“You’re served.”
Those are two words many people don’t want to hear, but they are the words from which Jorge Salgado-Reyes and his process servers make their livings.
As London based process servers, Jorge Salgado-Reyes and his firm Salgado Investigations deliver important legal documents to people who are supposed to appear in court—people who sometimes don’t want these important legal documents.
A legal process server delivers legal documents such as writs, summons, subpoenas, complaints and other court documents to a defendant or an individual involved in a court case.
But they don’t just serve people to appear in court.
“We deliver all kinds of legal documents,” Jorge said. “We deliver a number of Solicitor’s documents, letters and personal records in child support and divorce cases.”
Sheriff’s deputies can serve individuals. So can anyone 16 years old or older who is not a party to the case and who has been designated by the court to complete the service of process. Legal documents also can be shipped by registered post.
Solicitors and individuals often seek our process servers because they can perform the duty more quickly than others can, Jorge said.
“An advantage to using the Salgado Investigation’s process servers is we’re paid to make sure that document is served — no matter how difficult it is to locate that person,” he said.
“In my case, I take it very personally. If it takes a little extra time to do it, I will. I take pride in it.”
In the personal process serving businesses, Jorge’s Investigation Agency has seen their fair share of strange occurrences when trying to serve someone. Jorge said women typically take being served personally and sometimes can respond with a vengeance.
“Women are the ones who want to get even,” he said. “When divorce papers are served … then they want to call around and find out who the other woman is.”
Jorge recently encountered a peculiar situation when he had to serve a couple an ASBO–Anti-Social Behaviour Order. Serving the one half of the couple was easy but now the other half spent a lot of energy evading us. Ultimately, he had to leave the house to go to work, so we served him on his way to his car.
“A lot of people get real personal with process service,” Jorge said. “They want you to serve them when the person’s at work or in a public place. They’ll ask us to humiliate them. We get that a lot.”
But that’s not the intent with personal process servers.
“We don’t try to embarrass them,” Jorge said. “A lot of times the defendant or plaintiff in a case will want to use a personal process server,” he said. “If it’s a cordial thing and they’re not sworn enemies, they want to be more discreet about it. “
Then there are the cases in which people simply do not want to be served.
Jorge said the law makes it hard for someone to refuse to be served.
“You can drop it at their feet (and say) ‘You’re served,'” Jorge said. “You don’t have to hand it to them.” Or alternatively if they don’t answer the door, we can post through the door as an alternate service.