There are a few options at your disposal when you need to serve summons to respondents.
On one hand, you can resort to an unlicensed individual who is at least 18 years old and has no stake in the outcome of the case. However, this approach is likely to backfire and may work against your favor. With inexperienced and unlicensed servers, there is a risk of improperly serving legal documents, which can cause several technical issues.
So that leaves you with two options: the sheriff’s department or a professional process server. Let’s take a closer look at why you’ll be better off with the latter option.
How the Sheriff’s Department Handles Process Serving
As an agent of law enforcement, an officer in the sheriff’s department is capable of personally delivering legal documents to an individual. Such a task is part and parcel of their duties.
However, it’s often easy to avoid the sheriff’s officers, who typically follow a predictable schedule. In New York City, for example, they only work on weekdays, from 9AM to 5PM. Visible law enforcement uniforms and vehicles can also serve as a dead giveaway for an elusive respondent.
The sheriff’s department has several other priorities to juggle as well (e.g., preventing incidences of crime, transporting prisoners). Serving summons is just a portion of their duties. As such, busy officers are unlikely to make repeated attempts to ensure papers are successfully served.
Before the sheriff even attempts to serve the papers, you would need to send the necessary documents three weeks before the date of court appearance. Additionally, officers will often only start delivering the documents one to three days after your request.
How a Professional Process Server Delivers Legal Papers
There are several benefits when working with a professional and reputable process server like Serve Index LLC.
- Expanded schedule – Whereas the sheriff will be limited to their predictable work schedules, professional process servers like us can serve notice anywhere between 6AM to 10PM in NYC — as indicated by the relevant regulations.
- Exhaust all options available – We have an almost single-minded focus on delivering legal documents on time. To achieve that, we make repeated service attempts until we’ve successfully served a respondent or defendant. We can also serve an individual in unconventional — but completely legal — places where they’ll be most likely available. If an evasive respondent can’t be found, we can pinpoint their location within just a few hours.
- Fast and accurate service – We serve papers to any respondent as quickly as possible, as long as they are within our areas of operation. As soon as we receive the necessary documents, expect prompt service within a matter of days — or even hours in certain cases.
Work with Serve Index LLC
Get better results with a professional process server. If you require quick, accurate, and flexible ways of serving of summons to respondents in and around NYC, work with Serve Index LLC. To learn more about our services, you may call us toll free via 1-888-994-6339 or send us an email at [email protected].