Serving someone with a subpoena can be difficult. At first it may seem easy, that is, until you realize that the person you are trying to serve is intentionally avoiding you. At this point, there are a few basic strategies that can be employed; however, keep in mind that it is best for a professional private investigation firm to carry out these techniques to have a good chance of success.
Finding Them First
One of the biggest problems that you will face in serving a subpoena is locating the person. You may not know their current address or their place of work. It can be difficult finding someone like this who is not attempting to evade you, but when you add to this an individual intentionally avoiding a subpoena, it becomes near impossible to find them unless you’re a professional investigator. We have a variety of techniques that we use to find out where someone is. This is true even when they have no permanent address.
Getting Them to Answer the Door
There are times when you may know that the person you want to serve is at home, but they refuse to answer the door. If you are trying to serve legal papers yourself, your best bet will be to wait for the person to leave their home at night or in the morning. In short, when most people are not working. This can be inconvenient, and there is no guarantee of success. To avoid the trouble of playing a waiting game, it is best to hire our services. People who do not answer the door are no barrier for a private investigator. We have a variety of creative techniques that will bring the person in question to the door and allow us to serve them.
Finding Out Where They Work
It is difficult to serve a subpoena to someone who will not answer the door, or if someone does, it is not the person you are looking for. Of course, the person answering the door will play dumb and not know who you are looking for, or they will know them but have no idea of their whereabouts. However, if you know where they work, you will likely have better success there. Again, if you do not know where they work, hiring a private investigation firm, such as ours, can get this information. Those with professional occupations such as doctors and accountants are often hard to serve because they have a secretary screening phone calls. We can, however, make an appointment to see the individual, and serve them papers as soon as we see them face-to-face.
Stake Out the Home or Work
If the above methods do not work, the next step is to have a private investigator stake out the home or work. For the home this is usually done early in the morning when the investigator sets up surveillance on the home and serves them when they emerge to go to work. The same can be done at work, especially if you know where they park or enter and exit the building. With either of these techniques it helps to know what vehicles they own. Legal investigators normally have access to DMV records for this purpose.
The importance of preparation, by now, has probably become apparent to you. You must know where a person is living and if they are employed, where they work. Once this information is ascertained, you are half way to serving someone avoiding a subpoena. If not successful, the next step is to know their daily routine, and then lay in wait for them. If you are having a problem with someone avoiding being served, contact us and tell us your story. We can explain how our services can help you in your specific circumstances.
Bruce Robertson
Latest posts by Bruce Robertson (see all)
- Accelerate Employee & Witness Outreach - Oct 30, 2023
- Overcome Employee Research Obstacles in Labor & Employment Cases - Oct 25, 2023
- Advice on Conducting Defendant Research in California Litigation - Oct 11, 2023
