Port St. Lucie | Okeechobee
Stuart | Vero Beach
(772) 207-1544

What Happens If a Process Server Can’t Serve You?

The majority of process recipients are pretty easy to find, but from time to time, a recipient is incredibly difficult to find. When this happens, process servers turn up the heat and employ all of their resources to track down the process recipient. But what happens if you still cannot locate the process’ intended recipient after you’ve searched everywhere? In this post, we’ll cover how thorough process servers are expected to be and options when a process recipient cannot be found.

Diligence is Key

Process servers are responsible for delivering court documents to the appropriate individuals, so it’s important that they’re diligent in their work. If they can’t serve someone, they must take steps to ensure that the individual is made aware of the documents. Continue reading

Common Challenges Process Servers Face

Serving process here in Florida can be pretty challenging. Process servers face many obstacles when attempting to perform this basic legal function, some of which can be quite difficult to overcome. Some of the most common challenges process servers face while working include:

People Who Don’t Want to be Found

No one enjoys a visit from a process server. At best, you’re being called as a witness. At worst, you’re being sued. Either way, frustration is in your future. Some people deal with this impending stress by avoiding the process server. This is always a mistake and never actually results in them not having to appear in court. In fact, it could land them in jail…but that doesn’t stop people from trying. The extra time and effort that must be spent to try to locate people who don’t want to be found is by far a process server’s #1 challenge. Continue reading

Legal Process After Filing a Lawsuit

So you’ve filed a small claim or civil lawsuit in St. Lucie County…now what? What are the next steps you need to know in order to be sure you get your day in court? In this post, we’ll discuss the legal process after filing a civil lawsuit here on the Treasure Coast.

Once your small claims or a civil lawsuit is filed with the St. Lucie County Clerk of Court, the following steps must be taken by the plaintiff (the one who filed the lawsuit): Continue reading

April Newsletter 2022

Message from the Founder

We have great news in the process serving world in regards to service of process originating from the great state of Michigan.  The Governor signed Senate Bill 244 into law on March 23, 2022.  The law will go into effect 180 days from that date, so September 20, 2022.

What does the Bill say and what changes will take place? The main change in this Bill is the change of the current requirement of needing Affidavits of Service to only requiring a written Statement of Service, or a Return of Service that does not need to be notarized. A Return of Service is without notary and an Affidavit of Service has a notary block on it.

If you are an Attorney in Michigan, this article is a Heads Up for you. If you start seeing Returns of Service for MI cases now, that is not good. But, if you start seeing them closer to the end of the year, just know that it is proper at that point (after 9-20-22).

The entire Bill is attached for your viewing pleasure.

Beau Charlet
https://www.theaccurateservefranchise.com/

Leave A Review!
FRANCHISEE: PLANTATION

Bring on the sunshine! Spring is here and as it does every year it brings a change of seasons. Out with the old and in with the new for 2022! This year Accurate Serve® Plantation has a big change to share as well. There has been a change in ownership and management for the Plantation office. Moving forward, when you reach out to our Plantation office you will be greeted by myself and my team. I personally have over 8 years of experience in the industry and operating Accurate Serve® Offices. My team oversees offices throughout Fort Myers, Port St. Lucie, Dallas and Houston and I am excited to extend our customer services into the Miami area.

There will be no changes to the way that you send us work. You can email the documents for service to serve@accurateserveplantation.com or submit the work through our websites ‘send work’ tab here www.accurateserveplantation.com/sendwork

What you can expect moving forward is, friendly and professional customer service, timely responses to emails/phone calls and updates on jobs. Quick turnaround on signed returns/affidavits.

Accurate Serve® Plantation is revamped for the 2022 year and I am excited to work with our current and new clients down the road. My office is here for any of your processing serving needs, no matter the location of service you can email us the documents. My team will always confirm receipt of your emails and we will keep you updated on our progress for each job.

If you are a current customer, THANK YOU! Your business is greatly appreciated and I have enjoyed meeting you through phone and email conversations. If you have used our services in the past, please contact us the next time you are in need of service in order to meet our new team. I look forward to assisting Attorneys and Paralegals alike with your process serving needs and earning your business.

