If I were in a situation like this for my company, I would happily accept and sign for any such notice. I’m more interested in things being resolved than some middle manager and his petty fiefdom. If someone at my joint did something wrong, fuck them. I get called out on my screw-ups, why shouldn’t they? And if nobody did anything wrong, then we need to defend ourselves fully against whatever the claim is.
What’s sad is that a manager actually had the moxie to counsel an employee against what is arguably a moral issue (if not legal). I’d have asked the manager, “Are you saying that one of the expectations for employees is helping the company sidestep legal processes? May I have this in writing?” At best, the advice should have been to direct the process server to the correct location, perhaps corporate counsel or an executive office or something.
Serving the company is one thing, but coming to work to serve an individual gets dicey. You really don’t want to let someone in and have them hand divorce papers to some dude in the middle of a work day in front of everyone.
Get some policies written and have them approved by the powers that be. If it’s above your pay grade, make them write the decision down.
A friend of mine once delivered subpoenas for a living (it was good to be working) and he carried a can of mace around with him. On one job, he actually had to use it on both the dude holding a shotgun and on the angry German Shepherd the dude unleashed on him. Friend got away unscathed. (Edit: This was in Florida, in case anyone is wondering).
Really? On the contrary, without any instructions one way or another, or the inside scoop on what’s going on, do you really think it’s a good idea to take it into your own hands and take up arms against a process server? Ignorantly taking that kind of action could potentially have serious consequences for the company, especially given what other people have said about how it’s often silly to try and avoid being served.
True, he probably should have passed the buck and called up a manager so THEY can deal with it, but lacking that or prior instruction it isn’t unreasonable to accept a piece of paper and pass it along. Blindly taking a stand as a representative of a larger body without without knowing the full story or being authorized to do so can be disastrous.
I actually did call up a manager to accept it, she just didn’t know what to do and couldn’t get a hold of counsel so she asked us to stall the guy. I did let the guy in the office to wait, instead of leaving him in the lobby. It’s after he got tired of waiting that he dropped the subpoena and left.
Nobody is expecting an employee to “take up arms” against a process server (WTF, way to lose credibility for your argument, Cosmic Hippo). The question was whether you should open a locked door at what is presumably an employee entrance for them.
The argument that it’s not your responsibility if it’s not clearly set forth in the rules doesn’t really work. Obviously there are situations where you should refuse people entry even if you haven’t been given explicit instructions not to admit them. Person holding a gun? Naked guy? Disgruntled employee who was fired yesterday and escorted out by security? The boss shouldn’t have to hand you a list in order for you to keep them out. Your basic common sense should do that without hand-holding by your supervisor.
So rather than oversimplifying it by saying “Well I wasn’t specifically told not to,” the real question is whether an average person of common sense would think admitting a process server is a good idea or not. I’m probably the wrong person to ask since I’ve been a lawyer for ages. My guess is that most people probably wouldn’t realize the ramifications, so Nathan is probably right to be annoyed at his boss. But it’s not a slam-dunk question. If you polled a hundred office workers, I’m not sure how many would say “Let them in” versus “Check with the boss first” or whatever.
Edit: Nathan’s replied since I started typing my reply, which clarifies the situation somewhat. I was under the impression that he had accepted service, but apparently he didn’t (although he let the person in so they could serve the company by leaving the sub there – whether that counts or not, I don’t know).
Um, in retrospect, my earlier post reads very differently from what it sounded like in my head when I wrote it. Sorry. I meant it as more of a flippant figure of speech than crazy hyperbole. I plead exhaustion - it’s finals week and I’m behind in my research to boot ;-)
I’m reading the situation a lot more differently than you are, though. My experience with corporate buildings with reception and locked front doors has mostly been that they’ll buzz most people in initially and call security/tell them to leave if it becomes an issue or their reason for being there isn’t legit. You can still be refused entry at the reception desk after being buzzed in. The way you’re reading it, sure, letting in someone claiming to be a process server is a problem the same way letting in someone claiming to be the mailman is a problem. The way Nathan wrote his initial post says to me that it isn’t unusual to let non-employees and the like in, though.
The argument that it’s not your responsibility if it’s not clearly set forth in the rules doesn’t really work. Obviously there are situations where you should refuse people entry even if you haven’t been given explicit instructions not to admit them. Person holding a gun? Naked guy? Disgruntled employee who was fired yesterday and escorted out by security? The boss shouldn’t have to hand you a list in order for you to keep them out. Your basic common sense should do that without hand-holding by your supervisor.
