem arises, you are unlikely to get an actual human to answer your phone call. If you call, you are more likely to have an automated system to sort through. No one likes dealing with all of those menu items. Plus, those robot people always misunderstand you and you will usually end up screaming at them, as if they could even hear the urgency in your voice.
If you are more lucky, you may get an actual human to answer your phone call, but chances are that they work at a call center and usually lack the knowledge needed to assist you properly. Then you will have to wait for someone to call you back who actually knows how to answer your questions or solve your problems. This is incredibly frustrating, especially when your needs can usually be quickly and easily met when dealing with the PROPER process serving company.
Another major issue you will likely run into when dealing with a larger company is that they have thousands of orders running through their workflow at a time. This increases the risk of your single order “jumping off the rails”. Once this happens, it can be extremely difficult to retrieve your order and get it back on track in a timely manner.
Your order deserves to have the SUPPORT and URGENCY it needs. While your case is very important to you, it is usually a very small problem to these larger companies. Due to the lack of support needed being met, this will lead you to need to find another process server who can fix the problems created by the first company. Talk about adding insult to injury, right?
Like in the Goldilocks story, the first type of process serving company is “too small”, the second type of process serving company is “too big”, so you want to find the company that is “just right”.
The type of process serving company that is just right for your needs is going to be a “medium” sized company, like Encore Legal Process.
A medium sized company has the technology that is targeted and specialized towards your needs. They know the problems that could arise and are ready to immediately fix them if they happen, so you will not need to waste time in finding another company later on.
One example of what these medium sized process serving companies (Goldilocks companies) offer is SERVICE NOTIFICATIONS. When something is served to the defendant, it is sent to the client immediately. Notifications are updated “in the field” to ensure that you are always updated as quickly as
possible. You are important and these companies both recognize and uphold that.
These Goldilocks companies have good leadership. Their employees are trained to respond quickly to all emails. They also value your time so if you need to call them for any reason, they understand your problem and they will move your order forward quickly and effectively, with whatever urgency is needed. This ensures that your needs are always met!
These process serving companies will typically use vetted employees (making sure they have the proper background, training and qualifications) as their process servers. Their reach is usually nationwide. They go above and beyond that of the larger companies by paying their employees better which increases their overall morale. This ultimately allows them to do a better job to serve you. They focus on even the smaller things that need to be done for you.
You matter. Your needs matter. You should be working with a process serving company that knows your needs, anticipates any potential problems and is prepared to fix them, gives you all updates as quickly as possible and values your time by eliminating as many responsibilities for you as possible.
Do you have more questions about the process serving companies or would you like to learn more about working with Encore Legal Process? Get in touch today!
