When I tell somebody I’m working as a professional process server these days, they often ask if I wear a disguise or carry around a bouquet of flowers. There seems to be a conventional belief that professional process servers have wardrobes full of delivery person uniforms and singing telegram costumes. I would guess this assumption would ruin the whole point of a costume, since people most likely to evade getting served court documents would be on the lookout for obvious tactics. That said, I do keep a big cardboard box covered with postage tape in my trunk for those times I feel it might help to create a certain illusion, especially when coupled with a navy blue windbreaker. Otherwise, I find a stakeout service to be the best tactic for evasive serves.
Other court document servers seem to agree.
“We serve a lot of process on difficult targets and have never found disguises to be useful,” said Tim Santoni, vice president at Santoni Investigations & National Trademark Investigations in Orange County, Calif. “Often times being honest, professional and dressing in a suit is your best bet depending on the area. Most people are more likely to respect you when you are honest. Of course if that route doesn’t works we use alternate methods. Our motto is to give the subject/defendant a chance before we use alternate methods.”
Steve Calabrese, owner of Desert Zephyr LLC in Phoenix said it’s against the law to use disguises in Arizona. “I have heard of one server who dressed as a UPS guy (except no actual UPS logo), and was called before the presiding judge, and told to appear wearing the outfit he served in,” Calabrese said. “Supposedly, the judge said something like, ‘You can wear the shirt, or you can wear the pants, but not both at the same time. We’re officers of the court, and we’ve made it easy enough for you guys to do alternative service so we don’t want you wearing disguises.’”
“Disguises seem unprofessional and we are, after all, representing attorneys or courts so being unprofessional is not an option,” said Tim Danby, proprietor and authorized process server with Process-Delivery.com in Grand Prairie, Texas. “That said, most of the time I do wear a uniform of sorts: a black Western-cut sports jacket over a solid beige Western shirt with pearlized snaps and a black bolo (string tie) with a silver-colored guitar or boot slide, atop ironed blue jeans or black pants, and a five-pointed gold badge either on my belt or on my left front shirt pocket. The badge is real, displaying my name, the words “Process Server”, and the authorization number assigned to me by the Texas Supreme Court. My boots vary with the weather or the neighborhood; most often I wear black Harley-Davidson motorcycle boots with silver side zippers but occasionally will wear black water buffalo boots…Treating the subject in a dignified, discreet and professional manner is less likely to provoke an unpleasant response. Most of the time you get what you give.”
Like Arizona, New York doesn’t allow process servers to wear disguises, according to Almira Celik, owner of Zip Process Service in Rochester, New York. “Fortunately enough the people that we end up serving are pretty laid back. There was this one time though, when I ended up serving this guy who held a 2 by 4 in his hand.”
“Can’t say that I have ever used a disguise,” agreed David Mann, owner and lead investigator at Hillyer Security & Investigations in Columbus, Ind. “Normally for the hard-to-serve I will sit outside their home or office and wait for them to arrive and catch them as they exit their cars. Over the years a couple have run to avoid service but I announce that they have been served and drop the paper by their car. I always thought I would try the “pizza box thing” some day but have never tried it.”
“If they are already evading us, they are also clever enough to perceive when we may be trying to out wit them,” said Gene, the manager of AGS in Buffalo, New York. “I know it sounds like a cliche, but honesty is the best policy. We have to remember they are people just like us who are simply going through a rough patch, and we can affect the serve without making them feel less than human.”
Did you find this interesting? Now read about the ploys some legal document servers have used to serve process on celebrities.
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