Dallas Process Servers Ready to Pick Up Constables' Slack
- November 13, 2011
- by ServeNow Staff
- In the News
An issue that has long been simmering in Dallas, Texas, is now threatening to boil over, and it could lead to more business for Dallas process servers. In late October, Dallas constables dumped the civil papers they had been assigned to serve, leaving the county scrambling to deliver many time-sensitive documents. This came after county commissioners voted to put serving court papers in the hands of sheriffs instead of constables.
Process servers in Dallas have been paying close attention to the issue, as it provides a golden opportunity to show that they are more cost-effective for taxpayers than constables, and provide the county with more timely, effective service of process.
ServeNow asked members of the process server groups on LinkedIn and Yahoo for their opinions on the situation, and here’s what some members had to say.
Lee H. Russell, Dallas, TX
“Right now it is a political hot potato. The County Commissioners shut us down when we pointed out that having the Constables (let alone the Sheriffs) was costing the county a bunch of money and the information came from their bookkeepers. We are doing all we can to bring pressure to bear to have all this turned over to private hands, but the political "good ole boy" system is going to have a hard time letting all these elected officials go down the tubes without a fight. My hunch is we will have to get the media involved with numbers and reports out of their own accounting department to show that taxpayers are getting hosed by these elected officials.”
Jessica Jester, San Antonio, TX
“I think the President of the TPSA is doing a great job in utilizing this situation to best work to our advantage. She has presented to the County Commissioners, has been in contact with the Sheriff's Department in Dallas County (who is essentially being told that it's going to be their responsibility to pick up the slack for these constables) and offered the association's experience and expertise in hopes that the Sheriffs will help encourage the county to use private process servers for these services in the future.”
“The Process Servers up in Dallas are fighting a good fight at convincing Dallas County that using private process servers can save the whole county money in the long run and get the job done correctly the first time! If they are successful, I think this will trickle into other larger counties and eventually, we will all certainly obtain more services.”
“In the meantime, the TPSA has been working on presentations to the Paralegals Associations informing them that we can handle these services for them directly and they can bypass all of the chaos with the sheriffs and constables if they choose to do so, by contacting local process servers directly who will pick up their services directly from the courts and file the returns back with ease.”
“With the recent passing of our legislative bill to fund the Process Server's Certification Program in the State of Texas and the extensive efforts pushed toward providing a standardized training program for all State Certified Process Servers to have completed, I think that process servers in Texas are on the right track to gaining more professional respect from the courts and will, in turn, gain more business. Hopefully, this business in Dallas County will only further prove what we've known all along; we can, will, and want to do the job better :)”
Ron Fee, Tampa, FL
“Here in Florida some of the Sheriffs have just come out and said that they will no longer serve non-enforceable papers. This has resulted in a sizable increase in my business. I am receiving at least three calls a week with private citizens enquiring about service of their papers. I think that it is saving the Sheriff's quite a bit of money in their budget. I don't know how many Process Servers the Sheriff here in Pasco Co. was using, but even if it were just two or three think of the saving in paying personnel, cost of running a vehicle six (no serving papers in Florida on Sunday) days a week. Anyway, it has helped me out a lot.”
Tony Snesko, Washington, D.C.
“This is a prime example of why private industry can do most things (other than law enforcement and the military) better than the government. This is why the process serving business came to be.”
Want to share your opinion on this subject? Join in the conversation in the LinkedIn process server groups today.
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