Process Server or Sheriff? Pros and Cons
When you have a civil legal case, you will need to be able to have the papers served to the other party in the case. You have two options to complete service of process—the sheriff’s department or a private process server. There are advantages and disadvantages of each. But in Florida, there are a lot of advantages of hiring a private process server for your legal paper needs.
Timeliness
When it comes to timeliness, you will get much faster service with a private process server. The sheriff’s department has a lot of responsibilities and duties. If you want to make sure that your papers are treated with high priority, you’ll need to go with a private process server. Often serving papers is on the bottom of the sheriff’s to-do list. Continue reading
August Newsletter
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Four Things You Didn’t Know About Skip Tracing
When someone can’t be easily found, the process of finding them is called skip tracing. Most people don’t know very much about the process of skip tracing, how it’s done, or when it is done. Private process servers frequently use skip tracing to find individuals who need to be served papers. Here are four things you probably didn’t know about skip tracing.
Most Likely to Disappear
Skip tracing is used in a number of cases, but there are certain situations that are more likely to need a skip trace. These cases include witnesses for lawsuits, those accused of fraud, debtors who are in default, estate heirs that are missing and unaware of their inheritance, or defendants who are avoiding being located to prolong, delay, or dismiss a case. Continue reading
July Update
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Three Signs of a Trustworthy Process Server
When you are hiring a private process server to help with your court case, you want to make sure that you are hiring someone that is trustworthy. There are a lot of private process servers out there that engage in unethical practices such as gutter serves (throwing away papers instead of serving them). Before you agree to a private process server to handle your court papers, consider these three traits of a trustworthy process server.
Less Than Perfect Success Rate
It is unfortunate, but sometimes papers just can’t be served. A person may have moved out of the state and be impossible to serve through normal means. An individual might change jobs and move around at the same time, making all of the information the process server has about where to find the individual null and void. A high success rate will let you know that the process server does their due diligence, but a process server that claims to serve papers 100 percent of the time is likely not being honest. Continue reading
Can a Party Refuse Service of Process in Florida?
No one really wants to be served with court papers in any case. But how far will someone go to avoid being served? Florida has laws and regulations in place that penalize individuals for resisting service of process when it is affected by a registered private process server or sheriff’s department. Here’s what you need to know.
Resisting Service Without Violence
When a private process server knocks on the door and states their purpose, they could be turned away from the door. The individual that is supposed to be served may refuse to open the screen door or window to physically accept the papers. In this case, have they been served? Can they deny service and stop the case in its tracks? Actually, no, they cannot.
Resisting service of process from a registered process server is classified as a first degree misdemeanor in the state of Florida. If the party to be served is identified by the process server but they refuse to physically take the papers, even if they are not physically violent or physically resisting, they can be charged with a crime. They will also still be expected to show up in court, and service of process is considered to be complete. Continue reading
June Newsletter
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What Is a Gutter Serve and How Can It Affect You?
When you need papers served, you need to know that you can trust the process server you have hired. Untrustworthy process servers and paper brokers often engage in gutter serves. Learn what a gutter serve is, and why it hurts your case.
What is a Gutter Serve?
A gutter serve is essentially when the process server says that they served the papers, but in reality, they threw them away and did not deliver them. This illegal and unethical practice is more widespread than you might think. Some process servers guarantee service, and when they can’t deliver, they still want to be paid so they lie about service. This can hurt you in a number of ways. Continue reading
May Newsletter
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Beware of Paper Brokers: Know Your Process Server
There is a new kind of process service company that has arisen in the last several years that work as paper brokers. These process service companies take on papers to be served and broker them out to independent contractors. There are several problems with this, and there are many reasons that you should know your process server who is actually handling your papers.
Problems with Paper Brokers
One of the biggest problems with paper brokers is that they contract the actual service of the papers to independent contractors that they do not have any control over. The paper brokers have no control over the methods used to locate the individual for service or how the papers are actually served. The paper brokers also do not train these independent contractors, and the contractors may not be well versed in the laws regarding process service. Using paper brokers can also lead to gutter serves, where the papers are trashed and documents are falsified showing service. Continue reading