So You Want to be a Part-Time Process Server?

We get calls, emails and people dropping by all the time who ask about being a process server. "After all", they say, "all you have to do is deliver the paper, right?" Here's an example of one request we received via email. Our subsequent exchange has been edited into this article:

"I am thinking of becoming a RPS (registered process server) to help supplement my income".

In response to your question, I know many men and women who have done this full time and been extremely successful. The idea that you can call your own hours, though, only works if you don't need to make much money. Clients want a no-fuss, no-bother type server who can be places whenever they need you there. Courts require "diligence" before a sub-service can be made on most Summons-type documents (in California, anyway). Diligence means different times, different days, around the clock.

If you are thinking only of working when it's convenient to your child's schedule or after you're finished working your "real job", you may be defeated before you've started. When I got divorced and took our Riverside office as my own I'd work 14 hour days or more, seven days a week. I served, proofed, wrote newsletters, studied laws and Appellate or Supreme Court decisions re service, joined associations, attended conferences and seminars and whatever else I needed to do to be able to honestly provide my clients with the best service possible.

When I contract with a server to work a designated territory, he's expected to serve according to the clients' needs and not his personal schedule. Anyone who says "Oh...but that's up a bumpy dirt road and I don't want to do that..." or tells me, at the last minute, he's "got to go to his kids' ball game so he won't be working today", will find himself without work unless he's previously made arrangements for coverage. If anyone of my office staff accepts a job, they're also committing that they'll handle it personally if the server isn't available.

Taking your child with you can be extremely dangerous, too. It wasn't even a couple of years ago that a female server (and paralegal) in Oklahoma took her 12-year old son with her to serve a paper and her son was shot in the head as he waited for her in the back of her pick up truck. One never knows the dangers out there, be they shotguns or pitbulls, or just plain crazy people. It's hard enough to look out for yourself without having to consider your child's safety, too.

Process serving is a profession....a full-time commitment, in my opinion. I handle my business that way. There will never be enough time to learn everything there is to know. California laws ...Federal....Out of State....Foreign...all different. Screw up a paper and it's your bond and livelihood on the line.

To the client, a server is only as good as the last job. Even if you're batting 1000 for a couple of years, if you mess up ONE time, they'll likely switch to another server.

You might pick up some day work from companies that get subpoenas and bank levies. But then you'd have to know what's involved in the service of each, and you'd have to be registered. The liability in levy work is extremely high, and a faulty writ service might see you ultimately held liable for the full amount on the face of the writ. In California, your bond is only $2,000.00 so any additional judgment awarded against you would come out of your personal (or corporate) assets and potential earnings.

Why don't you study first and see if you're up to it. Then get registered. Then talk to some companies in your area and see if they could use you for back up if their current sub-contractors can't handle the job. There are several good companies to work for. Once you get some knowledge and get registered, you could visit these companies and let them know of your availability.

Keep in mind that MOST companies hire their servers as independent contractors. They will not tell you how to do your job, train you, or provide cars or tools of your trade. To do so would be to violate the laws defining independent contractor vs employee guidelines.

MOST other companies also require that you carry your own insurance and have a business license and a fictitious business name on file, too, to further define the contractor/sub-contractor relationship.

If you want to offer process serving on your own and compete with these companies, be prepared to provide full vendor packets to some clients. That would include your licenses, registration, bonds, and fictitious business names. Your liability insurance carrier would also have to add your client as additional insured. I just did a packet for one of the Homeowner associations I do work for. They ask for everything before they'll even consider giving you their work. Same thing if you want to do work for cities, counties, etc.

Attorneys will rely on YOU to know your job. "Due Process" is only taught as a concept in law school, but the actual mechanics of it is left to the professional server. We need to know changes in the laws as they occur and inform our clients as soon as possible. You'll also need to know basic Rules of Court. Be aware of the proper venues, and the requirements of each. Your clients expect you to catch their errors, or at least they hope you will.

Your continuing education can be costly in both time and money, but you will find many potential clients "shopping" for the cheapest price without giving thought to the quality of the service. They truly think that all one has to do is make delivery of the papers. What they don't know yet is that the manner of service, if faulty in any respect, could cost them their judgment at a later date, and if the statute has run prior to the dismissal, they may also lose their right to pursue their matter through the courts.

"Due Process" is a Constitutionally guaranteed right as well as a privilege. You are the liaison between the court and your subject. You are a professional disinterested third person providing "actual notice" to a party in the action or a witness which will give the court jurisdiction over them in this matter. You are "The Process Server".

Michele Dawn, RPS#117 Riverside
and Licensed PI #24790 California
RANCHO ATTORNEY SERVICE OF CALIFORNIA
& RASCAL'S RESEARCH & LOCATION SERVICES
28465 Old Town Front Street, Suite 318
Temecula, CA 92590
(951) 693-0165 or fax (951) 693-4056
email to: RascalProcess@aol.com