Here at Down Under Investigations, process serving is a large portion of what we do. However, before we get into why you need someone who’s experienced in the field to do it, let’s go back to basics and tell you what process serving, or Service of Process, actually is.
You’ve probably watched some movies or TV shows in which a lawyer or private investigator will say to someone, ‘you’ve just been served’ and then proceeds to hand them some paper or documents.
You’ve seen it? Good. Let’s dissect it a little.
What’s happening is that a party to a lawsuit (the lawyer or private investigator) gives the legal notice to a person or defendant (the person receiving the documents) of a court or administrative body’s exercise of its jurisdiction. This informs the person or defendant that they are required in court for a certain reason or potential offence and then gives the defendant the appropriate time to prepare as they now know they’re required in court.
This can occur if you’re suing someone, filing for divorce, need a restraining order or for any other type of lawsuit. And from just looking at these examples, you need to assume that very few people receive papers in good situations, which is why when you get someone to process serve, they need to be experienced.
Ever heard the saying ‘don’t shoot the messenger’? Well, thankfully we’ve never been shot, but we’ve had some interesting encounters. Although in the movies and TV shows you watch it can seem pretty civilised and tame, it can often be quite the opposite. Some have thrown them in our face or scrunched them up, and some have even made threats. You have to remember that this is the first time they’re finding out they’re required in court, and they’re first reaction, from experience, usually isn’t joy. It’s anger and frustration and a LOT of cursing.
Remember, we’re not just handing papers to someone, because to the individual, the papers represent so much more. It can mean losing their wife or husband, or it can mean financial deficit and we need to be able to deal with whatever reaction comes our way. This comes from lots of training and experience.
If you don’t know how to react from experience and haven’t been trained how to deal with these situations, it could be game over.
So before you get you get your papers served, speak with your P.I. and ensure they’re experienced in this particular field, because many private investigators are great at surveilling from afar, but not all have the experience and training to deal with these very real life situations.
At Down Under Investigations, we’re prepared for everything, and pride ourselves on our level of experience in regards to process serving. So if you’re in need of this service, or have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us, because we’re happy always happy to help.