Damage Control - Are you up for it?

(This is an article written by Michele Dawn, owner of Rancho Attorney Service of California, specifically for other national Process Managers. However, there's information in this article that will illustrate why you should hire a Professional Process Management company to handle your services. Internal audit procedures, flexibility, accountability and whether or not your service will survive a Motion to Quash is something many don't consider when they hire a process server!)

Today, we are checking court files to see if the defendants reportedly served by one of our recent subcontractors were defaulted or if they responded or otherwise made a general appearance. We're also reconstructing recent serves, including those that we have service reports on but the proofs or affidavits remain unsigned. These I am reserving for my clients and, even if they lose a few days, they'll ultimately have a clean, unquestionable serve.

Why?

Because we hired a highly recommended hot shot server in San Diego County toward the end of last year who seemed to be an eager beaver. He worked for several large foreclosure process agencies and they loved him. That was then. Before the wave of Motions to Quash hit the fan for these foreclosure firms. We've not had any bounce on us (RASCAL) and we thank our lucky stars for our systems of checks and balances. Others haven't been so fortunate.

Things to watch out for with subs:

1) The server doesn't answer his cell or you get clicked over to voice mail after a couple of rings.
2) He doesn't return his calls or text messages or emails in a timely manner
3) There are numerous attempts at a single address without his verifying that it's good, either by utilities or neighbors or other
4) When he finally contacts you, he has a list of excuses that would fill a notebook ("My eye was infected - I couldn't drive!", or "My son is graduating USC and I need to be with him!" or "My kid ran away and I'm looking for him!", "My phone was dead!", "I never got the service!", "I'm thinking of changing careers and I'm in training!". I'm sure you have heard them all at one time or another, and they always sound so believable.
5) His reports are convoluted and wordy without saying anything specific, and his descriptions are generic.
6) He has numerous sub serves or "John Doe" services, more than the average server.
7) The signatures on the work orders or proofs are dramatically different from previous ones, or from the final proofs.

You, as the primary agency, are only as good as your last serve. Your credibility is only as believable as the validity of the reports and affidavits signed by you or your people. And for God's sake....don't allow or accept any proofs unless they bear the original signature of the actual server that signed them. Compare it to the copy of the server's ID or bond you have in file to make sure.

This can happen to any of us. To tweak a W.C. Fields quote (apologies to Fields): "I never met a con man I couldn't trust!".

Michele Dawn, CA PI 24790 and RPS #117
Chief Investigator and Owner
Rancho Attorney Service of California
RASCAL's Research & Location Services

But we just SAW him last week!

We just saw one of our clients in our office last week when he brought in some papers to be served. He and I did a lot of loving, too. Tummy rubs, scratchies...you know, the stuff a pup likes. He said he was 82 and a retired Marine who joined the service when he was only 17 and he actually fought in World War II. He was pretty chipper and talked a whole lot. He was in our office for a couple of hours, just talking. He seemed really happy to have us to visit with.

Today we got a call from his long-time lady love of 30 years cancelling service because he wouldn't be able to attend the hearing. He died last Friday. Well, gosh! That's pretty upsetting. Here today, gone tomorrow! You never know from one day to the next. In a split second ..."poof"....your flame goes out. I'm really glad we had the opportunity to be nice to him and make him feel good about his time on Earth.

Hmmmmm! Now, I'm taking this as a reminder to tell the people and pups that you care about how much you love them. That love might be the only thing they can take with them when they go to the "Bridge". It's the love that keeps your memory alive, and the love that keeps you warm on your forever journey.

God speed, Mr. Day! We know your spirit is still very strong here because we got the chills just writing about you. May you dance with the angels until we see you again.

Mary-Margaret O'Brien
Vice President
Public Relations

One Rotten Apple.....

One rotten apple spoils the whole barrel, I've heard. There have been a few "process servers" lately that are pretty rotten. Those "bad apples" draw attention to the industry as a whole even though the bad ones are few and far between.

New York State is cracking down on those who take America's Constitutional right to "due process" lightly. See
this article from "Collections & Credit Risk" about the second process serving company to be shut down. The first was American Legal Process (ALP), also out of New York.

Our company, RASCAL (which stands for Rancho Attorney Service of California), has been in business for over 33 years. They follow the laws to the letter and have never had a service "go South". Our rates are competitive and our servers are honest, reliable and credible. There is always going to be someone who charges a few dollars less, but do they have the education, the licenses, and the character that you might rely on down the road if your subject contests service? Will you ever even be able to find that server?

We follow all State and Federal laws and regulations, but first and foremost, we follow The Golden Rule and treat our clients they way we would like to be treated. As strict believers in "Murphy's Law" ("Whatever can happen, WILL happen!"), we'll also back up our services 100% all the time.

We are here to SERVE!!

Mary-Margaret O'Brien
Chief Public Relations Officer
RANCHO ATTORNEY SERVICE OF CALIFORNIA
Licensed PI CA24790 and Registered as #117 Riverside County



Reliable process server Temecula Murrieta California located in Riverside County serving Lake Elsinore Canyon Lake Wildomar Winchester Hemet San Jacinto Fallbrook Anza Aguanga Warner Springs Bonsall Pala Valley Center Perris Menifee Sun City Quail Valley process server

FTC - Session 2 - San Francisco

Session 2 - 9/30/09 - San Francisco <--- CLICK ON LINK

This is a bit over an hour long but very interesting if you want some insight into how problems are identified, bills created, and laws passed. It seems to me that everytime a situation occurs, politicians scurry around trying to solve the problem after the crisis is over.

