Statistics from ServeNow.com

• In a nationwide survey of Process Servers vs. Sheriff, the statistics are:
  • Preferred provider—78% use process servers
  • Speed of Service—90% chose process servers
  • Customer Satisfaction—4.28/5 for process servers vs. 2.55/5 for Sheriff’s Department
  • Knowledge of Laws—58% vs. 13%
  • Success Rate—92% vs. 74%
  • Average costs–$75 vs. $85

THE CLEAR CHOICE of the legal profession is the professional process server!!

Sheriff’s Responsibilities

• Not in order of importance, the Sheriff has many other priorities and responsibilities such as:
  • Operating the county jail
  • Transporting prisoners to and from court appearances
  • Protecting our county judges
  • Guarding the county courthouse
  • Serving arrest warrants as directed by the court
  • In most counties, the Sheriff is the Chief Law Enforcement Officer and his deputies patrol the unincorporated areas of the county, enforcing laws, responding to accidents and medical emergencies, responding to crimes and investigating them.
• Sheriff’s Duties:
  • Serving and enforcing Protection From Abuse orders
  • Serving other court orders on witnesses and defendants
  • Then, if time permits, they will attempt to serve your original complaints.
  • Should they fail on the first attempt, typically they will return the complaints to the Court with a Return of No Service. They simply don’t have the time or resources to make repeated efforts to get your civil papers served on the subject(s)

By Statute:

• Once your civil documents have been issued by the Court, you have 30 days to get them served if service is within the Commonwealth
• What happens if the Sheriff is so busy with his law enforcement responsibilities that he can’t get to the civil papers within that time frame?
  • You have to start all over again!!
  • OR you can turn to the professional process server to get the job done on time!

When You Can Use a Process Server

• Failure of the Sheriff to serve your papers is another and here is why.
  • The Sheriff typically will make one attempt to serve your papers before returning them as non-served. Now it’s up to you to get those papers in the hands of the “defendant”.
  • Most of the time sheriff’s attempts are weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
  • The process server typically makes up to three (3) attempts before suggesting further actions of the law office and can usually help in executing those actions!
• When you have to have things done quickly or have a service deadline
• When everything else you have tried has failed
• Difficult serves and subject are easier to serve when you send a plain clothes person, not a sheriff or constable
• At Harris Investigations we try to obtain a signed trip sheet or affidavit by the person accepting service, thus they can’t say they were never served.

Enter the Private Process Server

• A Private Process Server will get your documents served much more quickly and efficiently.
  • Private process servers work days, nights and weekends to get the job done.
  • We do the legwork that is needed to locate people who’ve moved or are avoiding being served.

What we do at Harris Investigations, LLC:

• Once it is determined that a subject is avoiding service or has moved, the professional process server will:
  • Under color of law, contact the US Postal Service to determine if the subject has left a change of address order with them
  • Will conduct a due diligence search for the subject in order to locate them
  • Arrange for service of process if the subject has moved out of the local area

Process Servers are NOT all the Same:

• There are just process servers and there are private investigators that do service of process
• Private investigators that are process servers have a better network to locate and serve hard to serve subjects
• Private investigators will be more willing to stake out to get that hard to serve person served
• Private Investigators are licensed, bonded and insured

Nationwide Service:

• Professional process servers are typically members of one of several national associations that allow us to serve your papers anywhere in the country through our affiliations with these associations
• We take the legwork out of the equation for you so you can concentrate on “billable hours” and make your attorney a happy camper

Additional Services:

• In addition to professional process services, most companies offer professional private investigative services to their clientele. These services also help make the successful service.
• These services include:
  • Civil Investigations
  • Scene and Vehicle Photographs
  • Skip tracing
  • Court filings and Court research
  • Asset searches
  • And much more…

You can also view the PDF presentation of this information.

Put Harris Investigations to work for you TODAY! Work will be delegated to the best possible professional based on location and assignment type. Call our office and speak with Michele. CALL NOW: (888) 484-9827  EMAIL: harrisinvestigationsllc@yahoo.com.