Locating and Serving a Difficult Person to Find for Legal Action
Sometimes lawyers call us on behalf of their clients, while other times people call us directly because they need help serving someone papers for legal action. You’ve heard the phrase, “he got served..” which means they were given official documents for a legal service. These legal actions may refer to a civil lawsuit, a custody case, a fraudulent claim, or a number of other legal issues that are taken to a court of law.
When we get a call to help locate someone that needs to be served, we first ask them if it is a difficult service because we are not the least expensive option to have someone served. If the person needing to be served is a difficult person to serve for any number of reasons, we can accomplish the service.
What makes someone difficult to serve?
Someone may be a difficult service for a number of reasons…
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They may be couch-surfing. When a person is staying with different friends and family members it is difficult to know what “home” location they will be leaving from or returning to. This adds the extra layer of difficulty which is firstly locating the person to be served.
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They may be hiding out. You can’t serve someone you can’t find. When a person is purposefully avoiding service they may hide by staying in different places/homes/locations and employing sneaky tactics to avoid being seen.
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They may be entering and exiting their residence discreetly. If they live in a neighborhood that is guarded, they may vary exits as to avoid being seen and followed by an investigator. If the person lives in a building with a private key-only-entrance garage, it is very tough to get them in route to or from their car, which is often where service happens.
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They may be in and out of town working. If they travel regularly for leisure or work, it may be difficult to know when to expect them. It is impossible to know when they will be at home when they have an ever-changing schedule and especially when the person/business needing to serve the subject does not know the subject’s schedule very well.
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They may use a car service. It could be Uber or it could be a luxury car service, but either way it makes it very difficult to have that extra few seconds of making it to their car in time to hand them the papers.
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They may be homeless. Well, you can see clearly why it would be difficult to serve someone who is homeless. Homeless encampments are not friendly to outsiders and do not want to get mixed up in other people’s business, in general.
What does it mean to “serve” someone?
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You must state the subject’s full name and say that they are required to show up to court on a specific day.
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A proof of service is generally required to be signed by the deliverer.
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It is recommended that whoever is doing the service should video record the interaction to prove it happened. It is very common for people who get served to deny ever being served. They may lie and say no one ever gave them papers or that the person serving lied about serving them.
In order to officially “serve” someone, there are a few things that must be done…
If your legal service only requires papers being dropped off at a business storefront, then it makes sense to hire a cheap process service company. However, if you need to serve someone who wants to avoid being served or who is difficult to locate, call us at Kay and Associates Investigations. We are experts at difficult process services and can do it with speed, professionalism, and proof.
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Give us a call and get your proof of service on file 424.284.8262
