Exclusive: Four Tips For Effecting Process and Document Service on Difficult Respondents
September 20, 2018 | Other
Process serving is the delivery of legal documents to a person. Usually this means serving court documents to a defendant in a legal case.
Naturally enough, people in legal trouble are often unhappy about it. This can make process serving tricky.
The person involved may pretend they aren’t home or give a fake name. Sometimes they go into hiding or even become threatening. This all gets in the way of a professional and successful delivery.
So how can you make sure your court documents safely get to the right person? Here are four techniques The Investigators New Zealand use.
1. Tracing to a current address before service
The Investigators are the go to professionals for those who need to locate people – and for good reason too, given our case success rate sits at over 90%.
As New Zealand Private Investigators, we are asked these questions every day by our clients. The good news is that tracing and locating persons is something we are very good at, unrivaled by others in the industry.
Law firms throughout New Zealand use our Private Investigators to locate people, and we offer the same service to members of the public.
The Investigators are the go to professionals for those who need to locate people – and for good reason too, given our case success rate sits at over 90%.
Our Investigators have the knowledge and skill-set to confirm contact information about a person, including home addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses.
2. Surveillance before process serving
When The Investigators serve documents, we don’t always just turn up to someone’s home and knock on the door. This can cause wasted time and opportunities if the person refuses to answer.
Instead, our agents can carry out surveillance before attempting delivery. Here’s why:
- The identity and location of the person is easier to verify.
- We save time by avoiding deliveries when the person is absent.
- We can keep safe and in control by observing the situation first.
Surveillance brings efficiency and safety to the document serving process.
3. Serve court documents on neutral ground
Problems can occur when process serving at a person’s home. People may feel they have the moral high ground at home, so they can become resistant. Emotions are also more likely to be running high at home, potentially leading to a confrontation.
That’s why The Investigators usually deliver court documents on neutral ground.
First we quietly locate and identify the person through surveillance. Then we take the time to follow the person to a more neutral location. This could be work, the shops or other public areas.
This is when we serve the documents. When the person is in a neutral location they are less likely to object, making process serving easier, faster and safer.
4. Stay professional when serving documents
Despite Hollywood stereotypes, process servers do not intimidate the people they interact with. Process servers have professional standards they adhere to.
There’s no point becoming abusive or threatening to the person who is receiving court documents. It’s probably not going to work. And it’s likely to get the field agent fired and charged with assault.
Process servers at The Investigators are all trained professionals. We are respectful and careful every time we deliver documents. Maintaining a calm, professional approach helps keep things moving quickly and safely. Avoiding confrontation is key.
Using these four techniques can help document delivery to proceed efficiently and safely, especially when dealing with a difficult respondent.
Call The Investigators; New Zealand's Leading Private Investigation Firm on 0800 747 633 for a confidential discussion, or click here to contact us.
- Article originally on melbourneinvestigations.com.au. Some minor changes made.
