The good news is that the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic is behind us. Yet there is no question that we are all living in a ‘new normal’ world when it comes to the logistics of serving civil process. With 40 years of experience, I understand all too well the need to handle these service tasks properly, abiding by the myriad laws that impact how this all gets done. In the real world that means we need to do this as quickly and efficiently as possible at the least necessary cost – something my firm has been doing pretty darn well for a long time. However, it is now clear that the COVID-19 pandemic upset the old apple cart of daily life in many ways, including how we get these civil process service assignments handled. What used to be best practices are not necessarily so in today’s new world. Let’s remember the basics: if you are serving a person, you primarily want to deliver the process directly to that person. There is no court that I know of that does not allow this method of service. And where do we find the person we want to serve? Generally at his or her place of business. Why there? Because more often than not, certainly in the world of commercial litigation, you will know where the person you want to serve works. Where do they live? That is something we often have to research… at a cost. So if we can avoid that cost, all the better. But that ‘in-hand’ delivery is not always easy to do. Sometimes it is actually very hard – certainly if the subject is purposefully avoiding service. Fortunately in most jurisdictions, certainly here in New York, other 62 LAWYER MONTHLY AUGUST 2023 The ‘New Normal’ and How it Affects Serving of Process Thought Leader Of the many things that have changed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, perhaps the biggest shift has been seen in the way that we work, with many formerly office-based jobs having now transitioned to either a remote or ‘hybrid’ model. What does this mean when it comes to process services? Harlin Parker explores the altered status quo in this article, outlining how process servers have adapted to this ‘new normal’.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy Mjk3Mzkz