Choosing A Process Server
Private detectives and investigators: In most states personal detectives and investigators are licensed by way of the state and exempt from registering as process machines. They and anyone on their employ can serve legal process and when doing so are considered officers of the court.
3. Sheriffs, Marshals and Constables: Sworn peace officers.
4. Non registered or licensed individuals: Friends, relatives and some others.
In many states as in California a non registered individual may serve up to ten (10) legal documents annually provided that individual is not really a party to the action at hand. ie: a plaintiff and also defendant, etc.. When the service with the paper has been completed the server must sign an affidavit that this paper was served accordingly. That affidavit must typically be signed under penalty of perjury.
It is not usually a good idea to have a non professional serve process. They do not normally know the laws and rules involved in process serving nor do they usually recognize how to fill out a proper proof of service. Either of these might cause a service to end up declared invalid and possibly mean you can lose the case or at any rate force you to start out over. Additionally many people make an effort to evade service and a professional has a better chance for completing service. Finally, process serving can be extremely dangerous. Many people get really angry when served and attempt to remove it on the process server. Over the years I have had many servers take down and attacked with blades or clubs or attack with thrown rocks.
May possibly had several servers which were non fatal victims associated with vehicular attacks and three servers that were shot, several more were shot at and not hit. Licensed confidential detectives and investigators can occasionally make the best machines, however not all advisors serve papers and many believe that since they are "big shot" investigators they will charge far more as compared to registered process servers. Others serve so few papers they will sometimes "make a mountain using a molehill" and turn a simple service into a difficult one. Other investigators turn just about every service into an investigation in order to run up billable a long time. Then again, if you detect a good detective company, they will have numerous service assignments and investigators that can serve papers fast and efficiently for a reasonable fee.
Most registered investigators can be trusted to be honest about the papers people serve. It is not easy to get a license and if that they get caught committing perjury just by saying they served a paper right after they did not or once they get caught billing litigant for work that was not done, they can lose their license. If they lose their license they can be out of business as they usually can not purchase a license reinstated. Additionally, in most states, complaints can be filed against a licensee and the wonderful complaints are investigated. Prospective clients can contact the state of hawaii licensing board and obtain a record of adjudicated complaints.