Thank you,

Brandon Muscato
Need our help?
Call (954) 770-9997

or
Email serve@accurateserveplantation.com

Leave A Review!
QUICK TIDBIT!
Did you know that FL courts started e-filing on 4-1-13?  That was close to 9 years ago. Before e-filing, we would walk stacks of cases into the Clerk’s office and let them stamp and file everything with hard copies. Those sure were different times.
Word of the Month: Intersperse – to insert or place at intervals
M A R C H
3/13 – Daylight Savings Time
3/17 – Happy St. Patricks Day!
3/20 – First Day of Spring
Office Anniversaries
Tampa, FL
February 2022 Job Statistics

February 2022 Job Count – 4,045
Average Number of Days from Receiving Paper to Paper Being Served* – 6.04

*This includes jobs that may be on hold or waiting for new info. There is no way to take those jobs out of the calculation. So, if a job is placed on hold for 2 weeks, that’s 14 days on that job which factors in to this average. So, we’re even better than what the eyes see, LOL. Some papers get served same day, some next day and some take multiple attempts/addresses to effect service. All we do all day and every day is serve papers. We’re good at it and we love what we do. Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to continue to serve your papers.

CLICK HERE TO FIND YOUR ACCURATE SERVE LOCATION
We Are Proud Sponsors of:
Copyright © 2022 Accurate Serve, All rights reserved.

Tips to Avoid Process Server Scams

Process serving is an essential function of the legal system, so it may come as a surprise to learn that there are many scams out there involving fraudulent servers. These disreputable servers advertise cut-rate service prices, then often take their victims’ money and run. If they do attempt to serve the case process, any work they do is invalid since they don’t meet the requirements to be a process server in Florida.

Protect yourself from process server scams by thoroughly vetting all servers you are planning to hire with the following three checks: Continue reading

February Newsletter 2022

Message from the Founder

Fore!!
One of the 2 official Accurate Serve® golf teams were in full swing last week. We had the privilege to play in the 7th Annual Lakeland Bar Association Golf Tournament.  The AS team consisted of Beau Charlet (me), Ty Hurner, Derek Keating and Cameron Cole.
The AS team was 1 of 12 teams that competed that day.  We were proud to shoot a 67, 5 under par.  This was a best ball tournament so I contributed more in the laughter department rather than the skill portion but I did put a great team together that could really swing the clubs.  Our team fell 4 strokes off the lead, see below results:
1st: Drew Moody; Taylor Rogers; Barrett Sumner; and Robbie VanDruten
2nd: Kevin Albaum; Zach Brown; John Lancaster; and Brad Stainsby
3rd: Zach Sellars; Tony Allen; Steve Runfeldt; and JP Runfeldt

And the Long Drive Award went to: Dave Dismuke

This was the 2nd year our team competed in this tournament.  Although we have yet to win, we have never failed to have a great time.
Cheers!!

Beau Charlet
https://www.theaccurateservefranchise.com/

Leave A Review!
FRANCHISEE: HOUSTON

As we get through the late stages of our winter months Accurate Serve® Houston would like to continue providing new clients with a warm welcome and a team that is on fire when it comes to serving process.

For the month of January our office had an average of 4.5 days from when we received a job to when it was served. Our routine service is attempted every 2-4 days, so this average shows that the majority of our jobs are served within 1-2 attempts. Once a job is served our team is getting the signed returns back to our clients within a day, on average. These are numbers that I am proud to share as our team works hard to provide the best service possible. Even then, we will continue to work on getting these averages lower.

If you have worked with our team and enjoyed the experience there are two things you can do that would be a huge help to our office. First, google review. Your positive feedback would be greatly appreciated and allows us to share with the world the 5 star service we want to provide all of our clients. A Google review can be left here – www.accurateservehouston.com/review

Second, refer us to a friend/colleague. We would love the opportunity to speak with any Attorney, Paralegal or Pro Se that you know and have the opportunity to earn their business. The best way to refer to our office is, have them call and let us know that you sent them our way, or make an email introduction. Both of these methods provide a great way for my office to introduce ourselves and let the potential client know about our services and how we can help them.

