"In my experience, the worst thing that you can do, is to tell someone you're going to serve them. They may even tell you that they'll cooperate, but then they play games and evade service. Rule #1: Don't tell them - just let us serve them."
This is not legal advice. We're not attorneys, nor do we play one on TV. For legal advice, we urge you to consult an attorney. This is Process Server advice and suggestions, based on our vast experience.
As Process Servers, we facilitate the Constitution, by serving due process of the law, so that people may be informed when there are court cases that could affect their lives, their loved ones, and their property.
So the reason you've sought our assistance, is because you have some documents that need to be served. We don't "serve papers". In almost all cases, we serve documents - official documents issued by the courts, involving court cases.
So the purpose of this page, is to help you along the path, and try to help you understand it, so we might help it go more smoothly for you.
OK, you have some documents that you need served. The first question we'd always ask you, would be: What city will the documents be served in? This is important because we can't cover the whole world. We've got to sleep sometime. But we've made it easy for you. We have a page that details our Coverage Area. Please take a look, and see that the documents you need served, are within that area.
Great!
The next step includes some good news. You don't even have to waste your time and gas, to bring them over to us. In fact, we're not sitting or standing still, waiting for that - we're energetically running around serving documents for our great clients. So to make it easier, we ask that you scan your documents into a single PDF file and just email it over. Wow! But before clicking on that Send button in your email, please read our Fees and Terms page, and determine which class of service you will need.
It's similar to the Post Office, Fedex and UPS. We have classes of service, which involve the amount of time before the first attempt is made, or if it's an open business, when it might actually be served, if all goes well. So it's important to read that page, and then tell us whether you'll need Routine, 2 Day Rush, or 1 Day Rush, along with the PDF of your documents that you email over. Cool, huh?
For example, if you need to serve a Colorado Small Claims Case, haven't scheduled the court date yet, and would rather not have to pay for Rush, we suggest that you schedule the court date about 6 weeks in the future, from the time that you will email us your documents and make the payment. That will give us enough time to serve them, prepare your Affidavit of Service and get it back to you, with some time to spare, in case we find out that the Defendant isn't there anymore, and have to skip trace them, and perhaps try again at another address.
Once we receive your documents, we'll take a look at them, make sure that they're in our Coverage Area, and then ask you to make the payment at our Make A Payment page. Easy.
Then, relax and let us do our work. If there's a development, we'll email you, but ideally we'll be emailing you to tell you some good news, that it's been served, and we're preparing your Affidavit.
The original Affidavit will need to be filed by you, with the court - usually on or before your court date, if you have one. ( Some cases don't have a court date, but merely have a response time for the Defendant to file a response. In the case of a Subpoena, they generally have so many days to produce documents, or to appear for a hearing, for example.
After the Affidavit, Proof of Service, or Return of Service, for examples, is prepared and notarized ( if it needs to be ), we will scan you a PDF and email it back to you. Then once you tell us that's great, we will mail you the original, which you file with the court. ( some states allow filing of a copy )
And that's just about it. If you have any other questions or concerns, please ask. It is said that "the only dumb questions are the ones not asked". If it's within our area of expertise, we'll try to help, or at least tell you that it's something best asked of an attorney.
"The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." We hope that your journey is far less, and that we've helped you start along your path.
Please Note: While we may not answer the phone, way outside of our business hours, we do often check email. So if you need to reach us in the evenings or on weekends, please email us. We will reply as soon as we can.
