Name: Serving It Right: What Paralegals Need to Know About Process Serving
Uploaded: 2025-12-11T19:46:19.067Z
Duration: 1 h 20 s
Description: Serving It Right: What Paralegals Need to Know About Process Serving

Transcript for "Serving It Right: What Paralegals Need to Know About Process Serving": Hello, everyone, and welcome to Paralegal Power Hour presents serving it right, what you need to know about process serving, brought to you by your friends at InfoTrack, which is the fastest way to efile, submit service and process orders, and sync all of your court documents, bar none. No one does it faster. I'm gonna introduce our hosts in just a moment. But before I do that, we got a couple of special things to let you know about. When we planned this event, it was very last second. We were very busy, but Christine and Kelly wanted this to happen because we wanted to show the paralegals and legal support professionals out there how much we support you, not only just by hosting this session, but by giving things away. This includes Amazon gift cards to help with holiday shopping. We're going to be giving away two $50 gift cards and one $100 gift card. To get these gift cards, all you gotta do is stay to the end of the session, and we'll be drawing the winners live. If you're not present, you can't win. So remember that. If you leave, you leave the chance to win. But, we'll be doing that live. Also, as we always do, we're gonna be giving away Starbucks gift cards, and there's two ways to win those. First up, just be active in the chats. Hop on the session chat and just talk it up. Start right now. Just introduce yourself and tell everyone where you're from. That's the person who is most active in chat will win. I think the second and third most active people in chat will also win. I like to just spread the love where I can. The other way you can win the Starbucks gift cards is to answer poll questions. We have silent polls running throughout this event. What are silent polls? They're basically this little orange dot that's going to appear right now. And you just hop on poll tab there in the chat window. Click that. Answer the poll question. And once you've answered the poll question, you are entered to win. So good luck with all of that. Right now, without further ado, I'm going to introduce our hosts here to lead our community of legal support professionals we have, Christine Castillo Suero and Kelly Radnethy. Come on on stage. Hi, Joe. Hi, everyone. Hey. Hey. Hi, Christine. Hi, Kelly, and we are back. And you'll see Kelly and I are in kind of some festive attire. Yeah. It's holiday season. We're here to spread a little holiday cheer. But first and foremost, we always wanna start with gratitude. Thank you to our hype man, our beloved hype man, and handler, Joe Scott, for that warm introduction. Also, to the rest of the crew, our team, Alex, Sophie, and Lindsay, we appreciate you so much. Big hearts out to you. And, also, of course, Kelly, my cohost, my beloved brainstorming partner, and to all of you for being here spending, some time the next hour, with us to talk about stuff that matters to us as paralegals. For those of you who are joining us for the first time, just by way of brief introduction, Kelly and I are long term brainstorming partners of twenty years. We're also paralegal educators and we're you. We are paralegal practitioners of probably, I would say, over two decades now. Right, Cal? Between us, over forty years. Woah. Still blows my mind. But, yeah. And we, you know, we are super excited to share information because what we really noticed and really hope for our community, us paralegals, us legal support professionals, is that, you know, that you have a community, that you have somewhere to go to get information, to ask questions. Right? And to really edify yourself, to improve yourself. So we are so glad. And, of course, a big thank you to Infotrack for all of the support for, bringing us together to allow us a platform to talk about these very important matters. Cal, did you wanna add anything before we jump right in? Nope. Just wanted to tell you all, 'tis the season to be happy and, you know, lean into this community. We're so glad you're here. We were just talking before we, got on stage here saying how, just so excited we are to be part of this community, and that we love how engaging everyone is. And we see that in the chat. So good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. We're so happy to be here. Yes. Fantastic. And we see that you're joining from all over the place. I see some new folks. I see some returning folks. Thank you so much. And you all can see my screen here with our agenda. Right? We are here to talk about process serving. Now let's just do this informal because I always like to know who's in the room. Let me see for those of you who are in practice. Let's say, you're brand spanking new to the field. You have zero years of experience. Let's see you show up in the chat. How many are here with I am so brand new. I am a student. I don't have any legal experience. Do I see anyone? No. What about one to five years of experience? Do we have people who are in one to five years of experience? Yes? Okay. Brianna, we see you. Deborah. Okay. Perfect. So some of the new folks. Noellis, thank you, Daniel. Okay. What about six to ten years? How about in that range? Ten years plus, Julia, anyone eleven plus years? Oh my goodness. Look, Kel. Look at the chat. We have across, the board. Right? I just saw 40. Wow. Amazing. I know. Incredible. They they need an award, a gold medal, of course. Right? That they've survived the seal for forty plus years. And all of the changes that we've seen. Right, Kelly? Because a lot of our discussion focuses on what? Technology. But before we go through our road map here today, I actually wanna bring on our special guest. Some of you may know that Kelly and I also have a podcast. We're also cohost on a podcast from AFNI, which is American Association for Paralegal Educators. And, the podcast is called Legal Luminaries, the Paralegal Edition, where we bring subject matter experts to help us navigate through some of the workflows that we see as paralegals and also some of the technology. So I wanna bring on our special guest, Marcus Nairo. Would you come on stage, please, Marcus? Hello. Hello, friend. Hello. Hello. Thank you so much for that very kind introduction. I'm so excited to be joining you both today, Kelly and Christine. This is one of the topics that I'm extremely passionate about, process serving. So cannot wait to, dig into the detail on this. Little background on myself. I work for InfoTrack on the business development side of our Servit product. That is InfoTrack's process serving solution. And I've been in the legal industry or legal adjacent for pretty much all of my working life. I've been with, well, InfoTrack for, what, almost seven years now. And prior to that, worked with Logical, which was a company that that helped process serving agencies on a day to day basis. So I worked with agencies all throughout The US day in, day out for quite a bit of time. Know many of them personally, probably people who are fulfilling work for many of the individuals on this call. Then prior to that, I was both a paralegal and legal assistant throughout college. So, yeah, I know a thing or two about this, and I'm excited to be able to, contribute in whichever way I