Process serving – the act of making sure legal documents are presented to the intended recipient in a way that is recorded – is a very important task. But you might be wondering why private investigators get involved. If it’s a legal requirement, why isn’t it left to legal professionals?
Here’s why:
1. People can be evasive
One of the main reasons that solicitors may decide to use a private investigator to serve documents is because not every recipient is willing to be served with ease. A lot of the time, someone may be trying to escape service so that they can either avoid a court date, or claim in court that they’ve not been given proper notice of proceedings.
Finding people is bread-and-butter work for private investigators. If there is a recipient who is avoiding their home address and trying to get out of being served, a PI can use a wide range of tools and resources to locate them, and to make sure they catch them at a suitable time so that service can be carried out properly.
Private investigators are experts in making sure this goes smoothly, and they can be fast too, which can be crucial in cases where a court date is imminent and papers must be served at least 14 days in advance.
2. Private investigators can travel, or have a network
A lot of the time, especially with evasive people, the recipient of papers may be in another part of the country or they could even have fled internationally, and a solicitor can’t just rely on mailed documents to effect service.
Solicitors are usually tied to their own region – they’ll be working multiple cases and may be needed in court – which is where a private investigator can help. A PI might have the flexibility to travel to the location of the recipient, and if not they will likely have a network of trusted agents in the area that they can contact to effect service.
3. PIs know the requirements for process serving
Process serving isn’t as simple as handing over an envelope. As per the name, there is a process that must be followed in order for the courts to accept that the recipient has received the documents in the correct way.
Thankfully this process isn’t exclusive knowledge of solicitors, and any good private investigator will know all about collecting the necessary statements and evidence to show that service has been effected properly, so that court proceedings can go ahead without issue.
4. Solicitors often don’t have enough time
It sounds simple, but solicitors are extremely busy people and so a common reason for using a private investigator for process serving is just because they have other priorities to attend to.
Rather than hiring a permanent person to carry out duties, they can instead make use of a PI as-and-when they need to, whilst still carrying out their regular tasks.
If you’re a solicitor in need of help with process serving, or indeed anything else that you believe a private investigator could help with, give us a call on 01772 334700.