If you hire a private detective to serve your papers, it is important to give them all the information you can on what you know about the defendant and what attempts have been made previously to serve them, including dates and times of attempted service. This will give the private investigator the background info needed to devise the most efficient plan to get them served.

After the research has been collected a plan of attack is developed. This may include strategies such as staking out the defendant’s home at the time they go to work, serving them at work or more creative strategies that can be employed to lure them into situations where they can be served.

The first thing you need to know is where the defendant lives so the person serving the papers can locate and serve them. If you do not know where the defendant lives, the most common way to get these papers served is to hire a private investigator to track down the defendant and complete the service for you. Private investigators have various methods of tracking people down and are very efficient at this.

If you want to try to find them yourself, you can start by visiting the post office where they last lived and showing them your court papers for service. The post office should then provide you with any forwarding address they have on file for the defendant. If you get a new address, keep in mind that the service of process must be done by someone other than yourself and someone who is over 18 years of age.

If you are in the dark about the whereabouts of the person you need to serve but you have answers to some of the above basic questions, then your next step is to hire a private investigator to track the person down. Armed with even sparse information, private investigators know how to conduct skip traces that locate the defendant for service.

If you could answer yes to the first question that you know the defendant’s last known address, then there are a couple of steps you can take on your own. First you can contact the post office to find out if there is a forwarding address. You could also talk to neighbors or the actual postal carrier for their residence to get information on where they moved. If those efforts fail, then contact a reputable private eye to track them down.

On the plus side in uncomplicated cases having the sheriff serve your subpoena can be an advantage. When the sheriff comes knocking at your door, most people are inclined to open it. When that someone is your defendant, you’re in luck and the person gets served.

If your defendant is a flake, the last thing they will do is open the door when the sheriff comes knocking. At that point they become aware that someone is trying to serve them and start hiding. Then you need a professional investigator to step in and clean up the mess, finishing your service of subpoena.