Process service is an important component our the legal process and is an essential right that protects us all. Because it is required within a certain timeframe of filing your court documents, or because of various other circumstances, there may be times when routine service will not take place quickly enough. When those times occur, rush process service may not only be handy but necessary to ensure your case does not hit any setbacks. Most people do not understand the timeline of process service so below we take a closer look at the difference between routine process service and rush process service.
Difference Between Routine & Rush Process Service
Routine Process Service
If you are not in a rush and simply need routine process service, you can expect to have your documents assigned to a server within 2-3 business days of receiving your documents and payment. Typically, routine process service is completed within 2 weeks of assignment. The timeline is dependent on how easy it is to find and successfully serve the other party and your server will make attempts based on their experience, provided information about the person being served, and their discretion regarding what will be most successful. If you have a specific time and location that you know the person will be available to be served, you can provide that information to your process server or request a scheduled service or stake out to ensure your process service is successfully and correctly completed in a timely manner.
Rush Process Service
If rush process service is needed, it can be assigned to a server the same day or the next day once payment and documents have been received. Your process server will make every effort to successfully complete service within 1 week based on their discretion and the information that you provide regarding the individual being served. Like routine service, you can also request a scheduled service or stake out if you know that a person will be in a specific location at a specific time and date. Rush service is often recommended for circumstances like evictions, orders of protection, injunctions against harassment, orders to appear, emergency custody, judgment debtor exams, or anything case with a deadline of fewer than 10 days.
How to find the right process service?
Deciding between routine and rush process service involves considering multiple factors. They should be able to locate parties through skip tracing and perform civil background checks to retrieve information.
Knowledge
The first thing to consider is the professional’s level of knowledge in both state and local laws. In every state, there are specific laws that apply to actions and documents that could be served by process services. Professionals who are not familiar with these ordinances could delay the legal proceedings. Hence, people should make sure choosing process services are well-versed in these different laws. Moreover, it is better to check their level of expertise in serving documents as well.
Experience
Another vital factor for consideration is their experience. Work with services with no background in this type of work may lead to more complications. Most importantly, they will not promise proper delivery of legal paperwork. Seasoned pros are not susceptible to rookie mistakes that may delay cases or incur any additional expenses.
Success rates
In general, success rates determine the proficiency of professionals in this task. They need to perform their job well and follow up with targets to avoid any problems. People can ask questions related to delivery issues and evasions that they may face during the process. They should have emergency security measures to handle targets with no consideration to legal matters.
Customer service
All process services should promise the highest level of customer service. They should clearly communicate the timelines and expectations to the clients. These are signs of reliability and professionalism. Moreover, clearly communicating all aspects of a procedure will help clients to realistic expectations about a case. If necessary, discuss with them to know more about how they handle deadlines and other details. A service that handles timely deliveries delivers better quality customer service to its clients.
Reputation
When a service is working with the legal community, it will develop its reputation through reliability and trustworthiness. It also means that they can be trusted to deliver crucial legal documents on time. This gives peace of mind to plaintiffs and helps them to focus on other important obligations of a case.
