Got a question about the British process serving industry or how the process works? Read on for a brief introduction to some of the most important points and insights into the life of the process server in London:

What Are Process Servers?

The term ‘process server’ refers to the individual/s charged with the job of taking legal papers from a lawyer or legal service to any given recipient to inform them the legal proceedings have started. Here in the UK, the most common instances of papers being served include when one partner has commenced divorce proceedings against another or when a parent has decided to pursue missed child support payments against another.

Such legal processes cannot get started without the papers being served to the recipient, which is what makes the process server such an important link in the chain.

Who Gets the Job?

These days, it isn’t necessary for a process server to have any formal qualifications or to be an expert on legal matters. They are in essence something of an advanced-level delivery person charged with additional duties along the way, including researching the circumstances of the case, the individual and ultimately the best time and place to serve the papers.

What’s Involved in the Process Server’s Job?

As mentioned above, the ultimate purpose of the job is to get the papers into the hands of those for whom they are required. The legal process cannot start until this happens and therefore the importance of the job is huge. However, actually getting the papers over can be extremely difficult as it is not uncommon for recipients to deliberately avoid all such attempts. As such, there’s a great deal of planning and research involved prior to actually going about the delivery itself. In addition, most process servers work on an independent or freelance basis and must therefore source their own jobs.

What Makes a Good Process Server?

In order to get by in the industry, a process server needs to have a certain set of traits and characteristics that are in-built and cannot be earned or developed. You need to be the kind of person that’s naturally confident, hugely resourceful, comprehensively independent, wonderfully personable and tenacious to the highest order. You can of course train fully on how serves should be made and all the rules involved, but you’re either the kind of person the industry needs are you aren’t.

Do Process Servers Have Additional Legal Rights?

In a word, no, and this is what makes the job such a challenge. Just because they may be working for a legal group and indeed for a just cause does not give the process server any added legal rights at all. This means that just like anyone else, a process server in London may not trespass, they may not use intimidation, they may not be aggressive and they may not intrude into privacy to a level considered unacceptable. This makes it hugely difficult to get the job done in many instances and is why the job can be uniquely challenging.

Is It a Dangerous Job?

There are of course risks attached to these kinds of career paths, but process serving isn’t nearly as hazardous as popular culture tends to make out. More often than not, the attitude and professionalism of the server will determine the outcome and therefore to be faced with any kind of genuinely dangerous situation is rare. It does happen, but statistically speaking it isn’t really a dangerous job on the whole.

Why Can’t the Papers Just be Posted or Emailed?

The problem with the serving of legal papers is that unless it can be proved that the recipient actually received them, the legal process cannot get underway. As such, when papers are sent in the regular mail or perhaps digitally, it is all too easy for those trying to ignore the situation to simply pretend they never got the papers, even though they did. And with no way of proving otherwise, the senders of the papers are pretty much stuck. This is why the only realistic and workable way of serving papers is to use a trained professional to put them right into the hands of the recipient and take proof back to the sender.

Can’t Process Servers Just Lie or Disguise Themselves?

No – the law is quite strict when it comes to impersonating others and telling lies to get the job done. That being said, there’s often a good deal of misdirection that comes into the process too which is why it takes a seasoned pro to pull off the essential balancing act that makes for an successful serve.