Six Tips to Help Process Servers Get Paid on Time

As a process server, you likely pride yourself on quick and timely deliverance of your client’s papers. Sometimes you don’t receive the same courtesy when it comes to clients quickly delivering your payment. It is never enjoyable when process servers, or investigators for that matter, have to take on the money-chasing duties of the collection agencies they sometimes have as clients.

Click here to read on and discover six important steps you should take with your business to make sure you are paid on time.

AccuServe Process Server Seeks Law Firm Clients as Doggedly as Defendants

AccuServe LLC’s daily grind is the stuff of TV movies.

The doorbell rings. The protagonist answers to what he thinks is a flower delivery, but the delivery agent drops the flowers and slaps a thick envelope into his hands instead.

“You’ve been served,” the agent says, then spins on his heels and walks away.

Believe it or not, the cliché is sometimes true, said Kirk Wilhite, co-owner of AccuServe, a Grandview Heights-based process service firm. But it’s not common.

“It’s true, there can be a lot of trickery to it. A lot of people are expecting the complaint or summons, so they try to evade service. It’s not uncommon for them to not answer the door,” Wilhite said.

Not that that helps them. Wilhite said in AccuServe’s eight months in business, he has a 100 percent success rate.

In a nutshell, the business of process serving focuses on a brief and elemental moment in civil cases – the serving of a civil complaint, summons or subpoena. AccuServe is a small but growing firm that wants to make that moment in time big business.

With only $5,000 in start up costs, Wilhite said the company has done $20,000 in its first eight months in business.

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Changes Come to Civil Proccess

With a goal of reducing the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office budget to the best of his abilities, Sheriff Jeff Dawsy is announcing changes in the way his agency will serve civil process, effective Oct. 1.

“Process” is commonly defined as a paper of writing issued by some court in the exercise of its jurisdiction. These documents include divorce papers, liens, restraining orders, evictions, subpoenas, plus other official court documents.

Up until now, deputy sheriffs typically served all enforceable as well as non-enforceable civil process on the intended recipients.

Enforceable civil process includes enforcement of child support, domestic violence injunctions for protection, child custody pickup orders, landlord/tenant actions and seizure of property relating to civil lawsuits. Non-enforceable process includes summonses, complaints and subpoenas.

A recent administrative order signed by Chief Judge Daniel B. Merritt, Sr., of the Fifth Judicial Circuit supplements the service of process by county sheriffs and provides an alternate means of service by private certified civil process servers. An approved list of certified process servers is maintained by the circuit, which includes Citrus, Hernando, Lake, Marion and Sumter counties.

These individuals are authorized to serve non-enforceable civil process on any person found within the circuit where the process server is certified whenever a civil action has been filed against said person in Florida’s circuit or county courts.

Here in Citrus County, sworn deputies will continue to serve all enforceable process, in addition to any court documents originating from the State Attorney’s and Public Defender’s offices and the Florida Department of Revenue.

Starting Oct. 1, private citizens or attorneys looking to have non-enforceable process served will need to contact a private process server. The approved list of civil process servers in the circuit who are currently certified is viewable on the Sheriff’s Office official Web site at www.sheriffcitrus.org.

Sheriff Dawsy is anticipating these changes will save his agency approximately $140,000. One added advantage is two or three of his civil deputies can be reassigned to positions that are currently vacant.

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Service of Process Through Email? Closer than we thought?

Civil procedure rules require that plaintiffs notify defendants of the lawsuits filed against them; this is called “service of process.” Traditionally, service of process is done through personal service; this means, by delivering a copy of the lawsuit to the defendant’s residency or place of business. Given the increasing use of electronic communications nowadays and the proliferation of online businesses, could service of process be accomplished through e-mail?  Various United States courts have already entertained this question, and some have denied the possibility that defendants be served through the use of e-mail, while others have allowed service by e-mail. This article provides examples of two district court decisions regarding service of process through e-mail.