So rather than oversimplifying it by saying “Well I wasn’t specifically told not to,” the real question is whether an average person of common sense would think admitting a process server is a good idea or not. I’m probably the wrong person to ask since I’ve been a lawyer for ages. My guess is that most people probably wouldn’t realize the ramifications, so Nathan is probably right to be annoyed at his boss. But it’s not a slam-dunk question. If you polled a hundred office workers, I’m not sure how many would say “Let them in” versus “Check with the boss first” or whatever.
Edit: Nathan’s replied since I started typing my reply, which clarifies the situation somewhat. I was under the impression that he had accepted service, but apparently he didn’t (although he let the person in so they could serve the company by leaving the sub there – whether that counts or not, I don’t know).
I can better see where you’re coming from given your edit, but if all the server needs to do is leave papers with some dude at the front desk, then it’s the company’s responsibility to make sure said dude knows that.
Also, you’re either misinterpreting my point or I misstated it (probably the latter). I’m not saying his boss should give him a list, or that just because nobody said he shouldn’t let someone in it’s all okay. I’m saying that a process server doesn’t fall under the realm of common sense the way your gun-wielding naked guy does.
Imagine that you know very little about how it all works and here’s this person at the door talking about law and process service and official documents and whatnot. What if the information is time-sensitive and failing to respond will hurt the company? You don’t know. Turning the server away is not the obvious solution without first getting more information. Personally, I’ve never had to wait outside while my story is checked out if there’s a reception desk. They let you in, get the full story, and then call up to whoever while they ask you to wait (and if you don’t, they can call security). Again, if you - back in our receptionist narrative - simply looking over some papers is legally binding, then that should be made clear to you by your employer, because at least to me that doesn’t seem at all in the realm of common sense.
Service of process is done to provide a person personal notice of a lawsuit, thus making them subject to the personal jurisdiction of the court. When a process server hands the documents to someone, he then executes an affidavit stating where, when, who, etc., thus establishing the notice was given. Then, if the person doesn’t bother to respond, the court may issue a binding legal order.
If the person being sued is a corporation, there are rules about who can accept service on behalf of the company, usually a designated service agent (Pitney-Bowes does a lot of this) or a vice-president or higher.
Based on what what you stated in your initial post, Nathan, it appears that:
(1) The lawyer fucked up by trying to effect personal service on a corporate entity when all that was needed was to send the service to the designated agent who can be determined with minimal effort.
(2) The process server fucked up by serving on a low-level minion rather than someone who is an officer of the corporation.
(3) You fucked up by letting a process server into a locked door to accept service (a judgment call you were not empowered to make), creating what could be argued to be partially-valid service, which must be then dealt with by your employer’s legal department at great expense (as all things legal are).
(4) Your employer fucked up by not telling you, a front-line employee, what to do if a process server came by.
I’d save the attitude for when you are more clearly in the right.
In response to OP:
A. Not being served that day may have been of certain benefit or whatever to your company.
B. The boss could still claim to be the janitor and refuse to accept being served (not quite legal but whatever).
C. After couple times of dodging, the next serving will be done by cops busting in with a court order forcing a subpoena and possibly conducting an arrest/fine ticket for the continued evasion thereof.
D. If the call is of a legal nature, go fetch legal and have them answer the door. Never handle legal-related issues in any capacity. No action is the best action - for you.
I work at a helpdesk.
…
So today, a server came to our locked front door, called from the door phone and said that he had a subpoena for the department.
So, the first thing that came through my head was a server standing in the door and asking to get in.
A server.
Took me several seconds to realize that it’s server as in a human being serving subpoena forms.
DURRR!!!
I sub hospitals/pharmacies/corporations regularly and would never bother to get a runner to serve some local office. Secretary of State website->Registered Agent of Service->Certified Mail. The attorney fucked up.
I also agree that you fucked up letting a process server in. No, it’s not a big deal and they would obtain service some other way, but there’s no reason to just let a process server inside your business. There are mechanisms for dealing with that sort of thing, which you should have been made aware of.
I think you would have to. It’s not like you can be like “I’d like to see Mr. Ford Motor Company, please.” I would assume most of the time the person issuing the subpoena doesn’t even know the name of the person who could give them what they need, so they just send it out to “Custodian of Records” or “Person Most Knowledgeable.”
