Every job has its ups and downs. There are things you get amped up for and things you dread. My job is no different. I run a process service company in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. No matter where I go today, no one seems happy to see me. The good news is no matter how bad my day is, somebody’s day is about to get worse.

The primary job of a process server is to give notice to someone about a lawsuit filed against them.   I am often amazed by the look of surprise 90% of the time.   Maybe a look of surprise is justified in a divorce case.  I had a divorce attorney once tell me 50% of all people cheat, and her target client is a happily married person.  “Why?”, I asked, because then their spouse is the one cheating.   

In my experience, people who have a contract dispute, get into a car accident or those waiting for a rent payment, do not immediately hire an attorney, file a lawsuit, and then pay all the fees associated with both, without at least making an attempt to resolve their dispute much, much, sooner.   You haven’t paid your mortgage in 4 months.  You receive letter upon letter as a reminder.  When I show up at your door, in with a summons, how are you more surprised to see me than you would be to see Ed McMahon holding a big Publisher’s Clearing House check (and he’s dead).  

My job is serious and at time even dangerous.  When someone has been wronged and a lawsuit is the last resort, the case cannot go anywhere until a process server plays performs their duty of serving process.   Often it is an extremely stressful ordeal for all parties.   The stress makes emotions run high, and the simplest thing could trigger an explosion, like handing someone a very specific piece of paper, telling them to appear in court.   Although bringing legal documents to Fort Lauderdale to serve process on a business may seem easy, it is frequently full of challenges. 

Florida has one of the toughest standards in the nation when it comes to service of process and the actions of process servers.  There are stories, posts and blogs all over the Internet about the tricks process servers have used to obtain service on people who often do not want to be served.    Depending on your point of view movies, like Pineapple Express and Serving Sara, provide a glamorous look inside the world of process servers, complete with disguises and intrigue or depict a sleazy, do anything at all costs, individual who is just above Neanderthal on the evolutionary scale.

Because Florida Courts, in an effort to ensure due process, have routinely protected the rights of people being served process, the tricks you see in the movies, for the most part, are not acceptable practice in Florida. In Fort Lauderdale, as officers of the court, the Sheriff’s Department, who appoint process servers do not allow deceptive practices when serving.  For example if I served a subpoena in Fort Lauderdale, while holding flowers, service may not be considered valid. 

Valid service of process is the essential element needed to establish jurisdiction.   This is the necessary piece giving a court authority over a person or entity.   If the court lacks authority then the court cannot do anything to force compliance, by the parties involved.   There are cases after cases over turned, dismissed, or have judgments vacated because of invalid service of process.  There are times when service of process is done completely by the book, yet service still gets vacated because of the affidavit.  Yes, the affidavit. 

Think of service of process in two equal parts. Actually doing the service… very important.  Equally important is proving it.   That’s right, equally.  If I served a person a summons, in Fort Lauderdale and I forgot a simple step, like putting my name, the date and time on the summons when I handed the papers to him/her, it’s as if service of process never occurred.   In a court of law my affidavit is almost considered above reproach and the burden of proof rests on the person who was served, as long as the affidavit is perfect.  The slightest mistake on the affidavit and the burden of proof drastically changes to the person doing the service.  

As a process servicer, people often assume I must have interesting stories. I do. More on that later.