The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure establish that individuals and corporations may be served “following state law for serving a summons . . . in the state where the district court is located." Fed. R. Civ. P. 4(e)(1), (h)(1)(A). Thus, state rules determine how plaintiffs serve on defendants.  When personal service of process cannot be accomplished, plaintiffs usually resort to alternate means to serve defendants as allowed by state law.  For instance, under Michigan law, when service of process cannot be made as provided by the civil procedure rules, “the court may allow service of process to be made in any other manner reasonably calculated to give defendant actual notice of the proceedings and an opportunity to be heard.” M.C.R. 2.105(I). This Michigan rule is common to most U.S. states.

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NYC Council to Update Process Servering Laws, Reduces "Sewer Service"

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Ulrick Chatelain, 74, of Washington Heights says all of his bank accounts were frozen, but he didn't know why. Turns out, a former landlord had sued him and won a judgment in civil court.Problem was Chatelain was never notified about the lawsuit.

New York City Council will vote on legislation on Thursday to stop so-called "sewer service" -- the deliberate failure by process servers to notify a person about a pending lawsuit.Among the new regulations, process servers will now be required to pass an exam for proper service.

Servers will also be required to use an electronic tracking device such as GPS to prove when and where a person was notified.

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Council Seeks to Crack Down on Process Servers Who Lie

In a proposal aimed at unscrupulous debt collectors, the City Council is considering legislation that would require process servers to use global positioning systems to show that they have actually visited consumers’ homes or workplaces to deliver notices of collection proceedings.

Lawmakers hope the measure will help curb a long-running practice known in legal circles as “sewer service,” which occurs when process servers fail to serve court papers on defendants but file affidavits swearing that they did so — which allows the cases to proceed.

The victims are often debtors involved in collection suits. When they fail to show up in court they are hit with default judgments, often for thousands of dollars.

The bill would require process servers in New York City to electronically record every instance in which they serve or try to serve someone, using a global positioning system that would pinpoint their exact location.

Advocates for consumers say that sewer service has grown in recent years because of the recession and an increase in the number of collection firms that buy bad debts from credit card companies for pennies on the dollar and then seek to collect them.

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Cuomo Launches Probe Into Process Servers

State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has launched a wide-ranging investigation of possible fraud in the process-serving industry, in which thousands of people may have had their financial accounts frozen or wages garnished without any knowledge of court proceedings against them, according to officials.

A spokesman for Cuomo, Richard Bamberger, confirmed the existence of the probe and said it's an important issue in a time of increasing economic hardship. He declined to elaborate on the scope of the investigation or on firms under scrutiny.

Read more here.

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.

Ignore Photo Radar Ticket, Pay Additional FIne

The Prescott Valley Police Department implemented photo enforcement a year and a half ago to reduce speeding - and accidents.

Despite extensive media coverage, some motorists who receive tickets are uninformed, and are facing the consequences. They face a $26 process server fee - even if they attend traffic school - if they did not notify the Magistrate Court of their intentions after receiving a ticket in the mail.

The company that operates the photo-enforcement equipment, Redflex Traffic Systems of Scottsdale, hires process servers.

Bad News Is Good News For Them

No one is ever happy to get a visit from process server Tammie Culligan.

"It's always a challenge, it's definitely a challenge," she said.

Tammie spends her busy day serving people with a notice to appear in court. She says foreclosures and short sales are through the roof in Hillsborough County.

It seems, these days, business is good for those in the business of delivering bad news.

Sam Still Avoiding Restraining Order

Six days after Britney Spears' parents successfully filed a restraining order against Sam Lutfi, her near-constant companion and supposed "manager," an official for the court confirms to OK! that the singer's friend has still yet to be served with the document.

Allan Parrachini, the press officer for the court, announced Thursday morning that process servers have been unable to hand off the order to Sam, who the restraining order alleges has attempted to control every aspect of Britney's life.

