Process Serving

1. What does a Process Server do?

The role of a process server is to deliver notifications, summons and other relevant paperwork to those who are involved in a court matter.

After serving any legal documents, process servers have to deliver actual evidence that the legal papers were served. The verification that is offered is referred to as an affidavit of service or proof of service, which must be notarized or commissioned and given to the individual or company who required the papers to be served. Process servers are legally required to serve papers in the correct manner laid out by the courts.

Process Servers can also assist with filing legal documents at the courthouse. Process Servers are often refered to as "Agents" when performing court filing.

2. Why hire a Process Server?

There are a number of reasons why hiring a Process Server is a good idea.

There are numerous procedural regulations and laws that may come into play when attempting to serve process. A trained Process Server knows what can and can not be done and will ensure proper documentation and records are kept.
It is sometimes difficult to predict how someone will react when being served. Recipients can become irritated and agressive, especially if they are approached by someone directly related to the case. A Process Server is trained to know how to defuse these stressful situations before it escalates to an altercation.
There are many misconceptions about what constitutes 'being served'. The law in this area is quite convoluted and it is never good to be unexpectedly informed by a judge or court clerk that they steps taken to 'serve' someone did not meet the legal requirements of 'serving'. A trained Process Server will know what the proper steps are to ensure this does not happen to you.
Some documents have restrictions on who may serve these documents. In these cases, the documents must be served by someone other than the party required to serve the documents.

3. What court documents do Process Serving AACES serve?

Process Serving AACES serves court documents from Family Court, Small Claims Court, and Civil Court. Some of the more common documents we serve include:

Applications
Motion to change
Notice of contempt motion
Summons to witness
Notice of motion
Notice of Manditory Information Session (MIS)
Plaintiff's claim
Notice of Examination
Statement of Claim
Statement of Defence and counterclaim
Any other document you require assistance with

4. What court documents have restrictions on who may serve them?

Some of the documents that have restrictions on who may serve include:

Applications
Motion to Change & Change information form
Notice of contempt motion
Summons to witness
Notice of Motion or Notice of default hearing (in which the person to be served faces a possibility of imprisonment)

5. Where can Process be Served?

Process is typically served at the recipient's home or place of business. However, if the intended recipient is being evasive, process may be served at alternative locations. Process can be successfully served in all sorts of public locations as long as no laws are violated.

6. What methods are used when process serving?

The best means of serving process is Hand Delivery of the papers. This is generally accomplished by the process server's visiting the recipient's home or workplace.

If the process server is unable to hand deliver the paperwork to the intended recipient, some jurisdictions permit process to instead be served to a legal adult who lives with the recipient. In this case, the papers must also be mailed to the intended recipient the same day, or the following day. Generally, Substituted Service is only permissible if the process server can demonstrate that the recipient was unavailable for service. He or she must also be able to show a reasonable expectation that the substituted service would be satisfactory.

7. How long does it take to serve a court document?

Each individual case is unique and the time needed to serve court documents is difficult to predict. It normally takes between one to three attempts before a party is served. The service is always effected pursuant to the relevant Rules of Court.

In a case where a recipient is attempting to evade service, all necessary information is collected and if a motion for substituted service is necessary, we can provide a supporting affidavit of attempted service to establish the lengths that have been taken in an attempt to serve a party. This will assist you in obtaining a court order authorizing an alternative method of service.

At Process Serving AACES, we also allow you to choose the time of day that you would like the first attempt to be made at. In cases where you know the recipient, you are able to assist us in reducing the number of attempts needed, resulting in a shorter serving period.

8. What is an Affidavit of Service

An affidavit of service is a legal document completed by your process server outlining where, when, and on whom the court documents were served. The affidavit of service must be sworn before and signed by either a lawyer, notary public, justice of the peace, or commissioner of oaths. The affidavit of service is the proof of proper service that is required by the courts.

9. Can process serving costs be recovered from a Defendant?

If you include legal fees in your claim and win a judgment in civil or small claims court, you may very well be able to include costs associated with serving parties to the claim. We will provide you with a receipt for this purpose.

10. Why does Process Serving AACES not offer unlimited attempts of service

Process Serving AACES does not offer unlimited attempts of service because our Process Servers are committed to providing an accurate and professional service. When a Process Server is pressured to serve the document or be faced with additional expenses, or in some cases not being paid at all, they may cut corners to finish the job.

At Process Serving AACES, we do everything in our power to serve each individual, but our Process Servers are unwilling to sacrifice quality or professionalism and that is why we can not offer unlimited attempts.

11. What happens if a document can not be served?

Process Serving AACES Process Servers pride themselves on their Process Serving success rate. In most cases individuals are served in person. There are some instances where a document can not be served, sometimes due to an incorrect current address, the individual is on vacation, or possibly no one will answer the door.

After three attempts of service, our Process Servers will complete an affidavit of attempted service which can be used to either validate the need for a locate or skip tracing, or it can be used when filing a motion with the court to allow an alternate method of service, like possibly allowing the document to be sent via Canada Post. The court will decide what alternative service options are acceptable on a case by case basis.

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