Until you’re involved in some form of court proceeding, you may not even know what it means to receive service of process. If you do find yourself being served papers, don’t fret. Here’s what you need to know to appropriately respond to the situation.

Getting served, while possibly upsetting and stressful, simply means that you are being informed, with a big stack of paperwork, that you are now involved in a court proceeding. Legal grounds could revolve around divorce, foreclosure, financials, or anything in between. After the process server confirms your identity and hands you your papers, it’s important to know how to handle this newfound item on your to-do list. Continue reading →

Legal battles and lawsuits have become a fact of life, and as a result many people each day send and receive official court documents that provide notice of an impending court dispute. This service of process, the act of providing the defendant in a legal case with the proper paperwork notifying him that action is being taken against him, is a professional job that has the potential to go rather awry.

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Paperwork and court cases are inseparable concepts. Motions, verdicts, claims, appeals, briefings, transcripts…the list goes on and on. Logical, organized filing systems exist to avoid chaos in the midst of so much paperwork, but it can still be challenging for someone not involved with the courts, or someone with a very limited amount of valuable time, to locate a specific document—let alone if multiple documents are needed across various courts!  That’s why regular citizens and attorneys both rely on professional services to receive their documents in a timely manner, eliminating the stressful process of searching for the documents personally.   Continue reading →

When selecting a local process server, it’s important to ensure you hire the right person for the job. They’ll need to be a trusted, reliable firm with a proven track-record, and it’s vital to ask the right questions before you invest in their services.

Questions to Ask Your Local Process Server Continue reading →

When it comes to becoming a successful legal professional, the ultimate determining factor is how strict your attention to detail is. What makes a good lawyer is the amount of quality time spent studying the case, and all of those who are involved. You never know where that unique detail is going to come from. Therefore, lawyers are increasingly outsourcing the tasks they normally would do themselves so they can spend more time researching and collecting data.

What is Required from a Process Server?

Process serving is the act where a legal party, or someone working for one, presents an individual a notice of legal action. They do this by handing the served a set of court documents that detail what they are accused of, how soon the court date is, where it is taking place, and more. Depending on which state the trial is occurring in, process servers may not be allowed to simply mail them. Continue reading →

Lawyers and attorneys work in a profession generally perceived as being safe from technological take over. A good legal professional utilizes a combination of creativity, communication, debating, and information processing to develop a good case or defense. The backbone of accomplishing that is reliable information. Without adequate facts, the most detailed and concise defense is easily destroyed when presented to a judge and jury. Continue reading →

If you need to serve legal documents to an individual but are having a difficult time locating them, you need skip trace services. Skip trace services involve locating hard-to- find people who may have left town and are attempting to hide to avoid being served.

Who Do Skip Tracers Look For?

“Skips”—the individuals you are trying to locate—may have intentionally or unintentionally disappeared without leaving much in the way of a trail. Some skips owe money to other parties and disappear to avoid paying the other person or company. Not all skips are trying to evade detection, though. Skip trace services are also used to uncover the location of individuals who have been named in a will. Continue reading →

You may be required to be involved in a diligent search, especially if you are working on behalf of children who may be in foster care. Many state laws require that a diligent search be completed that can identify those individuals who can become a valid resource for custody or placement of children. This search can also be used to identify people who have an important commitment to the child.

Generally, information begins to be collected once the state child protection service gets involved. If the child is removed from the home, the search will intensify and a case manager is normally assigned to the case. Most states impose a time limit on this search. The goal of the diligent search is to get the child into a safe home as quickly as possible. Continue reading →

The first thing to understand about being served legal documents or summons is that the rules vary from state to state. The rules can also differ according to the kind of summons that is being served. Generally, the person bringing the process must decide which method is best and may have to hire a professional summons server or a police agency to deliver the summons to you. Summons can be delivered either by hand (in person), via mail, or through public notification. Each of these methods is different and not all are available in all cases. In each case, however, certain steps must be taken to make the process binding. Continue reading →