P.S. – Accurate Serve® Houston is looking for a local Paralegal Association to sponsor. I have had no luck contacting anyone from the association I have reached out to. If you know of someone I can reach from the Houston Metropolitan Paralegal Association or another association in the area please send me that contact information.

Knock knock knock… You’ve been served!

Brandon Muscato
Need our help?
Call (346) 226-3111
or
Email serve@accurateservehouston.com

FRANCHISEE: DETROIT

Accurate Serve® of Detroit opened for Business October of 2020 coming up on 16months. It was off to a tough start in the Motor City having a lot of business with the Law Firms and the Courts being done from home on ZOOM calls. We have grown and adapted with our clients and as a company since that time. While the Courts houses are still closed indefinitely in some of our locations we are able to combat that with appointments, emails, and phone calls. The Courts have worked really well with us getting out of state subpoenas for these cases. Being able to mail them in and being able to have a server go pick them up. Our clients have recognized that we are able to overcome, adapt, and be successful during these difficult times with COVID-19. We will continue to use all of our available resources moving forward to accomplish the task at hand.

Another key to the success of the Detroit Office lies in our 40 plus franchises that are operating prior to opening this office. The wealth of knowledge, experience, and integrity have helped shape the values and success of Accurate Serve® of Detroit. Rest assured If I do not have the answer, I will be more than happy to let you know I don’t, but I will get you the answer from the correct and reliable sources.

We have grown a lot in the last 16 months and look to continue to spread our wings into the future. We look to be more involved in Wayne and Oakland county with our clients. We are looking forward to understanding these needs in a constantly changing future to better serve you.

Take care,

Erik Devlin
Need our help?
Call (313) 385-3703
or
Email erik@accurateservedetroit.com

Visit the Detroit Website
Leave A Review!
QUICK TIDBIT!
Did you realize that we had 2 days in the month of February where every digit of the date was the same number? 2-2-22 and 2-22-22. These dates are also referred to as palindrome dates. A palindrome date reads the same backward or forward.
Word of the Month: Yen – A strong desire, urge or craving for something.
F E B R U A R Y
2/14 – Happy Valentine’s Day
American Heart Month
Black History Month
Office Anniversaries
St. Augustine, FL
Orange Park, FL
January 2022 Job Statistics

January 2022 Job Count – 4,047
Average Number of Days from Receiving Paper to Paper Being Served* – 5.9

*This includes jobs that may be on hold or waiting for new info. There is no way to take those jobs out of the calculation. So, if a job is placed on hold for 2 weeks, that’s 14 days on that job which factors in to this average. So, we’re even better than what the eyes see, LOL. Some papers get served same day, some next day and some take multiple attempts/addresses to effect service. All we do all day and every day is serve papers. We’re good at it and we love what we do. Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to continue to serve your papers.

CLICK HERE TO FIND YOUR ACCURATE SERVE LOCATION
We Are Proud Sponsors of:
Copyright © 2022 Accurate Serve, All rights reserved.

Ways a Document Retrieval Company is Helpful to Law Firms

When you work for a legal firm that handles hundreds or thousands of cases per year, the number of documents that must be retrieved to litigate those cases is staggering. With privacy laws tightening, more effort than ever is required to solicit and retrieve the various documents a law firm needs to operate successfully.

Don’t let document retrieval become a time and resource drain for your firm. Accurate Serve® can slash the time and expense it takes to retrieve case documents, along with providing the fastest and most professional process service in Florida. Legal firms that take advantage of the auxiliary legal services we provide run more efficiently, resulting in less stress on your staff and more success for your clients.

Our document retrieval services benefit law firms by: Continue reading

January Newsletter 2022

Message from the Founder

This is Us

People do business with people they KnowLike and Trust. This is a popular phrase in business groups, networking circles and amongst entrepreneurs. This is also a common phrase I use in the AS chat forum and on our monthly conference calls. Now, I would like to use it for this article in our Newsletter, so let’s take a look.