can. Thanks, Marcus. And the reason Kell and I asked Marcus to join us get this, folks. He's one of us. He's a former paralegal, like one of us. He feels our pain. Right? So he knows. He gets it. And, you know, maybe process serving isn't one of those, you know, ediscovery, like, where we kind of look at that as, like, the really critical function of paralegals because we're looking for the evidence, the smoking gun, if you will. Right? But guess what, folks? If there are problems during the process serving stage, guess what? What can happen? Hello? We talk about pain points all the time. Money. Right? Delay. You you will have an unhappy attorney. Who wants that? Not me. Right? Said no one ever. So we want to make sure that we understand our workflows, and that's what we're gonna talk about today. Why does this still matter? Right? Because this is an important a critical workflow in the civil litigation process. And it's like I said it's a very important milestone so we're gonna understand that from the paralegal's perspective from the actual assignment itself even before that right Marcus in terms of like vetting your vendors how do you know who to go to and who to trust as your trusted partner? Because if I can't do it myself, I'm bringing on someone who can and that I can rely on, right, and trust. And there are certain elements. We're gonna talk about that when you go through your vendor vetting process. Also, tech tools. You know, Kel and I always like to talk about that, where the technology is changing, how it's improving and assisting and supporting and scaffolding our workflows. And, of course, what pitfalls to avoid right and what would it be right it would it be the holiday season right Cal I love your your sweater it's like a little elf dress and I'm wearing one I don't know if y'all can see my my shirt today. Slay all day because what we paralegals do right we slay all day. So we are going to, provide you with a complimentary resource. I think Joe is gonna put that into the chat or it might already be in the resource area of this platform. It's called process serving workflow toolkit for paralegals. It's a chart. You know, it's oh, you could use it as a checklist if you like because we paralegals love a good checklist. So let's get started. Kel, what are your thoughts on this? Why does process serving still matter? And by the way, I love Kelly and my, brains together because she comes so I work at a very small, teeny, tiny law firm. We're about seven total. Seven strong. Right? Small law firm. Kelly has worked in various environments, but has a lot of experience in big law. In fact, I think she was at an AMLAW 50 law firm, and she hot see she hot seats at trial. But now she finds herself in a governmental agency. And so we often will talk about resources and being in ecosystems where we are resource rich. Right? We have lots of resources at our fingertips versus where we are a little bit lean. Right? A little lean when we are working in these, smaller solo environments and we wear multiple hats. So, Kel, what are your thoughts on this? Yeah. Christine, you know, it's I I really, appreciate you, you know, pointing out that across the legal landscape, there are, you know, all these different areas that we experience process serving and the impacts of it in very different ways. And I oh, I do wanna note over in the docs, I believe it's in the docs tab is where you can access the toolkit that Christine was referring to, and you can also access, the PDF, of our slide deck there as well. So back to what we were talking about, why does process serving still matter? Well, most of us that have, you know, been in the legal industry for any period of time, we know that it's absolutely essential. It's, you know, the first critical step, in our due process and the initiation of cases, which then, you know, kicks off that case timeline. And so, you know, errors, right, can lead to some major issues. So, you know, I really want to see if Marcus has any problem statements or pain points that he really, you know, he's seen from, you know, the operational side of process serving and how we can sort of avoid some of these initial, obstacles, that catch us up. Marcus, do you have anything you wanted to add on, you know, why you think process serving still matters from that scope? Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. To take things back even a step further, I was doing some research before this webinar as far as the origins of process serving. And apparently, it goes back to the ancient Roman times where you would go up to an individual, set your hands on them, and and and dictate that they are being summons to court. I thought that was just mind blowing that over, what, two thousand years ago now, the practice hasn't changed all that much in the sense that, you have to be in person, you have to go face to face, that is an essential part of due process, and then you, relay those documents to the individual. So just a fun little, aside there, but, yeah, it is essential. This is how litigation begins. This is how the case begins. This sets at issue dates in many of, the various courts. And essentially, I mean, this is what it all boils down to. Right? So if there's an error that's made at this time, it can have significant challenges. If there's if you don't have, the right documentation, if your process server is, not dependable and you don't have the actual proof that you're looking for of service, that can cause many problems with case types. We've seen motion to quashes come up before. It's not uncommon that opposing counsel will try and get that thrown out for improper service. If you're not licensed, if you don't have the if you're not serving in the in the right state, there's, a number of issues that can arise from this. So you'll probably hear this many times throughout the webinar today, but making sure that you're checking with your local jurisdiction rules is essential. And as paralegals, we all know this inside and out. But, yeah, the it is crucial to ensure that you are working with a vetted trusted process server so that we don't run into any dismissal or sanctions for your for your firm. You know, Marcus, I love that tie back to the Roman times, and it shoots me back to, you some of my first years as a paralegal working at a firm, and we had to do some sort of figure out how to serve somebody in the rural areas of Michigan. And I was connected to a local service provider. We set the whole thing up and I get a call a few days later and it's this process server or this bounty hunter is what they were called in this area. They call and they say, Oh, we wanna understand how much force we should use when we are actually presenting and serving the documents. And I said, what do you mean force? And they said, well, if we turn to run, should we tackle them? And I was like, oh, no. Oh, no. No. No. No. No. No. We don't want any actual hands on the individual. But it's funny because, you know, you pointed out that back in the day, that's really what it was, that connection. Right? Giving somebody information that they needed to have. It was absolutely essential for them. But how different it is between jurisdictions and what the layers of risk are depending on the situation and the case at issue or the allegations. Right? So it's really important that we all see process serving as something that has existed for an