Process Serving: Check Your Dignity At The Door

Process serving is as unglamorous as it sounds:

1: Find person X being sued by person Y.
2: Give person X papers.
3: Get out in one piece. Dignity is optional.

Sounds simple. And boring.

It is. Except when its not:

What happens when the defendant is evasive?
This is where it gets fun. It becomes a sophisticated game of tag with high stakes. The stakes being that the plaintiff could lose the case based on improper service. The defendant may skip town with all his or her assets and leave the plaintiff little chance of recovery, which may happen anyway. The defendant's stakes are that he may have his or her whole life turned upside-down. The attorneys may lose clients. The process server may get beaten up, bitten by a dog, lose clients, or get sued. Aside from the stakes, the techniques for effective process serving are all common sense.

"Fun" is one way of putting it. "Nice doggie" is another. Evasiveness is directly proportional to number and/or viciousness of dogs owned. There's nothing like standing on a strangers porch, knowing you're not wanted, listening to three baying dogs rattle the door wanting to have you for lunch.

Forget every self-defense course or weapon. Even pepper spray. If the defendant gets injured, the judge might rule the service "ineffective".

Just smile while you're quaking in your stylish sneakers. If it goes bad, be ready to run. You won't have your dignity, but the service won't be ruined.

In process serving that's all that counts.