Should You Avoid a Process Server?

You hear a knock at the door, but you don’t recognize the person standing on the other side of your door. It could be a process server, a professional hired to deliver legal documents into your hands. 

Do you open the door and accept the papers or turn running the other way? As tempting as it may be to avoid a process server, it’s a very bad idea. Process servers are only messengers; ignoring the documents they’re delivering won’t make your problems disappear. Whether it’s a debt, divorce, or home foreclosure, avoiding your process server can’t reverse the problem. 

Avoiding a process server makes the problem worse. 

One South Florida woman, for example, barricaded herself in her home and called 911 when a process server provided her with eviction papers as the result of a recent divorce. She went as far as to claim that she would blow up the house if forced into an eviction. Fortunately, the police were able to resolve the conflict and take the unnamed woman into police custody. 

Even Michael Ray Stevenson, the 27-year-old rapper known as Tyga, fell into the trap of taking his anger out on the process server. Tyga was accused of allowing his team to harass the man who served his court papers in November 2016. At the time, a process server named Adam Harari handed Tyga his papers as he walked into the Penthouse club in West Hollywood for his birthday party. 

Harari later claimed that he was “immediately swarmed…grabbed, yanked, pulled and choked.” He responded by suing Tyga for unspecified damages due to being “harmed in his mind, body and spirit, suffering emotional and physical harm, as well as harm to his reputation.” 

In both cases, these service of process recipients added to their legal woes and made the problem worse by trying to avoid their process servers.  

Regardless of the situation, avoiding, hurting, blaming, or assaulting the process server who delivers your papers is never the answer. 

For more information about service of process, or to find a reputable process server for your own legal needs, contact Accurate Serve Denver at (303) 501-7121. The accredited process servers at Accurate Serve have been meeting the needs of legal professionals and individuals since 2009, and can surely help you with whatever issues you are currently facing.