extremely long time. But it's actually it's a mechanism that allows for litigation to actually take place. So if we don't do it right at the beginning, we have a lot of problems coming after that. I love how the holidays too, we pointed that out. So, yes, it's very relevant and pertinent to right now because we're in the holiday season. So we can understand what that urgency and the complexities, the layers are added there. The office might be closed or you might not have, the the agent that has to be served available. Or, you know, there's all these different things that we have to consider when it comes to timing. Is the business open? What hours are they open? Is the individual actually on on-site? So, yes, the nightmares. Right? These are real. The PTSD, I saw somebody talking about that because if you don't initiate properly, the rest of the course is not going to go smoothly at all. Christine, was there anything else you wanted to add about why process serving still really matters? Well, I'm just looking at the chat, and we have some folks who have, like, fourteen, fifteen, twenty plus, thirty years of experience. So let the war stories begin. You know, I'm telling you that this is this is a serious part of our work. Right? And this jurisdiction specific rules. Oh, my gosh. I printed off the anyone else from San Diego on today? Because I'm here in San Diego, and we have very, very specific rules in San Diego Superior with respect to service of the complaint. Does anyone is anyone else familiar with that? But these jurisdiction, specific rules, this is no joke, right? Not for the faint of heart. Let's examine this really from a nuanced level from the paralegal's lens from our eyes and by the way, I think I saw Larissa and I just wanted to say a special shout out to Larissa for your seventeen years of service in the Air Force. I do have a special place in my heart for veterans. I married a veteran and my my father too is a veteran. So thank you for your service and welcome to the profession. So, I'm sure with all of your military training, you are very prepared for some of the tactical and strategic processes, right, because, Marcus actually alluded to this with respect to due process. What we are referring to here in terms of our paralegal process serving workflow and function for those of you who are new, perhaps students who are just joining us, we are specifically referring to procedural due process. Right? Because errors in procedural due process can result in what Marcus had spoken of earlier with respect to dismissals, sanctions, delays, etcetera. So this is why it's so critically important. On the docs tab where Kelly pointed out our resource that we are providing to all of you today to give you a nice checklist or chart on how this should go. Right? The first thing we have on there is case intake and deadline awareness. I said this in our last if any of you joined us for a three part series for today's holiday special. I said this in our, one of our last sessions where I said, you know what? One of the most anxiety inducing things for an attorney is missing deadlines. When we are not organized and we are not ahead of the deadlines, problematic. Problematic. So from the very outset of the case, in terms of deadlines, in terms of, scoping, I invite all of you to really look at this as a project manager or a case manager, right, where you're identifying and I have a wonderful spreadsheet that I share with my students, out here in San Diego. It's an Excel workbook, and I have different tabs. So when I am working up a case at this very preliminary stage, right, in the case intake stage when we were just signed on and retained as counsel, I am identifying the parties, our cast of characters, I e witnesses, right, and other people who are relevant to the case that I need to know about and also the evidence. I start already examining if we're in, plaintiffing a case. I start examining these causes of action. Right? Because that's important to me, and I wanna know what evidence we need to support this. But I'm also looking at deadlines because I have to know, first of all oh my gosh. For those of you who are new, this is one deadline that the managing partner taught me when I was a very young paralegal. Do not miss this. Right? There are things in litigation land that are sometimes fixable. Most things are fixable. Right? But this one, not so much. Anyone know? Anyone care to venture a guess in the chat here? If you blow this deadline, I like to say it to the students like this. If you blow the SOL, you're SOL. Right? Statute of limitations, meaning there is that barrier, the time barrier that will preclude you from filing the complaint if you don't file it within that statutorily prescribed timeline from when that breach occurs, right, to when or, you know, whenever the issue started to, when that timeline expires. Statute of limitations or you're sorry out of luck. Right? So make sure that is like numero uno. Am I wrong people? Hello, former paralegal Marcus. I'm not wrong, am I? Not at all. No. That's crucial. Thank thank you. I feel better with that support. But with respect to these other deadlines, once we get that service going, right, we have to file for in some jurisdictions, we have to file the, blank summons. Right? I'm a federal filer myself and so we don't necessarily have to file a blank summons. The court will, issue that to us in our Southern District here. But, you know, we have to get going on top of our, filing of our complaint. Right? So those very preliminary deadlines in our case matter. Right? That first milestone of getting that complaint served from the plaintiff's perspective. Right? And then understanding, okay, how many days from filing that that complaint do we have to, one, source and vet a vendor to accomplish or effectuate service a process, also known as the summons. Right? The order from the court that says, defendant, you will file an answer or respond to this, a complaint filed by the plaintiff, with x amount with an x amount of period days. Right? Incidentally, here in San Diego, you got thirty days from the time you've been served that you have to respond in some format. Right? So being hyper aware of those deadlines at the very outset of your case, extremely important. Whatever in your ecosystem you're using, if there is law practice management software, if you are utilizing some sort of calendaring system, share it with the rest of your team members, including your managing or supervising attorney. This is where it becomes critical for you as the case manager or project manager to be what I call the human sticking out and start asking questions such as, oh, are we going to be filing, you know, for example, if we are the defendant now, when are we go are we filing an answer? Are we filing a motion to dismiss? What's our posture strategy? Right? So getting ahead of that and understanding what those critical deadlines are. Do you have anything else to add to that, either Kelly or Marcus? You know, I do I'm just gonna pop in there real quick talking about, you know, landlord tenant law. Right? 