Your success as a professional process server, and as an individual, is based on one simple thing – your signature at the bottom of your Declaration of Service. In reality it is little more than a minute quantity of ink stretched into a ribbon on a piece of ordinary white paper but it stands for much more and has influence on the lives of others.
Simply put, your signature is your bond. It is your sworn representation to your client, to the court, and, most importantly, to yourself, that you did a certain thing, at a certain time, in a certain place, to a certain other person or entity. The trust your client and the court put in your signature is, at first, a given. You are trusted to have done that to which you have put your name. In most courts it is then up to the opposing party to prove that what you have sworn to is not true and correct. You are “given” that trust by others but it is you who can lose it or, more correctly, throw it away.
Honesty
Ask yourself if you have the ability to resist small temptations. This is a very serious question and if your answer is “no” then you need to find another profession. Nearly every assignment a server receives has a relatively small reward. More than one server has succumbed to the temptation of signing a declaration when he or she knew the words above the signature were not true and correct. Rationalizations are made, excuses are given, etc. “I just hadn’t had any luck today”, so he made his own luck and swore false witness. “I don’t get paid enough”, so she signed off on a service that hadn’t happened. If you think “Who cares, all the targets are bums anyway” then you are the bum and a dishonest one at that.
Edward Benson once said, “How desperately difficult it is to be honest with oneself. It is much easier to be honest with other people.”
Remember the small reward offered by each assignment? If the temptation of that small reward is enough to make you perjure yourself then how can the your clients or the courts trust your proof of service.
“Honesty pays dividends both in dollars and in peace of mind.” – B.C. Forbes.
“Every man should make up his mind that if he expects to succeed, he must give an honest return for the other man’s dollar.” – E.H. Harriman
“Honesty pays, but it don’t seem to pay enough to suit a lot of people.” – Kin Hubbard
Integrity
Is the basing of one’s actions on an internally consistent framework of principles. The more closely you adhere to that framework determines the strength of your integrity.
“Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity.” W. Clement Stone
“Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.” – Anonymous
“A little integrity is better than any career.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“No one will question your integrity if your integrity is not questionable.” – Nathaniel Bronner Jr
Striking is the opening Stephen L Carter used in his book Integrity at the beginning of his Acknowledgments, “It must seem odd to find a book by a lawyer – still worse, a law professor – on the subject of integrity. So let me make clear that integrity is something I only think about, not something I exemplify. I strive toward it, as I am sure most of us do, but I do not pretend to achieve it very often.”
Character
This is the inherent complex set of attributes that determine a persons moral and ethical actions and reactions in any of a wide variety of circumstances.
“Distance tests a horse’s strength. Time reveals a person’s character.” – Chinese proverb
“I hope I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an Honest Man.” – George Washington
Your character is the embodiment of your honesty and integrity as seen over time.
Sewer Service
There is term used to describe a service that never happened. It is known as a “sewer service.” The story goes that a server in New York City decided he could make more money faster by simply disposing of the documents assigned to him and then signing his declaration even though it was filled in with false information. He got away with it for quite some time and built a reputation for himself as someone who could serve anyone. In reality, he was fairly particular about the type of work he accepted, primarily collection work in the lower income areas of the city.
His luck held until some city employees were inspecting the sewers near his office. They found thousands of court documents stacked and rotting where he had secreted them. It didn’t take much research for someone to determine that the court file of every one of those documents contained a proof of service signed by the same person. Most of those cases contained judgments, each of which was based on perjured testimony.
The truly unfortunate thing is that this story has played out more than once in New York City. And even more unfortunate is that is has played out, more than once, in many areas of the country.
Conclusion
Examine yourself. Are you honest? Do you have integrity? Which do you value more, your gold or your character. The answers to these questions will determine your success as a process server.
This quiz is for logged in users only.
This is a rough diagram of a typical courtroom in the state of Washington. Courtrooms vary a great deal from city to city and county to county but they all have the same basic structure.
Â