If you are new to process serving, there may be some terms that you are not familiar with. Some terms that sound familiar may have specific legal meanings. In order to better understand process serving, it is important to first understand some of the basic terminology. Our goal is to explain some of these terms in easy to understand language. Please feel free to bookmark the following list as a reference:
- Service of Process: When someone is being sued, they must be notified in order to respond. This usually means that they will have to appear in court. The process of them being notified of this is called the service of process. This consists of a qualified individual (usually a process server) handing some court documents to the defendant (person who needs to appear in court). The court documents themselves are sometimes called process. Please see our court documents page for more information.
- Skip Trace: Skip tracing is the process of collecting as much information as possible about a person in order to locate them. A process server will use all available data such as tax records, bills, background checks, credit reports, and job applications to find someone who needs to be served legal papers. Please read our blog post on skip tracing for more information.
- Licensed Process Server: In some states (including our home state of Arizona) legal documents can only be served by a process server who has obtained a license. If you live in one of these states, make sure that the process server that you hire is licensed.
- Stakeout: A stakeout involves watching a person or place, usually without the person knowing that they are being watched. This technique is important for successful process serving. Some people try to avoid being served legal documents. A process server may have to use a stakeout to be able to complete their service of process.
Hopefully this short list has given you enough information to begin learning more about process serving. Be check out are Arizona process server FAQs page for more information.