10 landlord tenant cases where it is an extremely short time frame that we have to effectuate service and then to show proof of service and then to actually have, you know, compel action in any way. And so if we miss those deadlines even by a couple hours sometimes, it can be problematic for our client whether we're on the defense or plaintiff side. And so understanding that that the case intake, the all of the information that we are gathering and the, assessment of where this is going, is providing us that framework for our deadlines and our timeline build. And so, like Christine was saying, for these workflows, you know, depending on what area you work in, they may look very different. But generally speaking, all of us that have worked here as a paralegal for any period of time, we know it's absolutely essential to have some sort of documentation that supports us and enables us to meet our deadlines, because without that, it would nearly be impossible. Marcus, did you have anything you wanted to add about that on deadlines and and tricks. you might have to help us? Absolutely. Because I work with paralegals and attorneys on this all the time. I think my one piece of advice here is do not delay unless, of course, it's a strategic move by the attorney. But I would say do not delay in getting these documents out for service or work with your processor to make sure that they have it on their radar as well. You know, they can get an influx of cases at different times and you do not want a delay. You do not want them to say, I'd love to serve these for you, but I've got 10 other requests. Make sure that they are aware of this and be in front of it right away so that they can they can plan to get those out and served immediately. And so, Absolutely. Marcus, with respect to item number two here, selecting the type of service, you know, someone pointed out they serve by publication and I want it because I'm here in San Diego, but always hello here's the caveat jurisdictional awareness always confer the rules of wherever you're situated. I see a lot of Florida people right from the other coast here on, on session with us today. So make sure you look at your rules quite different. I'm gonna cite you and read you in fact the rule from the San Diego Superior Court. So bear with me because this may may, provoke you to look at your own rules And it says here under rule 2.1 dot five for the San Diego Superior Local Rules Court under our civil, division two section, and it's under service of complaint. And this paragraph, and I'm reading it verbatim, it says here to qualify for other than personal service of a complaint and summons under civil, code of civil procedures section four fifteen dot 28. sec. Reasonable diligence aimed at providing defendant with actual notice must be established. Example, personal service must be attempted on at least three different days at three different times of day. All attempts can be, cannot all attempts cannot be in the AM or all in the PM. At least one of the attempts, three attempts, must be before be before 8AM or after 05:30PM. And at least one of the three attempts must be between the hours of 8AM and 05:30PM or on Saturday and Sunday at any time. If service is attempted at a business address, all three attempts may be made during the normal business hours of that business. Loaded paragraph, isn't it, Marcus? Yes. It is. Yes. So important when we are not just selecting the type of service. Right? We see we easily contact Marcus at Servant, and we're like, Marcus, we want you to create you know, we want you to effectuate. We want your team to effectuate a service process. Personal. We want you to go and attempt at this location. But their team is already well aware, right, of these jurisdictionally specific rules. That does not absolve you paralegals from knowing and making sure, right, that these rules are adhered to. Because when you get back your affidavit or your proof of service that you're gonna file with the court, because that's the trigger trigger to the court because their internal calendar starts ticking and says, okay, the plaintiff has filed the affidavit or proof of service when service was effectuated, right, service of process was effectuated. Our clock starts from that day that they are stating service was accomplished or effectuated, meaning thirty days, right, if it was personally served. So do you see how these are all contingent upon one another? So those, documents are critical. They are mission critical, in fact, for our workflows. So, having a a trusted partner, a registered agent, right, of a service, someone who knows, and is aware of these very nuanced, jurisdictionally It, requirements. Because when you say that, Marcus, this is very, very, best to trip you up, can't it? can. And that's kind of the name of the game when it comes to process serving. Each jurisdiction has their own rules and guidelines that you need to adhere to. Right? So if a process server they might be a professional in Texas, but they try and serve in in that example that you just said in California, that is not gonna play. There are completely different requirements there. And it is a lot to to imagine that each process serving agency has these rules, memorized inside and out. Right? So what we do as a business is we partner with the local vetted trusted process serving agencies that know all the local rules. We send it to someone in that area who is not driving a 120 miles to go serve a document, but down the street rather. And these people are people who've been in the process serving industry for twenty years. So they've been a long the ride for the evolution of, of the changes in the process serving industry in that time. But, yeah, that's crucial. And no matter what, even if you're working with a trusted, vetted process server, check your local rules. I think there's responsibility both on the paralegal side of things and the process serving agency side of things, and you might as well double check there. That's kind of the the the secret sauce to being a paralegal. Right? Yep. Kel, Oh, before I. go over you, can I ask Marcus something really quick? Because I think I know a little secret about Servit. So with respect to the technology piece, Marcus, with Servit, someone in the chat just actually said, they have to use whoever the insurance company dictates, and it's kind of a problem because they're constantly chasing those people. What is the status? What is the status? I know we as paralegals, it's incumbent upon us, right, to be organized and diligent and follow-up and be the the case managers. However, how are how are our servant professionals helping us to stay abreast? Because we have multiple cases going on at once. Yeah. I mean, there's quite a bit we could get into with that, but it really is a game changing experience. As opposed to just sending a document off into the abyss with a process serving agency, you get real time updates every step of the way. So there's a portal that you can open up. If you have any questions about what's going on with that serve, I mean, not only are you gonna be getting those email updates all throughout the process, but that's gonna be easy for you to view in your, in your InfoTrack portal as well. So once it's assigned to a server, once it's out for service, getting attempts, the type of attempts that are going out as well, you get real play by play updates on that. So, yeah, the portal gives you gives you, a view into what many paralegals oftentimes don't have with their local or with their process serving agency. I love that because, again, going back to that landlord tenant thing, you know, when we have to prove that well, here in in Nevada that, you