Make TBO Your Home Page| Subscribe To The Paper| Advertise With Us| Contact Us| Login| Edit Profile| Register
Suncoast Pinellas News
Email
Print
Process Server Doesn't Mind Bearing Bad News
Cheryl Bentley/SUNCOAST NEWS
Jason Swanson holds some paperwork waiting to go out for service. Swanson is a process server who works in Pinellas, Pasco and Hillsborough counties.
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: July 25, 2008
Probably the man will always regret that stop at a traffic light. That's where Jason Swanson served the man with a judicial summons over money he owed.
Swanson is a process server in Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando counties and will expand to Hillsborough County in a few months. He has been notifying Pinellas residents of their involvement in legal proceedings for 15 years.
His job is to give legal notice to people of a court's jurisdiction over legal matters in which they are involved. That protects them from any surprise legal actions of which they were not aware.
Most of his clients, however, see his service not as protection but as bad news – although Swanson wryly noted, he has discovered some people feel being served with divorce papers is a blessing. Many of Swanson's cases involve matters such as credit card debt, eviction or foreclosure.
About 90 percent of them deal with civil matters. The rest are criminal. People he has served include everyone from wrestlers to disc jockeys.
About two thirds of his cases are judicial summons informing defendants that a legal proceeding has been initiated against them. The rest are subpoenas commanding persons to testify.
Tighter focus
After operating a business that combined both private investigation and process serving, he narrowed his focus down to process serving only. He opened his present firm, Absolute Services, in Palm Harbor in 2000 and moved it to New Port Richey in 2003. But a large part of his business is still in Pinellas County.
Forget the exciting tales about chasing absconding legal defendants. Success boils down to persistence, the soft-spoken Swanson said. "Not giving up is the most important quality you can have," he observed.
The manner in which people are served depends upon the type of case. In eviction cases, for instance, after two attempts, servers can put papers under the door if damages are not involved, he said.
The easiest people to be served are those in jail. "They can't run from you there," Swanson said with a smile.
Few dodgers
But generally, few people try to avoid being served, he said. In most cases, in Florida, papers can be given to anyone in the house who is 15 or older. He needs get only the name of the persons answering the door and their relationship to those being served before leaving the papers.
Even if he gets the door slammed in his face, if he has gotten the necessary information before, he can leave the papers under the door.
Some, though, give even the experienced Swanson a workout. It took him almost three months to serve a woman who had not paid her homeowner association fees. "She kept changing her hair color and changing her cars," he remembered.
Persistence evidently pays off. He usually has only about four or five cases a year that he can't serve, Swanson said.
Rare blow-up
Most people are civil, but a few blow up.
"I've been threatened and cussed at," Swanson noted.
In cases where he feels there is danger, he scopes out the surrounding area before confronting his target. "I put myself where I can get out if I have to," he explained.
Most of his business comes from attorneys and other process servers who do not live on the Suncoast and hire him to serve people in the region.
All counties have different requirements for process servers. Pinellas County, for example, requires them to take a 40-hour class at St. Petersburg College, pass background checks and carry insurance, Swanson explained. His favorite part of the job?
"Getting people served who are avoiding you. When you finally get them, you feel good."
Email
Print
ADVERTISEMENT
Advertisement
TBO.com - Tampa Bay Online ©2009 Media General Communications Holdings, LLC. A Media General company. Member Agreement | Privacy Statement | Work With Us
