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Process Servers

Experience, Skills, and Personality Traits

No experience is needed to work as a process server, but those with prior work experience will increase their chances of landing a job, getting promoted, and possibly earning higher pay.

Process servers need an understanding of civil law and the proper procedure for delivering documents such as summonses and subpoenas requiring people to appear in court. Some of these people may try to avoid court appearances, so process servers must be skilled at finding them and hand-delivering the proper documents. Process servers should be good problem solvers, skilled at tracking down individuals; they need to be tenacious, well organized, and work effectively in situations with tight deadlines.

Because process serving is a face-to-face job, people who excel in this field are usually bold, confident, and skilled at working with people. Gaining a reputation as reliable and responsible will go a long way with prospective clients who want someone who won't give up on serving papers to people. Because process servers often serve papers to people who don't want them, a certain element of danger is involved. Process servers must be willing to take that risk in some situations.