New York Process Server Forum

Escape a Process Server in New York?

February 26, 2010 on 9:07 pm | In Process Servers and the Public | No Comments

Nowadays, many individuals have sunk themselves in hard economic times and cannot pay their mortgages, child support, alimony, credit cards, car loans, their landlords, or money they owe friends. When it is time to face the debt collector or to face the law because they have failed to pay, sometimes (Or too many times), they hide behind pretexts, excuses or just behind the door in order to avoid the imminent legal action against them.

Can I escape the process server?

Is this the eternal question of the guy who owes child support? Or is it the fantasy of the guy who believes he can get away with a outstanding credit card debt? Is it the pipe dream of the abusive spouse who beat up his wife? Or is it the hope of many fellows who wish to escape the legal system? Don’t count on dreams, wishful thinking, hopes or illusions for the legal system will get you sooner or later. The sooner the better sooner. And to put it bluntly:

You cannot escape the process server

The reasons why you cannot avoid getting served is because certain laws has been created to face individuals like you who think that keeping a door locked is the best way to avoid the legal system. When the process server comes to your home and knocks on your door, the smartest thing you can do is open it and accept the court documents being delivered to you. Otherwise, there are many chances that the process server will document your behavior and relay that information to a judge in the form of an affidavit of attempted service or an affidavit of due diligence. And that, my friend, is just the beginning of a chain of events that will cause you to:

Get your driver’s license suspended
Get your professional license suspended
Become the target of an arrest warrant
Get a default judgment
Get an unwanted “hold” on your bank account
Damage your credit seriously or permanently
Get blacklisted by certain agencies
Get evicted from your home
Lose your home in a foreclosure proceeding
Lose your parental rights
Get arrested

No wonder why popular culture brings about the idea that a process server knocking on your door is not good news for you. If you have seen Serving Sara, a film about a process server who deals with evasive defendants and the reality TV show Worked Up, another process server dealing with evaders, you may think that evading process servers is an acceptable thing. However only people who theorize that evading the process server helps them (By gaining additional extra time, perhaps) or leads them to escape their predicament will refrain from accepting process. The best way to deal with legal problems is facing them, not running or hiding from the process servers assigned to deliver court notices to you.