serving papers

serving the summons, subpoena, judgment, etc. is the heart of what a process server does. He hands over the court documents, "serves" them, to the intended party. If we are to take a glorified look at it, you can understand it as the 5th and 14th amendment in action, so to speak. The party is given notice and an opportunity to be heard when they receive the papers you are serving them so that they are not "deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law". and that's as lofty as it's going to get. I wasn't a great Con law student, but that's pretty easy to understand. Our legal system provides its parties with notice so that when someone has a claim against them in court, they are "served" with notice of such so they have an opportunity to answer for the charges against them.

So you'd think that, since the matter is already being pursued by one party in the court, that the party who is to be served would want to accept service as quickly and painlessly as possible so they can go about building their case? well, of course not! The process server has a difficult job for this very reason, parties to be served will often do ANYTHING to avoid being served. Most often it's because they think that if they avoid you, they can somehow avoid the lawsuit.

Avoiding process can delay a case, which makes interest add up, or cause scheduling difficulty for a lawyer trying to have witnesses testify, or cause just about any legal headache you can imagine. It will NOT stop a case. When a party evades process the court will allow for substituted service, or even allow the summons to be posted to their door. I always get a chuckle out of taping a summons (when permissible) on the door of a defendant who thought he outwitted me.

Then there are those who want the service, and are eager to get their case moving. If every serve were like this, they'd pay process servers next to nothing. But the reality of the matter is that most serves fall somewhere between the eager recipient and the guy who calls the police on you. Here is what I call the "awkward zone" and it's where I spend most of my day.

Here's a snapshot into the day of a process server: You have an address and a name, maybe a phone number but you don't necessarily want to try that because it may tip off a defendant that will try and avoid process. If it's a residential address you go there sometime after rush hour. the dinner hour is perfect, but really anytime you get to them and they aren't (necessarily) expecting you, you stand a good chance at serving the paper.

*Knock Knock*
*defendant opens door* (you breathe a sigh of relief that they're not playing the yell through the door game)
"hello, are you Mr. X"
"yes... um... who are you?" (or some kind of variant)
"oh, I'm courier, I have documents for you..." (the awkwardness is beginning)
*Pull off cover sheet*
.......
It's here that the defendant will either take the paper from you, or begin asking questions about what the paper's about. A good process server has a ton of tricks at hand to avoid a prolonged discussion and get the paper served. My usual technique is the stupid courier act. "Not sure, I don't read them" or if you need to be a little devious: "Yea, I don't really know...wanna look?" -which is a great trick because once they "look" they have the papers in their possession, and they are served. You can do your old school daffy duck laugh and go bouncing off into the sunset. More often than not, you just need to be quick and reveal as little info as possible. "court documents" is all they need to know. You can't say it's a Nobel prize, but you also don't have to tell them the merits of their case. Just deliver.

The moment the party receives the paper is what I like to call that "special moment" because if they aren't sure what's going on, and they take the papers without asking, they immediately begin reading....S U M M O N S.... and the gravity of the situation beings to flood in for them. This is when you need to be making your way for your car, keeping an eye on the served person and hoping he doesn't have a shotgun in the umbrella stand.

Social engineering goes a long way, especially if you have to serve a certain person in the house and someone else answers. Always be kind, nice, and stupid. A few months ago I had a personal serve on a defendant who's boyfriend opened the door. As he was calling for her I immediately struck up conversation by complimenting their TV. Compliments go far, and will do wonders for getting someone to put down their guard. When the defendant came and took the papers, she immediately knew what was going on and said "oh what the hell is this!?" at which point I looked at her boyfriend, after having had a great 3 minute conversation about his flat screen TV and said "yea, so that's what I do for a living" and made for the door.

Then there is just persistence. Some people know exactly what you are there for, but won't come to the door. There's a number of ways to get people to answer, which I can detail later, but A good example of persistence is the knockknockknockknock... (you get it) approach. I had to serve a complaint for unpaid rent and I could tell the tenants weren't likely to be combative but they just wouldn't answer the door. I could hear them walking around, pacing. Every time I knocked their dog went nuts (dogs are a blessing and a curse this way). After 10 minutes of knocking one of the tenants finally answered the door, and did her best act of "golly I just heard the door".

The beauty of the job is that every serve is different. You have to organize logistics, deadlines, gas expenses, potentially evasive defendants, and actually evasive defendants into a productive work week. Every job could demand quick thinking, people skills and even legal knowledge. So I guess its not a bad gig until I get a "real" law job.