know, within a certain period of time, there were certain attempts that happened within certain specific time frames. And, having to call the end of each day to make sure that that happens, you know, is a is a huge pain point for us. So that automation and that, you know, loop of communication is so so helpful for us to keep those deadlines, but also to stay within our workflows. Right? We're not having these weird interruptions or distractions kind of take us out of the the normal workflow that we need to apply because, like Christine was saying, we have so many cases. Most of us have so many cases ongoing that it's hard to keep track of it without something some system helping us. And that proof of service and documentation isn't just like a, you know, excellent customer service thing. This is a requirement by the courts in most circumstances. So, you know, that local rule, double check, triple check, I think this is something that's ingrained in us as paralegals. Right? For every single procedural, task that we're going through, we make sure that we're aligning with the rules every time. I can't tell you how many times I've read that, you know, process serving rule, and yet I reread it every single time I'm going through the motions. So, you know, it's yes. It's repeat, but, and it's default mechanism default operation for us, but it's absolutely essential to getting it right. And as we talked about earlier, you mess up the workflow at the beginning, it's just gonna it's gonna be off balance through the whole rest of the litigation. And we might if you miss something like the statute of limitations, sorry. Out of luck. There's nothing we can do. I do wanna throw in some pro tips here too, Cal, just from, you know, long time, practitioners like you and me and Marcus said, had his stint as a paralegal as well. I mean, from the outset of the case, especially if we're plaintiffing the case, I'm already doing, like, defended domicile research if we're suing a business. I'm checking out who is on the officers. Right? I'm checking out the business report, the statement of information from the California secretary secretary of state. If they are a California business, I'm also looking at, the who can I serve? Right? The registered agent. These are the things that I'm coordinating well in advance before I even, you know, activate the the, order with my chosen process server. These are all things that I'm taking care of, organized, making sure everything, all my ducks in a row before I even start that work order with my process server. So there are, you know, definitely things, you know, is what Kelly had alluded to earlier in terms of operational excellence that we know, right, on our checklist as paralegal's in our workflows that we are doing and handling. Right? We're not necessarily waiting for the attorney to direct us in this regard. We are already ahead of that, and we are doing this type of research ahead of time so that we are preparing for the steps to come. Right? In terms of number three here, which is choosing the process server, vetting your process servers. Right? We are looking at I always end out because our, malpractice insurance asks us about cybersecurity. I even do that and I vet that with my, vendors that I select too. I'm like, tell me about your cybersecurity credit account. You know, tell me what you do in case of a breach. Have you had a breach? How do you report that? You know, because I want to know these types of things because we ultimately as legal professionals, right, we as extensions to the lawyer now, our ethical obligations, our confidential confidentiality obligations. Right? So just some things oh, look at Eric's thing. Preach Christine. I know. Right? Let me step on my cell box real quick here because these are things that can save you for all of those of us that are new here. See, these are things I wish I had a Christine early on in my career that could help me and tell me these things, you know, and to kind of allay some of that nervousness or anxiety that I had when I was engaging in some of these, really consequential and impactful workflows that can affect our cases. Right, Kelly? So even the. the choosing the right process number to work with you. Which, like like you were alluding to there, Christine, it also is very dependent on the environment that we're working within. You know, working in a resource heavy, you know, firm, you might be having to vet those outside vendors beyond what's possible because you have in house capacity to do these things. And so understanding that choosing that process server, it needs to be something that you could sell to the decision makers. Right? So they have to have, you know, integrity and quality and security for all the different components that the decision makers are gonna be considering. And then, you know, if you turn and translate over into the, let's say, government agency side where you're you're receiving the service of process, you know, you're on the receiving end of that and what that looks like and how you decide, and decipher how to work with these different process servers, right, and how to inform them of what the needs are for that specific space to be accepting service of process. And so, you know, those those choosing the process server, even though it seems like, oh, yeah. I work with this person. I should just go there. Understanding that they, the process serving that company, the, like, servant. Right? They are vetting those people, the people that we're working with and trusting to do this task with us, because it's essential to the entire litigation process. I just have this, Cal, too, because this actually happened to me in one of my cases. Actually, two of my cases. Anyone else have the experience where they had a defendant that was a little bit difficult, we'll say, to serve? Where I had good information. I was scoping online, you know, social. I was doing all my, you know, information searches on my legal, database, research database for, you know, the most current address where to find these folks. Right? But sometimes they were so difficult that I had to do a skip trace. I had to ask my process server, right, to get out there and actually do, like I don't remember what they call it, Marcus. Maybe you know the word. I don't wanna say stalking. But, you know, like, they actually had to surveil surveil people, right, and see if they were, the right pea I had to send photographs. I had to send you know, just so that they knew the serve was going to be appropriate on the right person, etcetera. Any. tips on that, Marcus? A good old stakeout. That is sometimes required with those very, evasive, recipients. I think you bring up a a very good point there. Ultimately, I was thinking back to when I first had to choose a process server, when it comes to choosing a process server that, was out of state. So I was a paralegal in Denver at the time and I needed to serve someone in New York, And I had zero idea where to go, how to choose a server. I'm looking at all these websites. I'm like, based on this, I like, this this doesn't give me the information that I need to be able to trust that this person's gonna go out and do a great job with his service. Couple conversations over the phone can be helpful, but really, I mean, you need a track record of being successful at what you do. That's where we can really come into play. I mean, we