Welcome ServeNow.com New Members - March 2007

Below is a list of the newest ServeNow.com Members from March 1 - 31, 2007. You will find their basic contact info, the services they offer and a link to their profile page

Newest ServeNow.com Members -- March 2007

The ServeNow.com Team would like to welcome the newest members of our online Process Serving Directory. Below you will find the basic contact information for all of the members who joined the ServeNow.com online directory of local, pre-screened process servers in March 2007:

Target Services
Contact: Les Bridges
Phone: (800) 367-1330
Fax: (509) 327-4665
Location: Nine Mile Falls, Washington
- Target Services provides process service, court filings, skip tracing, property Searches, records research and field services in the following areas: Spokane County, WA, Stevens County, WA, Pend Orielle County, WA, Ferry County, WA and Lincoln County, WA

Premier Investigations, LLC.
Contact: Ryan Willis
Phone: (504) 872-0926
Fax: (504) 872- 0928
Location: Metairie, Louisiana
- Premier Investigations, LLC. provides process service and private investigative services in the following areas: Jefferson Parish, LA, Orleans Parish, LA and St Tammany Parish, LA

Ivey Investigative Services, LLC.
Contact: Thomas G. Ivey
Phone: (877) 761-6670
Fax: (309) 353-2868
Location: Pekin, Illinois
- Ivey Investigative Services, LLC. provides process service, private investigative services, polygraph testing and civil / criminal records check in the following areas: Peoria County, IL and Tazewell County, IL

Pulaski County Process Servers
Contact: Audie Brock
Phone: (606) 383-0479
Fax: (606) 677-1404
Location: Somerset, Kentucky
- Pulaski County Process Servers provides service of process in the following areas: Pulaski County, KY, Lincoln County, KY and Wayne County, KY

Day and Associates, Inc.
Contact: John Day
Phone: (630) 579-5820
Fax: (630) 579-5821
Location: Naperville, Illinois
- Day and Associates, Inc. provides service of process in the following areas: Will County, IL, Lake County, IL, Kendall County, IL and Grundy County, IL

Legal Process Service of Virginia
Contact: Willis Mayberry
Phone: (434) 239-9606
Fax: (434) 239-1059
Location: Lynchburg, Virginia
- Legal Process Service of Virginia provides service of process in the following areas: Bedford County, VA, Botetourt County, VA, Roanoke County, VA, Campbell County, VA, Halifax County, VA, Pittsylvania County, VA and Rockbridge County, VA

Road Runner Service, LLC
Contact: Nancy Sandsmark
Phone: (970) 389 8463
Fax: (970) 668-8997
Location: Frisco, Colorado
- Road Runner Service, LLC provides service of process in the following areas: Summit County, CO, Eagle County, CO and Park County, CO

KS Courier, Inc.
Contact: Kurt Schedler
Phone: (214) 355-0875
Fax: (972) 355-1936
Location: Flower Mound, Texas
- KS Courier, Inc. provides service of process in the following areas: Denton County, TX and Collin County, TX

Daniel Frank Investigations
Contact: Daniel Frank
Phone: (870) 273-2077
Location: Jonesboro, Arkansas
- Daniel Frank Investigations provides service of process in the following areas: Craighead County, AR, Greene County, AR and Poinsett County, AR

National Investigators & Security Agency, Inc.
Contact: Rick Grove
Phone: (708) 429-1122
Fax: (708) 429-1162
Location: Tinley Park, Illinois
- National Investigators & Security Agency, Inc. provides service of process in the following areas: Cook County, IL and Will County, IL

MaxxGuard, Inc.
Contact: Frankie Lax
Phone: (731) 427-7222
Fax: (731) 422-6049
Location: Jackson, Tennessee
- MaxxGuard, Inc. provides service of process in the following areas: Madison County, TN, Henderson County, TN and Chester County, TN

SanLee Process Server
Contact: Wayne Matthews
Phone: (919) 774-8995
Fax: (919) 774-3375
Location: Sanford, North Carolina
- SanLee Process Server provides service of process in the following areas: Cumberland County, NC, Wake County, NC, Lee County, NC, Chatham County, NC, Harnett County, NC and Moore County, NC

