We regularly serve legal papers regarding a number of different issues to individuals, companies and other organisations. We refer to this as “process serving” – following a set legal process to ensure that important legal papers are delivered in the correct way and being able to prove that this has happened.
Our trained team at Able Investigations and Enforcements offer professional and efficient process serving, but what happens after the legal papers have been served?
1. Immediately after service
Sometimes legal papers only need to be delivered to an agreed address, but many require “personal service” meaning that they must be actually handed to the correct recipient.
As you will appreciate, people are often less than happy to be served with legal papers, even if it is something that they have been expecting to happen.
We need to use our expertise and knowledge to carefully deal with an angry or distressed recipient to prevent the situation escalating and even from a criminal offence occurring, such as
- a breach of the peace
- attempted or actual violence (assault)
If the situation escalates then our trained team know and understand what to do next to take control, involving other professionals, such as the police, where necessary.
2. Written legal proof that the papers have been served
Once legal papers have been served you need proof of that service including being able to provide information about:
- who served them
- when they were served
- any steps that were taken to verify the recipient’s identity
- how the recipient responded after receipt (for example, becoming violent which may be very relevant to the case, such as a case involving domestic violence)
Depending on the type of legal documents, proof of service must be in a particular format and will generally require either
- certificate of service or
- a statement of truth or
- an affidavit (a legal document which must be sworn before a solicitor or commissioner of oaths)
3 Your confirmation that the service is complete
Once we have completed the relevant documents regarding the procedure, proof of service is delivered to you as part of our service.
From the time of instructing us to serve legal papers to our written confirmation of completion you can be sure that our trained team at Able Investigations and Enforcements will correctly serve your legal documents within the time deadlines you specify. For an initial discussion about your process serving requirements call us on 0345 366 0000.