have thousands of jobs that have gone through the platform nationwide and and with these agencies that have been working on our platform for a very long time, up to fifteen years in many cases, those are I mean, that that right there is proof that what they're doing is successful. The fact that they've been in business for that long, they're clearly doing something right and making their customers happy. So, you know, we can help you with that when it comes to choosing the process server and just being able to send it out and not have to worry about it. Now, these last two, do you have anything else to add Cal before we move on to this? I, we kind of already talked about this issuing and providing documents. Right? Because oh, but pro tip, because depending on your jurisdiction, like, in San Diego, sometimes there's additional documents that are required. For example, anyone else have a requirement to serve ADR, alternative dispute resolution materials. Right? Because the because the court wants us to attempt to use, methods outside of the court, right, outside of litigation to resolve our issues due to the backlog. Anyone else having backlog issues on their court's docket and scheduling motions? I tried to get a motion date today. Yeah. Let's see how far I get pushed out. I don't know. I'm thinking six months, but we'll see. We'll see if I can get one within the next three months. Anyway, I digress. So, make sure again to look at your rules and see what your rules require if, there are any additional documents that are required to be served effectuate that service of process so that you are in compliance. But these next two, the tracking attempts and communication, you've already heard us talking about this and the proof of service and documentation. Because when I have to move to, like, a service by publication, I have to demonstrate to the court that I indeed had, you know, these attempts, right, that are in compliance and conformance with these local rules of court two point dot one, two dot one dot five of the San Diego Superior Court Rules Division two civil, right, when I'm in my civil case mode. I have to make sure that we satisfy all that. So these tech tools are extraordinarily important for someone like me, right, where I'm hustling, I'm moving, and I'm moving from state cases to federal cases. That also can, trip people up because the rules are so different. The rules are quite different in federal court as they are in superior court and state court. So having oh, by the way, does anyone have an integration, like, with InfoTrack? And, like, I think they integrate with, like, Clio is one of them as an example for law practice management where these things are seamlessly, right, seamlessly integrated, and they speak to one another. So there isn't, duplicity. There isn't redundancy because when we're talking about best practices or operational excellence, those things matter because they take time. Right? When I'm bouncing from system to system to system to notate the same thing over and over or pulling one, document, uploading one file into, like, my local drive before it goes into my document management system or DMS, Those are multiple steps where we can make more efficient, especially if you have high volume for in the practice area such as PI or family law or something of that nature. Anyone else have anything to add here while we're talking about the tech tools? Again, this is gonna come down to some resources. You know, I think it it's good to point out that there are tech tools available no matter what the resource, you know, fund looks like, here. And, Marcus, could you kind of point us to what you see from tech tools being used, you know, for very robust, you know, sort of resource rich and the the more lean resource, side of things in the environmental or in the illegal environment. Yeah. Of course. So kind of playing off what you were saying earlier there, Christine, with, being able to order directly from your Clio account, InfoTrack partners with a number of practice management softwares, all of the most popular ones. So, essentially, what that gives you the ability to do is directly from that practice management software, rather than having to draft up an email or print out documents for your process server to come and pick up, you click a button, you launch the integration, and you ship the documents from that matter to the process server, and we've recently relaunched a feature that actually extracts the pertinent data from those documents. So you can do this without even having to type out a single thing on your keyboard. What? Rather I mean, we've all seen those cases with what, 20 different defendants on there or something like that. Could you imagine having to type all that information out including the addresses? I have, speaking of PTSD from earlier, still have PTSD from a few cases like that back when I was a paralegal. Rather than doing that, it's automatically pulled from the documents to make you as efficient as possible in what you do and to hopefully alleviate some of the stress that can come with that because we know how that works with deadlines. And in addition to that, we pair the process serving and the filing components together as well because oftentimes you're submitting your documents for filing and then they need to be served. So, we have a file serve file functionality, which includes that case initiation, the filing of the or the the process serving immediately after, and then serve or the filing of the proof of service just behind that. So, plenty efficient. of I know. And, Right? you know, I can say in, you know, having supported some landlord tenant cases, that sort of, you know, direct connection, that direct automation is so helpful, because it it it eliminates that sort of human manual, you know, kind of communication tactics. And it it just makes it a lot more seamless of an operation. So, as we say, Cal operator error, right? exactly. Or there are fat finger syndrome or oops, Mhmm. I forgot it well off my list. It's just it's when we talk about best practica practices, really, we look at automation as our friend. Mhmm. Right? It's the same thing that we taught you about AI and GenAI. Don't be scared and run for it from it. Learn to use it appropriately, professionally, responsibly, and ethically, right, within our rules of professional conduct. So, I think we're gonna move in the interest of time. Like, gosh. We're already at 11:13. I didn't realize this. That goes so fast. Oh my goodness. Let's talk about this because we often talk about pain points. Right? And these are things where the newer folks you know? Because sometimes this is something that Kel and I really, talk about quite a lot and try to problem solve is that because we work with so many students. You know, and we think, oh gosh, here we are in class and we have all of this information we're trying to impart to our students and that's a lot. It's a lot of information, right, especially when we're talking about procedural due process, substitute due process, case law, rules, procedures, all this stuff. Right? It's a lot. And then if we don't give you opportunity to learn, to practically engage and provide hands on opportunities. Right? And we Kel and I used to say, gosh. Remember in Spanish Lab back in the day, you know, in high school, they would make us, like, practice, right, you know, with the