Erin's List: Process Server Safety Tool

• March 12, 2018
• by ServeNow Staff
• Articles

Erin's List database is a collaborative effort to increase process server safety. ServeManager partnered with Erin's List to make safety a priority, without taking any extra time or effort from your daily routine.

About Erin’s List

Safety is a top priority for process servers as serving legal documents can sometimes lead to dangerous situations. This was true for Erin McCleskey, who tragically died while serving papers in Austin, Texas. In honor of McCleskey, Erin’s List was created in an effort to make process serving safer with a database of addresses known to have dangerous incidents.

Erin’s List is for process servers, created by process servers. Erin’s List further aims to protect process servers by overseeing a Relief Fund for process servers affected by natural disaster or personal hardships.

How to Get Started

Since multiple process servers may attempt to serve one address due to an evasive defendant or complicated paperwork, accessing a database of process server experiences will create awareness and decrease chances of entering a dangerous area. Erin’s List makes it easy to search the address of your next serve and view if there are any reported issues or situations that arose. Simply create a free account and enter the location of your next serve. Currently, the database searches for reported incidents within 1000 feet of a specific address.

The address, incident date, informative party, and details are included should an incident be reported near your search. With Erin’s List, you will be more equipped to make a judgment call about whether a location is safe to serve, and you can help others assess their safety as well. Chances are there will be no reported incidents for your upcoming serve. However, as the cliche goes, better safe than sorry.

Erin’s List information is fueled by individual information contributions. In order for Erin’s List to be truly effective and provide a safer reality for process servers, all process servers should consider sharing the location where they’ve experienced threatening or dangerous encounters. Process servers only stand to gain increased safety if more people participate in and share Erin’s List. With you and your fellow servers’ help, Erin’s List can grow into a nationwide alert system that all process servers reference.

ServeManager + Erin's List Integration

ServeManager partnered with Erin's List to notify you via email if an address within 1000 feet where you are serving has been reported in Erin's List's database. This integration makes it even easier for process servers to increase their safety without extra effort. To set up this integration in your ServeManager account today, read our guide and overview of this new Erin's List feature.

Erin’s List in Action

Process servers should make Erin’s List a step in their usual routine as an easy way to see any red flags associated with a location. When researching the location, involved party, and other relevant information for your next serve, make sure to include Erin’s List in your checklist.

ServeNow has long been a proponent of process server safety through our PAAPRS initiative. We’ve teamed with Erin’s List to further process servers’ ability to protect themselves through awareness. Combining all incident reports and sharing in these resources helps protect you and fellow process servers.

Safety should be a process servers first priority. You should take necessary steps and precautions to ensure that you will make it home. Currently, Erin’s List has over 600 active entries and is continuously growing. With your contribution, Erin’s List can grow into an even more powerful tool for process server safety.

Awareness, education, training, and resources like Erin’s List are accessible ways to protect your life. Consider donating to Erin’s List to help the development of the tool, as well as any process servers who have encountered dangerous situations.

Read more about Process Server Safety:

• Promoting Assault Awareness and Protective Regulations for Servers (PAAPRS)
• Process Server Assault Prevention Training
• Dangerous Precedent for Process Server Assault in Florida
• Dangers of Process Serving Hit Home in Texas
• Maryland Focus: Process Server Assault
• Assault on Process Server in New York Will Be a Class D Felony Starting Nov 1
• Process Server Assault Legislation by State
• Process Servers and Assault
• Test Your Process Server Assault Prevention Knowledge
• Tips For Preventing Process Server Assault
• What Association Leaders Say About Process Server Assault
• What To Do If You Are Assaulted On A Serve