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It’s been nearly six months since 36-year-old process server Erin McCleskey tragically lost her life while attempting to serve civil trial papers at a home in rural Texas. Her death is a stark reminder of the critical nature of process server safety measures. The Timeline of the Attack According to the Chief Operating Officer for McCleskey’s employer, EZ Messenger, “The facts of the situation, as we know them, are that Erin arrived at the rural location in the late afternoon

America’s legislative system works to protect all innocent parties, which includes special efforts to protect civil servants like mailmen, fire fighters, and process servers. In Florida, for example, assaulting a process server is considered a felony charge. Statute 843.01 declares that any person who knowingly and willfully resists, obstructs, or opposes a person legally authorized to execute process by threatening or implementing violence will be guilty of a felony in the third degree. New York recently made legislative changes to

Most eight-year-old boys are playing outside, watching cartoons, or having fun with their favorite video games, but eight-year-old Peyton Whitehead of Missouri isn’t one of them. On only the second day of school, a deputy served Peyton with a restraining order as he sat in class. This seems harsh for a young child, but according to the father who filed for the restraining order on behalf of his children, it was a necessary protective measure. Based on the papers filed

The state of New York is working to protect its public servants recently by raising the penalty for those who assault process servers, cleaners at public transportation stations, and utility workers. The law was signed by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, officially raising any such attack from a misdemeanor to a D felony subject to up to seven years in prison. In a press release, Governor Cuomo explained, “These workers perform tasks that are vital to the operation of New

Americans are hardly the only ones to be served papers for legal cases. The owners of the Scenic Hotel Group, a hotel accommodations company in New Zealand, recently served the Labour Party leader Andrew Little with papers to begin defamation proceedings. Scenic Hotel Group was founded in 1980 by American Earl Hagaman and his close friend Ralph Brown when Hagaman visited and immediately fell in love with New Zealand. Their first hotel was a 48-room inn on the West Coast

The joke about postal workers and dogs has long existed, but for good reason considering the number of postal workers who are chased, barked at, or even attacked by dogs on the properties they serve. Many mailmen have even sued over dog attacks in recent years. Process servers now must consider the same threat after the tragic death of Erin McCleskey, a 36-year-old process server from Travis County, Texas who was killed by dogs on the property while trying to

If you’ve ever watched a movie or TV show that follows the life of the royal and wealthy in the 18th or 19th centuries, you’ve probably witnessed the characters send notes by courier in order to communicate in a speedy fashion without waiting for the public mail service to deliver their messages. Though courier systems today lack the romanticized element of history, they do serve very important legal purposes around the country and the world.

Nobody with insight into a process server’s world would ever make the claim that it is an easy job. Process servers are responsible for walking a tightrope of professionalism and attention to legal parameters when serving papers, especially when those papers hold bad news. To make this more complicated, the exact rules and regulations governing the civil process of serving papers often varies from place to place, so it is the process server’s job to remain informed of the ever-changing

Legal issues between two people are complicated enough, but things can get very messy when a business becomes embroiled in the court process. Businesses can indeed be served court papers, but service of process takes a bit more planning and care than when serving an individual. Who Gets Served?

As any process server can tell you, being tasked with enforcing legal service of process is a tough job. Not only are you responsible for delivering news that is likely going to be unwelcomed by the recipient, but you must track down people across the state—or country—when they really don’t want to be found. We all know that process servers are merely the humble messengers delivering court documents, but that doesn’t stop emotions from surging when defendants hear the words