Process servers are primarily offered on a local basis. The reason for this is that they are familiar with the geography. They are familiar with the local transportation infrastructure. Also, they are familiar with the local people. In many cases, there are a lot of non-local process servers that may seem attractive to your legal service business. Your attention might be diverted because they offer lower prices or they have some other incentives. Well, that may be well and good. But there are certain dangers that you need to keep an eye out for when you are thinking of retaining non-local process servers.
There’s a big reason why process servers tend to be local. Here are the five main dangers of picking a non-local process server:
Location changes can confuse them
If somebody is coming from out-of-town or from the next-town-over or the next- city-over, they may not be completely on board regarding the changes in locations, street names, and transportation infrastructure. These can confuse them. These can throw their timing off. As you probably already know, serving legal docs is all about timing and mastering circumstances. At the very least, these can complicate the work of process servers. Going with the local company makes this problem go away.
Local details are unclear to them
There may be local details involved with your legal docs. You don’t want to put those legal documentations in the hands of a non-local company that may not be clear, or even aware, of local details regarding the legal paperwork you are entrusting them to serve.
Local districts can confuse them
Most people get the idea of zip codes. Most people get the idea of cities, of towns. However, when you go into a particular city, it is actually broken down by districts. The bad news is that, districts are not always uniform. Districts are not always well- documented. In many cases, you don’t even see districts on a map. You just see intersections and street directions. These may not be enough when it comes to serving legal documentations. Why? You have to understand that people don’t like getting sued. Many people will try to evade the service by basically hiding out in districts of a city. If the process servers that you are thinking of doing business with are confused regarding local districts, this can be a big problem.
Local way of doing things
Process serving is also influenced by local practices. There is such a thing as local culture. Sure we all live in the United States, but in different cities and different districts within cities, people do have their own unique local culture. When you pick non-local process servers, they may be completely clueless regarding the local way of doing things and they might screw things up.
Local court rules or procedures can complicate things
Finally, if you are dealing with a non-local process server, they might not be aware of local court rules. They might not be aware of the local judicial directions regarding certain legal documentation. It is a good idea to work with a local company so that they know exactly how the local system works. And thereby increase the likelihood of a happy outcome for our project.
