Handling a legal case can be stressful, especially if it involves confidential business documents. Without necessary legal help or knowledge, these processes could slow down the legal proceedings significantly. While gaining the necessary knowledge is rarely an option for an immediate legal process, you can get help from a qualified law firm.
Getting a standard law firm is not as easy as it sounds. While there’s a pretty good number of competent firms offering legal process service in Berkeley, there’s also an abundance of firms that aren’t up to the standards.
It can be pretty challenging to tell the difference between a competent law firm and a substandard one for a layman. This article will guide you towards getting the best process service in Berkeley at any scale and budget.
Table of Contents
Why Do You Need a Server?
It’s completely legal to serve your documents personally as long as you’re of legal age. But unless you’re an attorney or well experienced in the legal sector, this isn’t recommended. There are unwanted scenarios that may arise, and your apparent lack of skill will make them difficult.
Moreover, paying an excellent firm to help service your document will save you time, and in some cases, money, letting you focus on other productive ventures. With that said, here are four other reasons why you should consider hiring a legal process service in Berkeley.
1. Speed
If you want the processes completed as quickly as possible, which is vital during legal proceedings, you should consider hiring an attorney experienced in serving business documents. This is especially important if the court requests the submission of the said documents before a particular time frame.
Based on anecdotal claims, most of the legal documents served by professionals are delivered more quickly and professionally than those by individuals or other methods.
2. Expertise
Another reason you should consider hiring a professional service to handle your legal process service is their experience with the service. While you can use a friend or family member, you may sabotage your claim since they lack the knowledge to serve the documents expertly.
If anything goes wrong during the proceedings, you can rest assured, knowing that you have experts at the helm of affairs. You probably will not get this luxury if you cheapened on getting an expert to serve the documents on your behalf.
3. Legal Advantage
This advantage carries on from the second, as you get benefits from dealing with experts in the trade. Their knowledge and experience can give you relevant advice to help ensure that you aren’t disregarding any court orders.
While legal process servers are as unbiased as possible, they’re still allowed to advise their clients on what’s required of them by the court, and this is an advantage you wouldn’t be getting if you let a random adult serve the documents for you.
4. Simplicity
You can’t legally serve documents yourself during a court proceeding in Berkeley. However, you can get a friend or family member to do it on your behalf, which burdens you as you must help them actively in the process.
By hiring a process server, you can rest while the firm handles serving the documents. While they may contact you a few times to request information, it will be nothing compared to what you’d have faced if you used an alternative.
How to Get a Good Legal Process Service in Berkeley
Now, you have a good idea of why a professional process server is necessary during a legal process service. But then, how do you find professional process servers that will unburden you during the process?
Here are some of the essential steps required to get an excellent legal process server in Berkeley.
1. Search for Firms
The first step to getting an excellent legal process service is compiling the potential firm. At this stage, you can find likely process servers on social media and online legal websites available through Google.
2. Compare Costs
Before even scouring law firms for options, you should already have a preferred budget range. You can use this to narrow down your search by only considering firms that charge around your budget.
While higher prices typically indicate better services, this correlation doesn’t always apply. Some firms charge extraneously high fees to add unneeded extras to the process serving. You shouldn’t pay for extras unless you understand the exact value of your money.
As long as the serving happens correctly and on time, all other services are simply unneeded extras. Hence, consider firms that also charge way less than the average.
3. Analyze Their Communication Method
Your process servers should be very accessible. Before hiring them to serve any documents, it’s crucial to establish a reliable means of communication back and forth. Most process servers will update you on the process through email. You should also get a phone number to call if you have any questions about the service. Never hesitate to make a call if you have any concerns or complaints, as you’re paying for it.
Most importantly, learning about their communication strategy shouldn’t be an afterthought. Consider asking how to reach the firm before signing any contracts to ensure you’re both on the same page.
4. Ask Relevant Questions
Before entering any formal agreements, it’s essential to confirm their modes of operation and if their offerings are what you seek. You should consider having the firm answer questions relating to the length of the process and if it will fit into the court deadline. You usually don’t get a refund for unsatisfactory service, and the expertise you choose to hire can either make or break your case.
For the best result, you can always use trusted local process servers like D&R Legal Process Service in Berkeley. With 36 years of experience in the business, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a more competent process server in Berkeley.
Conclusion
Legal process service is typically a very demanding task. While you can get any random adult to do it for you, you don’t want to cause any hindrances to your case.We’ve explained how to get the best legal process service in Berkeley and some of the reasons why you should consider getting one. Hopefully, you know what to do for your best interest as regards process serving henceforth.
Also read: 4 Tips for Finding the Right Online Lawyer
