Process Serving...We've Come a Long Way!
Posted by Mark Schwartz on Wed, Feb 22, 2012 @ 12:59 PM
As a long time legal support professional I've seen a lot of changes over the last several decades. As a young man I was a court runner and a process server before there were cell phones, computers (at least portable ones) and GPS. I spent many a day, night and weekend working those papers and did my navigating via Thomas Bros. mapbook (now called Thomas Guides and owned by Rand McNally). Last Christmas I was relating a little bit of my history to my nephews, one of whom said "you mean one of those fold out maps?" I had to clarify that no, I was not that old fashioned. I was using the cutting edge technology of the time!
Photo credit: KayVee.INC
Going back even farther... I was a paralegal student back in the early nineties and I wrote a research paper about service of process in England in the 1500's. In those days, the sheriff would serve the documents, take an article of clothing as proof of service, and then proclaim service on the steps of the church on Sunday. I can just imagine that sheriff taking a piece of that future debtors tunic and then waving it around on Sunday saying something like "I served Mark Schwartz on Tuesday and here is his tunic to prove it."
Current day...This morning, I read an article in the San Jose Mercury News (by Raphael Satter of Associated Press) entitled "Facebook, the process server." A High Court judge in England recently approved the use of Facebook to serve process and I had to chuckle at how far we've come: From taking pieces of clothing as proof of service to effecting service via social media!
Those of you who have attended our MCLE course "Who's at the Door, Successfully Serving Summonses and Subpoenas" have also heard me talk about a Minnesota case, In re the Marriage of Mpafe (May 2011), where the judge said "Technology provides a cheaper and hopefully more effective way of finding [the] respondent." To me, the holdings in England, and Minnesota, and other jurisdictions I have not mentioned in this post, are signs that we are moving forward (see my colleague Jeff Karotkin's blog "Service of Process Looking Forward" too) and embracing technology where it makes the most sense. If a professional process server cannot find and serve a party the traditional way, why not allow them to serve the documents "outside the box?"
What do you think?