Afraid Of The Dark?

Constables are generally elected peace officers with lesser jurisdiction than a Sheriff, but do play a vital role in the court systems by serving summonses and subpoenas for people to appear in court in criminal and/or civil matters. I've noticed lately that I have been getting papers that have been attempted once or twice before by a constable with no luck on serving the individual, and a majority of the time they are attempted only during the day or afternoon hours when people are generally at work. Not that I am perfect for that matter, but I would say 90% of the papers I have received with a previous attempt by a constable I have been able to serve on the first or second attempt. Is this just the nature of the beast? Do constables only serve during the day?

I feel sometimes that lawyers tend to hire a constable to serve process due to their stature as a law enforcement officer. At the same time, there are some constables that take the work away from us Private Process Servers, not giving the due diligence in their attempts to serve these important documents, and have even heard of them just tossing them in their trunk and making up their attempts. This has also been seen from Process Servers as well... but luckily a majority of the process servers that have done these ill practices have been caught and hopefully are no longer in the business. I know this is not a normal practice of most constables or process servers, but it just irritates me that if you are hired in this type of position, to uphold the laws and do the best job that you can do attempting to serve these documents that may not mean much to you, but are definitely very important to one or more of the parties in the court case.

Sorry... just can't believe that people would only attempt to serve in the middle of the day. Luckily most lawyers require us to make one attempt during the day, one attempt during the night (after 6 pm), and/or one attempt on the weekend - Saturday since we can not serve on Sunday. Spread it out... not many people are going to be home at 2pm during the week... and don't try three different attempts, three different days at the exact same time. That not only wastes your time, but the court's time as well.

Wild Kingdom....

I've come across many animals while out serving... and these aren't even the one's that I've had to serve. From barely missing a deer while driving in a wooded residential area at dusk, to waiting on a gaggle of Geese to slowly walk across the street in the early AM. They always make me think of the Allstate commercial where all of the animals start screaming after the squirrel almost gets hit, then I hear Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom song in my head....

Early one morning I was serving someone in an apartment complex near a local lake. I finally located the apartment which was on the second floor, so I began to head up the steps. It was eerily quiet... and before I knocked on the door, I glanced to my right...back down the stairwell, to see a large raccoon just standing there on his two hind legs looking up at me. It appeared as if he were standing there with his arms crossed looking at me as if to say... "Where ya gonna go now, huh?" one way up... and only one way down. All I can think is... this SOB is gonna come charging at me, and this big strong guy is gonna scream like a little girl..... "RABIES!" waking the person that I needed to serve along with ALL of their neighbors. Finally, after about 10 minutes of curiosity the masked bandit finally moved along. No one was even home where I needed to serve. Oh well.

Another late evening... on a very dark street, the house that I pull up to has zero lights on outside with waist-high hedges on both sides of the sidewalk. I get out of the car, walk around the front of the car towards the house and I see an opossum walking on the left side of the hedge but it begins to run into the hedge. As I begin to walk up this dark sidewalk, I'm thinking that it's just a straight, smooth sidewalk... but to my surprise it has steps. I begin walking.. missing the first step, but kicking the second step and falling face forward. I caught myself with one hand since the other had the legal documents, but came face to face with the largest, ugliest rat (opossum) that I've ever seen. Don't let 'em fool ya... oh no.... they don't all play "possum." I obviously scared it, cause it scurried away... and I think I jumped up just as quickly to get away from it myself. I did get that serve... after all of that, I better have.

And finally, last but not least would you believe I came face to face with an actual beaver. Well, ok... not face to face... but close enough...and well, not an actual beav...well you'll see. Was on my second attempt to a guy who was being served with divorce papers. He supposedly just moved in to this apartment a week or two earlier, and I was unable to reach him after 6pm on a weekday, so I made my next attempt at 6am on a Saturday morning. Got up really early for a long drive... I wanted to be there when the sun came up and before he had a chance to go anywhere. I get to the address, which is a set of nice apartments near another local lake... I park and I wait as I enjoy a little breakfast in the car. The sun begins to rise and I walk up the stairs to the servee's apartment... knock on the door... knock on the door again... and to my surprise a young lady answers the door with only a shirt on.. scratching her head from just waking up, making the shirt play peek-a-boo with, well you know. I had to explain to a half naked young lady that had just woken up, that I needed her boyfriend to come to the door for legal documents. She slowly wandered back into the apartment, waking my servee to come to the door and be served. Done.

Wild Kingdom I say...... Wild Kingdom.

Man Up.....

As a Process Server you tend to see a lot of things that can totally break your heart. Yes, beneath this hardened exterior is a soft and caring heart, and serving in some of the areas that I have had to serve makes you very thankful for everything you have and thankful for the way that you were raised yourself. At times I feel almost like a Social Worker. I get a lot of work from the family courts, and a bulk of that would be for Child Support. I know I have to be strong and a professional while out in the field, but seeing the living conditions of some of these people tears me up. Whether it's kids running amuck, appearing unbathed for days in front of a house with no adults around, asking to take a ride in my car... to a woman that is a girlfriend of someone you are trying to serve reeking of pot, begging you for money because she needs food for her baby. Most of the time I have to look past all of the poor conditions and just do my job... but I can't say that it doesn't bother me.