Sav-On Process Service
Contact: Wendy Iaccarino
Phone: (877) 728-6640
Fax: (212) 431-9485
Location: New York, New York
- Sav-On Process Service provides service of process in the following areas: The Five Boroughs of New York (The Bronx, NY, Brooklyn, NY, Manhattan, NY, Queens, NY and Staten Island, NY)

Downtown Direct, LLC
Contact: Eric Werner
Phone: (804) 640-8052
Fax: (804) 353-4424
Location: Richmond, Virginia
- Downtown Direct, LLC provides service of process in the following areas: Chesterfield County, VA, Henrico County, VA and Hanover County, VA

Due Process Investigations
Contact: Bobby Morgan
Phone: (877) 929-2663
Fax: (205) 631-2442
Location: Fultondale, Alabama
- Due Process Investigations provides service of process in the following areas: Jefferson County, AL and Shelby County, AL

Morgan Coleman Investigations
Contact: Morgan Coleman
Phone: (601) 896-1865
Fax: (601) 502-8559
Location: Byram, Mississippi
- Morgan Coleman Investigations provides service of process in the following areas: Hinds County, MS and Rankin County, MS

Kern PDQ Process Service
Contact: Trina Fry
Phone: (661) 281-5741
Fax: (631) 850-5470
Location: Bakersfield, California
- Kern PDQ Process Service provides service of process in the following areas: Kern County, CA

McMahon & Associates
Contact: Jon McMahon
Phone: (877) 670-9838
Fax: (231) 577-1119
Location: Cadillac, Michigan
- McMahon & Associates provides service of process in the following areas: Statewide in Michigan

5 Star Civil Process
Contact: Harrison Litle
Phone: (281) 733-7426
Fax: (281) 646-8659
Location: Katy, Texas
- 5 Star Civil Process provides service of process in the following areas: Fort Bend County, TX and Waller County, TX

One Hour Legal Service
Contact: Kathy Beam
Phone: (888) 311-1221
Fax: (925) 947-3480
Location: Katy, Texas
- One Hour Legal Service provides service of process in the following areas: Contra Costa County, CA

Angel Eye Investigations
Contact: Quenton Josey
Phone: (410) 960-9111
Fax: (301) 860-1349
Location: Bowie, Maryland
- Angel Eye Investigations provides service of process in the following areas: Prince George's County, MD and Montgomery County, MD

SDR Services
Contact: Steve Redding
Phone: (570) 840-1078
Location: Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania
- PA State Constable provides service of process in the following areas: Lackawanna County, PA and Wyoming County, PA

Ansell Process & Locate Service
Contact: Don Ansell Jr.
Phone: (240) 304-5023
Fax: (301) 627-1168
Location: Upper Marlboro, Maryland
- Ansell Process & Locate Service provides service of process in the following areas: Prince George's County, MD, Anne Arundel County, MD and Calvert County, MD

WS Process Services
Contact: Willie Smith
Phone: (248) 752-2239
Fax: (248) 850-7187
Location: Southfield, Michigan
- WS Process Services provides service of process in the following areas: Wayne County, MI

King County Process Service
Contact: Joe M. Showers
Phone: (800) 398-7969
Fax: (425) 968-8435
Location: Kirkland, Washington
- King County Process Service provides service of process in the following areas: King County, WA

Veenstra Detective Agency, Inc.
Contact: Frederick J. Veenstra
Phone: (715) 355-8930
Fax: (715) 359-0865
Location: Schofield, Wisconsin
- Veenstra Detective Agency, Inc. provides service of process in the following areas: Marathon County, WI, Langlade County, WI, Lincoln County, WI, Portage County, WI and Wood County, WI

David A. Bacharach
Contact: David A. Bacharach
Phone: (718) 906-1375
Fax: (845) 634-3056
Location: New City, New York
- David A. Bacharach provides service of process in the following areas: Rockland County, NY, Westchester County, NY, Bergen County, NJ, Essex County, NJ and Passaic County, NJ

ServeNow.com
(877) 737-8366
info@serve-now.com

If you are not yet a member of Serve-Now.com's online Process Server Directory, please contact Mike MacDonald at (877) 737-8366 ext. 83, or visit ServeNow.com Advertising.