Seaside Claims Services® is a veteran-owned business located in Atlantic Beach, FL. We offer comprehensive claims investigations in Florida and Georgia, as well as fast and efficient nation-wide process service. Since 2010, my company’s focus has been on quality, growing a team of experienced investigators and providing our clients a high ROI.
Question: When you have documents to serve, you have three options for contractors. Which provides the best ROI?
- A traditional process service agency
- The local Sheriff ’s department
- A claims investigations and process service agency such as Seaside Claims Services®
Answer: A claims investigations and process service agency! Here’s why:
COMPETITION AND COMPENSATION FOR PROCESS SERVERS
At the time of this writing, there are no more than 40 active Sheriff-appointed process servers to cover the 918 square miles of Duval County. Seaside Claims Services® pays a higher rate to process servers than our competitors do, so those servers will prioritize our jobs. We also pass on any fuel surcharges we collect directly to the servers.
STRATEGY
Our competitions’ servers and the Sheriff ’s deputies take the (often limited) information they are given and attempt to serve your important documents. Sometimes addresses provided are inaccurate.
TIMES AND DAYS OF SERVICE ATTEMPTS
Most traditional process service agencies and the Sheriff ’s Department execute with little variation in attempts to serve during different times of day and days of the week. In addition, most law enforcement officers do not attempt weekend process serves. They work within the parameters of their already demanding shift schedule.
This is not a 9-5 job. We work the hours needed to locate and serve defendants and serve six days a week between the hours of 7:00am and 9:00pm out of courtesy to the public. Our work schedule takes advantage of case-specific windows of opportunity.
If we are unable to locate and serve the defendant within the parameters of the original request, our team is able to offer creative tools and techniques from our “investigative toolbox” including social media research, utility records databases, and skip-tracing database services.
STATUS UPDATES
Traditional process service agencies and the Sheriff ’s Department don’t provide status updates. If the serve attempts are unsuccessful, the job is classified as a “non-serve” and the client is billed, regardless of the job not being completed. Your documents still need to be served for your case to move forward or gain traction.
We provide status of service updates to the clients upon request and make recommendations for additional efforts if warranted. This might include:
- Surveillance, often referred to as a “sit and serve.”
- Desktop investigations, which include multiple social media platforms, not only of the profiles of the individual being served, but also those of their friends and/or family members which can lead us to their location.
CUSTOM REQUESTS
In domestic cases, outside factors must be considered for the safety or peace of mind of all parties. A hostile environment can escalate quickly, endangering children and others in the home.
The personal touch matters to us! We take special requests for service when needed. Examples:
- Not serving divorce papers if a child answers the door or is present at the time of the attempt.
- Calling the petitioner to notify them that service has been executed.
- We take last-minute rush requests: within 4 hours/same day/within 24 hours.
- If we are notified that the defendant has been spotted at a location, we will prioritize that serve and make every attempt to get a server there immediately.
TACTICS & DISCRETION
Being approached by a Sheriff ’s deputy can put people on guard. Our team travels in unmarked vehicles, are not uniformed, and in general present in a non-threatening manner.
HIRE AN ELITE TEAM
Our experienced team/network is well-versed in state statutes which govern rules for service of process. Often, we are consulted as a trusted resource for the policies and procedures that govern our profession.
These are all great reasons why you need a team of highly skilled investigators at the helm of not only your claims investigations, but also your process service requests.