headphones and just practice speaking in Spanish and stuff? We don't have that in law. You know, there's no apprenticeships. There's no there's none of that. Not for lawyers, not for paralegals. So you learn on the job. But if you're lucky enough to have, teachers like Kelly and myself, we find ways because we partner with folks like Infotrack with, because they even have the e filing. We actually Kelly and I have started since last year beta beta ing and testing within our, classrooms how to demonstrate e filing processes to our students because it's such an important function of their job. And they're expected to know that by work with their work, their employers. Right? We think about these workforce needs and what we're doing as instructors and to make sure that there is a practical application and there is the conduit. We are the bridge for that so that you have the tactical. Right? You have that tactical, experience as well. So, the mistakes to avoid. Right? We cannot I know. It sounds like we're harping now. Are we harping enough? Because you should, remember. this. One of the key takeaways, don't ignore your jurisdiction specific service rules. I cited for you. Rule two dot one dot five of San Diego Superior Court rules. I'm sure in your own specific jurisdiction in Florida and wherever you're situated, Nevada, wherever you are, that there are very specific rules in that regard. Right? And then delaying server assignments during the holidays. I mean, not just that because we don't even know what a service schedule is, let alone the people that we're trying to serve. Are they out of town? Are they you know, like, we have to make sure, especially during times like this when people are traveling away from home or the address that we have on file. We have to take these things into account. This is what we're talking about, tactical strategy. You're getting ahead, right, of that mission. Our mission is to get this served to the right person within the rules. Correct? And so these are things that we have to consider. Also, those multiple, attempts. Right, Kelly? Because coming from your lens, what are some of the things that you've seen? Well and that's just it. I mean, the the different, so in those different arenas, right, your timelines look different. So, it's I I just know in the government side, we're we're we are encountering where people are we're we're being served, and nobody knows where the proper place is to serve it. So, but there's not there's not an ability for somebody that's receiving service to educate that person on the other side of where the proper place to serve this is. That's their obligation. And so, you know, understanding we can avoid this mistake, you know, we can avoid delays in service. We can avoid, you know, the jurisdictional specific service rules, like crossing over those if we fully communicate with who we're working with, on what the needs are there. And so that depending on where you are, we need to know who to serve. When I walk into an office, you know, where who is the process server going to go to? There might be multiple individuals and there are no name tags. So how you know, knowing these informations, and then failing to track those attempts. So in Nevada, if you can't serve by publication, there's not a a mechanism to serve by publication if you have not exhausted all of those other avenues first. And so if we didn't track those attempts, we have basically waived the option to go with that method. And so, we can't assume that the service the process server is going to file those proofs of service or attempts of service each time. That is a communication thing, and we have to communicate with them what our needs are. So we have to know what the needs are jurisdictionally. Right? Marcus, do you have anything in there that, that you would you think Servant really helps solve that pain point between, you know, tracking those multiple attempts and the assumption for this filing of the proof of service. I know you mentioned earlier that, there's that file and serve or the serve option, which, from our end, I know that's been super helpful, because I can just automate into the system and I want I just check a box. I want this or this or this, and everything's there. So is there any other features you think are really helpful to help us avoid those mistakes? Oh, yeah. There is plenty built into the software to help you out with this. Going to the tracking of real time attempts. So our servers using the serve manager application to fulfill the work actually log GPS information for those serves as well. So anytime they're at an address, you get real GPS timestamp included with that. They include photos of their service as well, along with, maybe a person actually being served video in some instances if that's allowed by the particular court. In addition to that, when it's time for the affidavit, so that's actually sent back to the person who submit the submitted the order and give give them the option to go in and review the proof of service to ensure that it is correct, it meets the paralegal standards. All the i's are dotted, t's are crossed. So you get one last chance to look at look for it before releasing payment to the process server and also, if you chose the bundled service, then the filing of the affidavit. So you're still involved in that process. You get the green light. You're you have the chance to give the green light to send that off, and keep things moving along there. So, yeah, a few safeguards. Those are just a few of them that are built into the the service software that make a huge difference for paralegals. That's incredible. And look at Joy in the chat. She's like, photos. Genius. Right, Joy? I mean, like, this is what I talk about when I say trusted partners. Right? Because if I can't do it myself, the people that I bring on, I want to make sure they're gonna do it equally as well as I am or better. Right? Because I know what I'm putting into it. If you're Kelly and I said this in a previous session, gigo, g I g o, garbage in equals garbage out. Right? So we have to make sure we have to make sure that we are vetting properly, that we are, you know, even doing our due diligence and asking asking around and asking our colleagues and community, who do you use? What was your experience with them? You know, and these features and services, thank you Marcus for sharing this because some of us who have retained, like, various process servers throughout the years may not know these things are are available. Right? And this is amazing because GPS, you know, geospatial stamping and videos and photos. I mean, talk about evidentiary requirements. Hello. Check. Met. Because, you know, I can demonstrate to the court. Look at that. Yes. Indeed. I did attempt at this date at this time at this location at this person. You know, they may have to do a very good description of the person who was served if it's on behalf. Like, for example, I had to do multiple attempts to an agency, a governmental agency here in my region. And boy, do you better make you know, I made sure that the, process server was really making good documented, efforts so that I could demonstrate to the hearing officer, right, that indeed these documents were served, in this fashion, in accordance with the rules. And, also, it's so funny, a lot of us, on the chat are already ahead of us for point number five, failing to