“The pen is mightier than the sword!”

25/02/2008 by admin.

Process serving is perhaps one of the most under valued parts of the legal process within the courts and legal system. Yes it is the delivery of legal documents and in most cases is straight forward. However …

Often this work is carried out by private investigators and detectives out of hours. This means that you are up with the larks or out with the owls. The person to be served is often evasive and certainly doesn’t want a messenger with bad news on their doorsteps.

Sometimes it can go pear-shaped. I served process of a Divorce Petition on Saturday 23rd February to a guy who has been evading the inevitable since 2005. He is a violent alcoholic with a short temper. I know this, not because the client had the decency to tell me but because I always read the papers to be served.

The difficulty with this guy was that it is not known where he lives, he doesn’t appear on any of the regular databases with a current address, but we do know where  he works.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, we pay him a visit at work. this is not always the best course of action, but we have to think about the risk factor of serving him when he is drunk, plus we do not know his home address. YET!

We always aim to be discreet in this situation, (I have served many people during the course of their working day, including most recently a newspaper photographer at an assignment, a carpet salesman, a barman and a  ‘Sir’) the workplace is a print works in full production. The place is very noisy. After asking at the canteen I was pointed in the direction of a forklift driver. 

In Divorce cases we are always provided with a photograph of the person to be served. I approach our man who matches the description and resembles the photo perfectly (this doesn’t always happen). As I approach him I say his name,  he replies “he’s on a day off today mate” I respond by showing him the photograph and handing him the papers. He absolutely explodes in a fit of rage telling me to go forth and multiply and even questions my parentage. He then tells me that he will pay his wife and her new partner a visit with a baseball bat to kill them. Hmmm. Nice bloke. I make a hasty exit whilst our man chases me to the exit shouting all manner of expletives above the sound of the machinery!

The Judge will find that very good reading on my affidavit.

Who was it that said  ”the pen is mightier than the sword?” because they were right.

Trident Investigations carry out the service of process nationwide from our offices in Northamptonshire, Surrey and our new office in Hertfordshire which covers Harpenden, Hatfield, St Albans, Welwyn, Welwyn Garden City, Arlesey, Baldock, Biggleswade, Buntingford, Henlow, Hertford, Hitchin, Knebworth, Letchworth, Much Hadham, Royston, Sandy, Shefford, Stevenage, Ware

Posted in Process Serving | Print | 1 Comment »