Get to Know Us (if you don’t already)

  • Accurate Serve® was founded in 2009 in Lakeland, FL by Beau Charlet (that’s me)
  • In 2012, we opened our first franchised office in Jacksonville, FL. The Tallahassee office opened a few months after the Jax office.
  • Each franchisee is required to attend an extensive training program before they can open their office. During that time, every aspect of running an AS office is taught, re-taught and touched on time and time again. Our Owners are prepared when they open for business.
  • We have 38 offices in FL and offices in 5 other states (AL, CO, MI, GA and TX).
  • The AS team has served over 50,000 papers each year for 4 years in a row which makes us one of the largest process serving companies in the nation AND we are the only franchise based system in our industry (that I know of, LOL). So, although we are one large company, we are made up of several smaller companies, all locally owned and operated by someone in your community.

Do you Like Us?

  • First off for social media purposes, please like/follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn. As for FaceBook, each AS office has their own page, so please visit your point of contact’s website and look in the upper right hand corner for the icon to link to their Biz FB page.
  • Are you a new Client for AS?  Or, have you been with us for years? Have you had a chance to write a Google review? If so, thanks so much!! If not, we hope that we can deliver superior service to you day in and day out and maybe one day, you can hit us up with that Review.
  • Speaking of Reviews, each AS website has a page of their reviews. If you have not had a chance to read those, please do so. This will tell you what other companies think about us and our service.

And you can definitely Trust Us:

  • Know that all Returns/Affidavits are valid on their face. In FL, if a Process Server knowingly and willingly executes a false return, they can be banned from serving process forever. Just know that this will never be an issue with anyone working for an Accurate Serve® office.
  • Each month we send out this Newsletter and publish our stats. Some months are stats are not as good as others (many factors can go into this) but we never fudge our numbers. We are transparent in everything that we do.
  • You may be working directly with an AS Owner or you may be working with their office staff, office managers, etc.  There are checks and balances in place in all offices to make sure nothing is missed. From Servers to Employees to Managers to Owners, we all place our trust in each other to work hard every day getting your papers served and trust me, we get the job done!!

That’s all I have for now, take care.

Beau Charlet
https://www.theaccurateservefranchise.com/

Leave A Review!
FRANCHISEE: ATLANTA

Accurate Serve® Atlanta is growing! Our Atlanta office has been open for over 1 year and has secured reliable servers through the state of GA. With contacts ready to go all over the state, we are able to complete your process needs diligently. As your offices start to re-open, we look forward to having in person meetings and getting to know the Paralegals and attorneys throughout the greater Atlanta area. If you have an event planned, let us know! We’d love to attend to get to know your team!

As always we are your one stop shop for any of your process needs nationwide! Our wealth of experience ensure quick handling of your professional casework. Don’t forget about our ever expanding Accurate Serve® office network that is constantly setting up shop in cities nationwide…We are here for you!

With focus on communication to our clients, we ensure they are up to date every step of the way on all services. If you have questions about your file, our team is available by phone or email to ensure your needs are being met. Our goal is to earn your business long term and give you peace of mind while becoming your one stop shop for professional process serving not only in Atlanta but anywhere our clients need. We look forward to hearing from you and happy New Year!

All the best,
Accurate Serve® of Atlanta

James Pantell
Need our help?
Call (404) 924-4838
or
Email jp@accurateserveatlanta.com

Visit the Atlanta Website
Leave A Review!
QUICK TIDBIT!
A lot of people make New year’s Resolutions. The most frequent resolutions you hear are about losing weight, eating healthier or exercising more.  Other resolutions include: spending more time w/ friends/family, taking more vacations, pick up a new hobby.
Word of the Month: Affable – At ease in talking to others.
J A N U A R Y
1/1 – Happy New Year
1/17 – MLK Jr. Day

Office Anniversaries
Daytona Beach, FL
Fort Walton Beach, FL
Kissimmee, FL

Lake Mary, FL
Milton, FL
Naples, FL
New Port Richey, FL
Palm Beach, FL
Panama City, FL
Plantation, FL
St. Pete, FL 

December 2021 Job Statistics

December 2021 Job Count – 4,046
Average Number of Days from Receiving Paper to Paper Being Served* -6.3

*This includes jobs that may be on hold or waiting for new info. There is no way to take those jobs out of the calculation. So, if a job is placed on hold for 2 weeks, that’s 14 days on that job which factors in to this average. So, we’re even better than what the eyes see, LOL. Some papers get served same day, some next day and some take multiple attempts/addresses to effect service. All we do all day and every day is serve papers. We’re good at it and we love what we do. Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to continue to serve your papers.

