Forclosure Economy Still Keeping Process Servers Busy

The crumbling housing market is bad news for homeowners who overextended themselves during the boom, but it's good news for some lawyers and associated businesses.

Law firms representing lenders, condo associations and, to a lesser extent, homeowners, have been extremely busy with foreclosure cases over the last few months.

Attorneys aren't the only ones who have been busy with foreclosure cases. Process servers, the people who go out and hand-deliver notices of foreclosures and other lawsuits, also have been swamped.

In the last year and a half, the Gissen & Zawyer service firm, for instance, has roughly doubled in size. The company had about 15 process servers 18 months ago, but now it has about 30, said co-owner Sean Zawyer.

Did you Hear the One About Buddy Johnson?

So did you hear the one about the process server who spent 18 days trying to track down an elected official who never seemed to be in his office and whose employees seemed clueless as to his whereabouts?

And how, later at a deposition, that same elected official couldn't seem to answer dozens of questions about office procedures?