Wouldn't it be nice if they could imagine what problems MIGHT be and solve them before they occur?

(sigh)

Michele Dawn
RPS 117 & CA PI 24790
Rancho Attorney Service of California &
RASCAL's Research & Location Services
28465 Old Town Front St #318
Temecula, CA 92590
(951) 693-0165
CALSpro NAPPS CAJP NCISS USPSA NAIS NNA
See our website at www.ranchoattorneyservice.com
MC - Visa - American Express

Response to A New York Comment on "Sewer Serves"!

(NOTE: Please watch video before reading. Thanks!)

Interesting, huh? Garodnick's numbers and percentages are obtained how? "80-90% default judgments"? And of all the serves done, he says, "80-90% not served properly"? This was based on a "sample study", he says. "Egads!", I say. If 80-90% of services in New York aren't done properly, what about the rest of the nation?

He begins his speech by saying that it's about "strengthening the very foundation of our legal system". I'm guessing that he means the "right to due process", since he adds "the right to defend yourself in court", but that these 80-90% of defaulted debtors are "only learning they are being sued after they have lost", and "they have never been served with a summons".

So.....taking what, in my opinion, appears to be an obviously politically motivated presentation, based on a sample survey of debtors who defaulted, and Garodnick surmising that 80-90% of them were not served properly, I'm wondering why he's blaming the process servers? (Note: And a "sample survey" is how many exactly?)

Process Servers are disinterested third parties who follow written instructions to serve a defendant at a given address and provide a party to an action with "actual notice" which gives the court jurisdiction over the subject. The instructions are provided, for the most part, by COLLECTORS who are on a commission/percentage of what they collect, or by ATTORNEYS who are also either on a contingency or paid by the hour, or by JUDGMENT RECOVERY SPECIALISTS who have purchased the debt as an asset either by a futures contract or for pennies on the dollar.

How many debtors use the "But I was never served" defense? What percentage of those honestly, after receiving letters, phone calls and "final notices", really had absolutely no idea that the next step was a lawsuit? (a Homer Simpson "doh!" inserted here!)

When are the American people going to take responsibility for their own lack of action and the consequences of same? Why are WE, the professional process servers, expected to police our own industry when any nitwit can call themselves a "process server" without also having education, training and experience? I'm only referring to the states that have little or no requirements, or to California which can't bring itself to distinguish between a professional and some twit off the street that wants to supplement their income until they get a "real job"??

Now, maybe if we worked together to have a National licensing board? NAPPS (National Association of Professional Process Servers) maybe as a model and as a start? After all, isn't "due process" a FEDERAL right guaranteed by our Constitution?

"One bad apple and the whole barrel turns to mush!" is like saying "One lying, cheating politician and our whole country is run by idiots!", from the foot-tapping Congressman to the philandering Senators to the impeached President.

American Legal Process is solely responsible for their own wrong doings. They should be used as a perfect example of why our industry should have National regulation and distinct levels of responsibility.



Rantingly yours (but in good cheer),

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

An Argument Against Electronic Service of Process

Currently, existing law in many states provides for alternative means of service using any resource deemed appropriate to provide actual notice to the party being served IF ordered by the court. Is the Constitutional right to "due process of law" being threatened? Could the implementation of new technologies preclude the current procedure of making application to the court for an order directing alternative service?

As a private investigator (CA PI#24790) who specializes in "due process", Michele Dawn of RASCAL's Research & Location Services is actually working on cases where the subject was improperly served because of the "loosey-goosey" statutes that allow service to be made without proper verification by the server. Tightening up access to personal identifiers may seem, on the surface, to be protecting the American people. In actuality, it facilitates the problems of the American people as a result of bad serves.

Without the ability to verify the entity being served, and with the pressures being placed on the process servers by the legal and the collection communities to "just serve the paper", millions of Americans are finding themselves being defaulted on cases they never knew existed. How many of the volume service companies are finding themselves in the position of either serving the paper as directed or losing a lucrative monthly income? How many have been told "The post office says they're getting mail there...just drop it"? Many agencies insist that the attorney or collector put this in writing, but many others actually find themselves having to decide between their livelihood and their ethics.

Electronic service of process is currently available and being used by large companies who have contracts with corporate Agents for Service, such as CSC, but this is an option that they have agreed to implement. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) allows for service by email as of January 2009 IF there is an email address on file. If the documents have been electronically filed, and there is NOT an email address readily available, then the petitioner must first notify the defendant of the filing by telephone, and no later than the next day, by overnight delivery service, or with consent, via facsimile. To implement electronic service as the generally accepted method of service upon the vast population of the United States would be difficult, at best.

If "electronic service" ever supercedes the methods currently preferred, then we are going to be looking at a reversal to the days of "guilty until proven innocent". While technology has great potential for expediting information to the masses, it has yet to be proven as a reliable resource for expediting information to persons individually. Think of how many times any of you hit the "delete" key in one day, or ignore the telephone if you don't recognize the number calling. And then think how complicated your life would be if you were intimidated into reading ALL of your correspondence, and answering ALL of your calls because one of them might be informing you of a pending action.

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

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