Do you know whose really handing your process service?
Many companies are popping up within New Jersey and across the country, claiming to be experts in the process service industry. Often offering to handle your services for a low rate or with no charge for a non-serve, these companies act simply as the middle man between accepting your services and then distributing them to independent contractors they have little control over.
The Issue
The largest problem with this type of business practice is the number of individuals who are handling service without training and specific knowledge of the rules and laws.
By the very legal definition of independent contractors, those who use them cannot implement training or specifications as to how they should complete their work. This means these independent contractors can’t be told how to serve, when to serve or what ethical grounds to stand on.
Beyond the issue of the independent contractors being utilized by these paper brokers, these type of companies also lack the in-house knowledge to catch any errors before service is sent out.
There are times when service packets are sent in without all of the proper documents. With an experienced process service company, the office should catch these issues and relay them back to you prior to the service being sent out. This saves considerable time and provides a safety net when it comes to making sure services are considered valid and will be accepted by the court.
Without training and knowledge of the service rules and nuances related to due diligence, the quality of service is considerably lessened and also puts at risk the ability for private process servers to effectuate service. Should these process servers complete improper sewer service, the court could see this as a reason to put into place stricter rules surrounding the use of private process servers, as New York has done.
How To Tell
How do you know if a company is actually handling the services themselves or simply farming the work out to independent contractors?
One tell-tale sign is the lack of information about the history of the company or the people behind the operations on a website. Another is having a PO Box listed as the business address or a 1-800 number as the only listed phone number.
Be sure you know who is truly handling your process service. Is it a paper broker using independent contractors or an experienced process service company with employees?