update attorneys and clients promptly. And people are, like, updating attorneys, what's that? You know? Like, sometimes we forget. Gee. We have to do that. We have to let the attorney know. Guess what? Service of process has been effectuated, so what's the next step? Because remember, I well, for me at least. I don't know about you all, but I am always, like, 10 steps ahead of the attorneys because I'm trying to, you know, what I tell my students, like, quarterback. I'm constantly, like, scope, scope, scope the field. You know? Like, ah, tears. I'm trying to figure out where the pit falls. How can I save us? You know? Run a play that's gonna really prevent us from getting tripped up. Hail? Because. I want I know what the mission is. I want us to move the case. Move it along. Right? But I have to be able to communicate that well, not only the communication between me and my trusted partner, that process server, but then I can communicate that equally to the attorney and then also to our client that has hired and retained us. It's paying us a lot of money oftentimes, and they're hard earned money to advocate on their behalf. And I want them to know that we are here for them and that we are really working hard for them, right, and really using these resources well for them so that they can get justice because that's a lot of us. Right? We are in this field even when it's hard, even when it's grueling sometimes and we ask ourselves why do I still do this after twenty years? We are champions of justice. Mhmm. We get to assist with, some of the most critical things that happen for regular folks like us. Right? That need help, that need legal help, that have problems. And, you know, their their their hard earned money matters and that we actually get to be part of that. And this is why we demand of ourselves operational excellence. We demand that of our trusted partners, our business partners, in effectuating these workflows. Right? So really understanding what we are required to do, but also how is it that we bring in other folks, right, in our community to help us with these workflows because we can't do this alone. Even though I like to say, I'm a department of one, but I rely on my community. Right? I rely on sometimes I'll be pinging Kelly. So what about this? What do you think about this? You know? Or, people other folks in my community, you know, my longtime trial mentor of twenty plus years. I text on the daily for, questions that I still have twenty years in practice. So this the communication thing and you recall Kelly and our big advocates of durable skills. Right? Using you know, leveraging our technology and optimizing our technology, but also, right, understanding the human centered aspect of law and why we are doing what we do, the importance of it. It. Right? And understanding that, you know, there are resources available for you. Thank you again to Infotrack. Thank you to Marcus for being here and lending your expertise and your years as a paralegal and what you're seeing in terms of this very important workflow in our world as paralegals. Right? So stay connected. Build that community. Ask questions. Connect with people like this. Kelly and I are both on LinkedIn. Connect with us there. Right? And, again, thank you, Infotrax. Joe, I see that you're back. I'm assuming you wanna get started on the solid spreading of the holiday cheer and, Yeah. Yeah. get the guys. wanna give away some, prizes? Yeah. Alright. Okay. Alright. So, Marcus, I'm gonna spin the wheel, and I want you to call out the winners' names. Okay? Perfect. Let's get that prize wheel up and running. I will do my best. Bob Barker impression here, so sorry in advance for that. Hey, Christine. Will you, turn off your, screen share? Perfect. Alright. Let's pull up our prize wheel. Let's see if I can find it here. There it is. Alright. Here we go. So we'll start with the $100 one first, just so that everyone has a chance to win that one. So here we go. Who wins the $100 gift card? $100 Amazon gift card. Spinning away. Quite a few names in here, but luckily, we've got plenty of prizes to give out. No. I there we go. Yep. Larissa. Marissa, Hanson. that's our. veteran. Woo you. here, Larissa? She is. Yeah. Alright. Congratulations. You won the $100 gift card. Congrats on the win. That's the big one. Very. Alright. nice. Now to see who wins a $50 gift card. $50 gift card coming up next. Big money. Big money. Rum roll. Alright. Well, this. So works for us, so, we're that take them out. Let's do one more. internal. We need to spin again on that one, Yeah. Joe. Sorry, Sophie. Yeah. We can't be giving the prices, away to. info. track employees. Respect the hustle there. Good to know that we're all watching our show, though. Yeah. Brianna. Ortega. Congratulations. Yeah. Are you here, Brianna? She is. Alright. Perfect. Yes. Alright. One more. Here we Love getting do I get card? started. The holidays started early here with giving out some gifts. This is awesome. Alright. Yes. One more coming up. One more. One more. One more. Madison Martinez. Congratulations. Are you here? Going once. Going twice. Let's do one, more. come on, Madison. Are you here? Alright. Well, we'll. see. Spin it again. Yeah. You gotta stay to win. Gift cards are for closers. Haley Huggins. Alright. Hailey, congrats. Are you here? Hailey, going one. Alright. That's, great. your gift game in the chat has been cracking me up. I've had to mute myself just a couple times here because I was about to laugh out loud mid presentation. I just laugh. out loud. I can't help it. Britney Jensen, are you here? Let's do one more try. Oh, Britney's here. Britney's here. She just. popped up on the. chat. She's. here. Alright. There good. Okay. We're good. Britney's, let's. give out what do you say we give out one more bonus gift card too? I wanna a soggy. Yay. Woo hoo. Got a bonus. we go. Mhmm. Alright. Well, there we go. So, Marcus, we have quite a few people here who didn't win. So what if we shared a link to give people one more chance to enter to win? Does that sound. Yeah. good to. you? Let's let's send it out. Share the love there. Alright. You'll find it in the documents tab, but I'll go ahead and share it here in the chat as well just so everyone has it. One second. And yep. Here it is in the chat. Just go ahead and click that link, answer a few quick questions, and then you are entered to win. Thank you, Christine, Kelly, and Marcus. That's this was such a great presentation, and I really love the chat. Everyone who came out really just brought their knowledge, their info, their pain points. It looks like we're not you the there are a lot of people who have a lot of different challenges with, service and process. So excellent. Before I go, I'd also just wanna wish everyone a happy, safe, warm holiday and, to just, enjoy yourselves, and we'll see you in the coming years. Are are you guys ready to do some more paralegal power hour in 2026? Who wants more? Twenty twenty six paralegal. power hour. Yes. Yeah. And don't forget, slay all day. Happy holidays. Everyone. Happy holidays, everyone. We're so thankful for you. Happy holidays. Thanks, Kelly. Thanks, Christine. Thanks, Marcus. That was great. It was great talking with you today. And thanks. to all of. the people who joined us today. We see you. all in chat. Thank you so much for that love. Happy holidays. holidays. Keep doing what you do. We need you. Mhmm.