18 LAWYER MONTHLY JULY 2023 courts have also understood some of our issues, because service in this area is not being challenged as much. When we go to the door and ring the video doorbell, the first thing we do is confirm that this is the defendant's residence. More often than not, they want to know who we are, and our approach at the door determines our success in serving documents without having them evade. We will ask "Is this the Johnson residence", for instance, and they will often confirm that – which helps us, because documents can be served at the defendant's usual place of abode. By confirming that they live there, even if the person on the video doorbell does not want to let us in, we can establish that it is the residence of the defendant. We then explain who we are and what we are there to do, and it is important that if they still refuse to come to the door, we still announce service and that we are drop-serving the documents at their door. This only occurs if they refuse to cooperate, but a lot of the time, this is what process servers face on their approach. COVID was very difficult for us; we would be wearing our PPE and masks, we would ring the doorbell and step back, trying to put people at ease. Some people were deeply affected by the pandemic, and it made our job more difficult. But we learned, and adapted our approach. Now if we know someone is home, we can see if they have a vehicle in the driveway and run that license plate to see if it is registered to the defendant. We can include that in our paperwork. Beyond that, we have the ability to run database searches and get their phone number. Often, if we have made multiple attempts at a door and it is clear someone is home and does not want to come to the door, we can run one of those database searches and call them. More often than not, we can get them to cooperate with service. Of course, we document all of those efforts in our affidavit that is filed with the court, so the court can see that we made all reasonable efforts, that the defendant knows there has been a complaint filed against them and that we are trying to put them on notice. The biggest obstacle that process servers face is the fact that we deliver bad news. Getting people to cooperate with that while being very respectful and understanding that they may have concerns about answering their door to a stranger is essential. If you had to give a piece of advice to a less experienced process server, what would it be? Every jurisdiction is going to have specific rules to follow. Understanding what the rules are is going to make the difference in getting the documents properly served. If the process server does not understand the rules and are not getting those documents served pursuant to the relevant rules of civil procedure, it is going to make the attorney's life difficult. My team’s goal is to do everything possible to ensure the lawyers, or their paralegals, are not wasting time and money litigating procedure issues like service of process. Getting the documents served right the first time is key, because once someone has been served and put on notice, and realised that they are part of a lawsuit, it is less likely that you are going to be able to serve them again. Very often, people are not eager to receive bad news and cooperate with someone who is going to make their life difficult by filing a lawsuit against them, which is why it is key to understand the jurisdictional rules and do the job correctly the first time. In addition to that, it is important that a new process server is trained on how to be safe. It can be a dangerous job, and I personally train all of my process servers on the rules. One of these is that we never go into someone's home. Sometimes we are invited into the residence, and it is important for us not to put ourselves in a vulnerable situation like that. It is also very important to keep our distance from that person in case they become irate. It is not our job to explain the paperwork; process servers are very rarely attorneys (I am one of the few attorneys that runs a process serving business). It is not our job to give legal advice, even though people on the door may ask for us to explain things. It is also important for process servers to keep their phones on them at all times. As an owner of a process serving company, when I see that a defendant has the potential to be dangerous – they have a criminal record, or the plaintiff lets us know that they are hostile (which occurs
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