Thursday, July 9, 2015

The Business Of Being A Vancouver Process Server

By Olive Pate


Everybody will be involved in a legal procedure at least a few times during their lives. A death in the family, a marriage, a birth. These all involve legal processes. However, many legal matters, both criminal and civil, involve at least two parties. In order for such cases to be heard by court, many criteria must be fulfilled and the delivery of certain documentation to the relevant parties is one of them. This is where a Vancouver process server plays an important role.

Every citizen enjoys certain inalienable rights. One of these rights is the right to be informed, in writing, when someone intends to sue, lay a complaint or approach the court in any way. In the past, these notices were delivered by the local sheriff. However, this task soon proved to take up too much time and to adversely affect the ability of the sheriff to perform other important tasks.

Thus an entirely new type of career was created. The serving of legal papers became an occupation. These functionaries are tasked with the responsibility to ensure that the government, individuals, businesses and law offices receive relevant legal documents on time and in the correct manner. After serving the documents they have to provide proof that is has been done.

Many people think that this is a cosy job. All you have to do is deliver the proper papers to the correct person. This is most certainly not the case. In a large number of cases the biggest challenge is to actually locate the person that must be served with the papers. It is specifically defendants that often hide away, knowing that as long as the papers are not served, they cannot be taken to court.

Those serving legal documents also often have to deal with hostile recipients and there is an element of danger involved in this type of job. If there are good reasons to believe that the delivery will be met with violence, the functionary may request the local police department to accompany him. In some states the documents may also be delivered to the work place or to the home of a close family member and the court will deem the documents duly delivered.

Trespassing laws can also make things very difficult. No serving professional may trespass on a property in order to make a delivery. The advent of secure estates, high security apartment buildings and gated communities have compounded the problem. Successful serving then requires a great deal of patience and even surveillance. California is the only state that allows limited trespassing in order to hand over legal documents.

The rules governing the appointment of licensed serving functionaries differ from one state to the next. In some states some formal training is required. Many states also require applicants to show that they have no criminal record and that they have a clear credit record. It is interesting to note that many private investigators serve legal documents as part of their services.

There are very good reasons why the law requires that people who will be involved in a legal case have to be notified of that fact in writing. It gives them a chance to state their case, explain matters and to prepare themselves. This is only fair and the justice system is, above all, about being fair.




About the Author:



No comments:

Popular Posts