I really get tired of having to chase down adults that should know right from wrong, and are constantly avoiding me because they think that if they don't get served, they don't have to deal with it. But at the same time I make it my mission to serve them when they don't pay their child support, have left their spouse or girlfriend alone with a child (or four) because they are so selfish and immature to handle the responsibilities that come with unzipping their pants and having sex, and/or have another girl on the side that they will just do the same thing to. I know I should keep my opinions to myself while out in the field, but there have been a few times where I have told the servee..."Man Up! If I have to pay child support for the beautiful child that I helped bring into this world, then so should you."

Yes, there are instances like my own, where I had a child in marriage but unfortunately the marriage did not work out because my wife at the time had extracurricular activities and left me. So, yes there are times that the servee is not entirely at fault... there are always two sides to every story, but once again if you play the game and have a child (or children) and you are not raising that child... it is YOUR responsibility to pay child support for them. It's not the child's fault, so not paying your child support isn't getting back at your ex-spouse, but hurting the child. Man Up.... hell, Woman Up as well.... because I'm starting to see a lot more papers on women that have had children, left the children with the father and don't do anything for the child or children that they have given birth to.

The system isn't perfect.... I actually have a friend that has two children that live with him, and for the past two years he has been paying child support, despite being laid off, to the mother of the two children who lives a block or two away. He is raising them, cares for them, does the best he can to provide for his children... and yet she is receiving child support which she lives off of not even to support the kids, but herself and her habits. Is this fair... Hell No. Luckily he's doing his best now to get this reversed... he's a good soul and shouldn't be taken advantage of.

Ok... off my soapbox for the day... off to do the good job.


Late.

BBQ Ribs with a side of Justice....

It was a good day serving today... I had eight sets of papers that needed to be delivered... thank God for GPS and Mapquest to set a route. Out of the eight I was able to close out five, serving two personally, two addresses that the servee no longer lived at, and one that was in jail. Out of the remaining three I've already received calls from two of the servees to set up appointments to deliver, and the last should be interesting... an individual that works at a cabaret that the Constible was never able to serve.

One of the sets of papers was for an individual at an apartment complex, to which I always talk to management to verify residency. 99.5% of the managers are compliant and usually helpful. Thankfully this was one of those times. I confirmed, got directions to which part of the complex it was in and headed that way. As I approach the particular building, I see that someone is grilling out, and has the grill all heated up and smoking, but no one is outside with it. Couldn't have made it any easier.... the grill was right in front of the apartment I needed, so I knew someone was home. Sometimes we are blessed with a photo of the servee... this was one of those times. I knocked on the door... heard some whispering... waited a few minutes and the door opened to my servee with a platter full of ribs to cook up for the afternoon lunch. With the photo provided, there was no mistake that this was my servee, but I confirmed and delivered.

Good day and very productive...

Peek-A-Boo..... Someone's Looking Out For You...

...and someone definitely was looking out for me this day. Back when I first started serving I had a serve that still amazes me, and shows that you really have to be observant doing this job... and a little faith never hurt either.

I had made several attempts to an address that was not in such a great neighborhood, constantly with no luck. On the third attempt I finally spoke to a minor who verified the address and that the servee lived there. Finally a day or so later I received a phone call from the servee who called about the notices I had left, and we set up an appointment to meet the following day. We exchange info on what each us will be driving and what time I will be there, etc. The next day rolls around and I pull on to the street and park a few houses down to get a good visual for when they pull up in their car. The sun begins to disappear beyond the horizon as I notice two men walking down the street, and walk into the servee's residence. Still no car, so I pull up across the street from the house and wait. Not five minutes go by when I notice one of the men hiding on the side of the house holding something in his hands... waiting for me to walk up to the door and I'm sure get jumped. I decided to just sit in my vehicle and wait for this supposed car to show up. Finally after about thirty minutes, the other man that walked into the house walks out to my car and asks me who I was looking for. I told him who I was and who I was looking for, and he finally tells me that he is the servee that I am supposed to meet. He said that he parked his car around the corner and brought along a buddy because he thought that I was going to jump him. I checked his ID, gave him his legal docs and drove off into the night.

To this day I still think a higher power was watching over me that day... because if I would have gotten out of that car and stepped on to that property, I may not be here. But something inside me told me to wait. Always be aware of your surroundings.... no matter where you are. In this economy and people getting more and more desperate... times are getting scary.

Tuesday's Gone.....

Nothing special today... two serves that I've already made the first attempts on. First one... talked to resident who gave name and said that they do not know the servee and have lived there since the 90's. Verified with neighbor that the servee doesn't live there via photo, as well as verified via TAD. Second serve, which was attempted many times by another Process Server with no luck, gave me a call from the notice I placed on the door the previous day. Set up appointment for later in the week. Pretty much have these two closed out, with about six in the cue including one at a gentleman's club.... that should be interesting.

Late.

Well, here we go.... a blog of the ramblings of a Texas Process Server. Capitol Legal Support (www.capitollegalsupport.com) has been in business since 1997, and run by my wife and I for the last 7 years. My intentions are to write about the the strange happenings that I see while out serving legal documents in North Texas. May be entertaining... may just be some rambling.... but that's why it's my blog, right?
And away we go....