Quality of service is a big deal because if you don’t get the paperwork notifying you that a lawsuit has been filed, you can’t fight the lawsuit. Can’t fight what you don’t know about, right? Can’t go to court to plead your case if no one tells you the court date, or even that there IS a court date, right?. Can’t properly answer the accusation if no one tells you there IS an accusation, and you certainly can’t come up with that answer within 20 days that is typically given in Florida.. Get the picture? So, proper service is kind of a big deal. Because if you don’t respond as required in the summons that this process server is delivering, the debt collector usually gets a default judgement, and automatically wins the case.
In my experience, “sewer service” is most often “sloppy service” but is clearly occasionally outright fraud by the process server. A recent example: when reviewing a return of service document with a client who claims that he was never served, we noticed that the process server had listed time of service as 9:44 AM. And then had gone on to note that he made a second attempt at service later that same day, at 12:17 PM. Hmm. So which is it? Did you successfully serve my client at 9:44 AM? Or did you fail at that attempt, and go back at 12:17 PM? Or are you just making all this stuff up? Because it can’t be both, but that’s what you’re claiming on your legally filed paperwork, buddy.
If you’re wondering if maybe this guy just made one little mistake, let me tell you–this happens way too much for it to always be “a mistake”. I’ve worked with many clients who have been garnished or had default judgements registered against them, yet come to me claiming that they never knew about the lawsuit in the first place. Trust me, when I hear that, the first thing I do is review the receipt of service with the client to look for anything out of the ordinary. Here are some recent examples:
* Records often show that paperwork was substitute-served to a “co-resident” (which is acceptable as long as the co-resident is over the age of 15.) Problem is, quite often my client has never heard of the co-resident listed by name.
* Record listed that my client’s paperwork was substitute served to my client’s aunt, who was listed by full name. However, my client’s aunt was dead at the time of service.
* Record shows that paperwork was accepted by a “John Doe” described as a white male. My client is not a white male, and has never shared a residence with a white male.
* Records often show that an individual was served at the address listed. Problem is, a lot of times the individual (my client) didn’t live at that address at the time of service.
The joke is, the quality of the service was so bad, the process server might as well have thrown the paperwork in the sewer, because it’s worth about as much. So, sewer service. Get it? If you find that your wages are being garnished, or find out that there is a judgement against you, but you don’t remember receiving hand-delivered papers from a process server notifying you of the lawsuit, please–I BEG YOU–contact a consumer attorney in your area, ASAP. Sewer service happens in Miami debt collection lawsuits all the time, but that doesn’t make it acceptable.