CLICK HERE TO FIND YOUR ACCURATE SERVE LOCATION
We Are Proud Sponsors of:
Copyright © 2022 Accurate Serve, All rights reserved.

Tips to Avoid Process Server Scams

Process server scams are an unfortunate reality of the industry. Illegitimate, uncertified process servers lure in unsuspecting plaintiffs and attorneys, offering bargain prices and empty promises. By the time the victim finds out that the service they paid for was illegal, it’s usually too late! The defendant in the case can use the improper service by the uncertified process server as grounds to request extension of court dates, suppression of evidence, or even dismissal of the entire case.

Don’t risk your entire case by using a cut-rate process server. Instead, use the following tips to vet any process server you are considering hiring, and protect yourself from unscrupulous scammers: Continue reading

December Newsletter 2021

Message from the Founder

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year

2021 is coming to a close but before it does we all benefit from the winter holidays and extra time off to spend with loved ones. If you stay local, enjoy your time in your home with family, friends and loved ones. If you are traveling this month, please be safe and return back rejuvenated and refreshed.

Everyone has their traditions and favorite things to do during the holidays. I want to know what those are. This Newsletter goes out to over 10,000 people plus viewed by many more via our social media channels. If 10% of you reply and share a slice of your life with me, I would feel most blessed.

Here are some things we like to do:

  • Drive around and look at lights
  • Decorate our home, tree, etc.
  • Make yummy tasty goodies
  • Watch holiday movies
  • Find out where the Elf on the Shelf is every morning
  • Play cards and board games
  • Cook and eat – I know I mentioned goodies earlier but those are sweets, I like the nice hefty meals too and I LOVE to cook

Something new we did this year is we got an Advent calendar for our 3 kids. Our girls get a new bracelet, necklace, gem, bead, etc. each day. And our son gets a mini lego animal to put together.

Here is my Top 4 Holiday Movie List:

  1. A Christmas Story
  2. Elf
  3. Home Alone
  4. The Santa Clause

We hope you have enjoyed our service in 2021 and we look forward to being your service of process provider in 2022.  We are always working to do better and we never stop to rest.  You can rest assured we will always work hard to get the job done.

Warmest Wishes this Holiday Season….

Take Care,
Beau Charlet
https://www.theaccurateservefranchise.com/

Leave A Review!
FRANCHISEE: DALLAS

Happy Holidays to all! No matter what you celebrate we hope that you are enjoying time with family and friends as we come to a close in 2021. Hard to believe that this year is ending and in doing so we are putting a close to our first year of business as Accurate Serve® of Dallas. I appreciate all of the relationships that we have already made in this first year. We have great process servers on our team as well as some awesome clients who have been supporting us in this venture. Your support and business is what allows us to grow and become a better process serving company for clients and for our employees and process servers.

Process serving is a business of effort and knowledge. Naturally there will be people who avoid service, almost on a daily basis. Our team and our servers have the knowledge of statues and civil procedures to ensure that we take the steps necessary to get documents served in a fair, timely and lawful manner. Yes, people who avoid will generally take more time to get served but by making the continued effort  to prove they are being evasive it allows us to open up new avenues to get them served. For Texas the first method to fall back on is Rule 106. This requires the non serve affidavit with attempts to prove that we have attempted individual service a sufficient amount of times. Once the motion 106 is granted we can start working on service of the individual again but also have the ability to sub serve a co resident who is 16 or older.

https://twitter.com/ZTPetrizzo/status/1469083135728099336?s=20

We can also drop serve as you see in the video above. This is not the preferred method of service but for some individuals they do not give us any other options. As you can see in the video, the server identified the subject being served and informed him of the documents he was being served with. The two primary keys to successful service is successfully identifying the individual and verbally letting them know what they have been served with, summons, citation, etc. The individual being served can also ask for the process server to provide a licence for service at which time it is the process server’s responsibility to provide a license or show a motion in order granting that process server to complete service of the documents.

Our team is here to support you as your one stop shop for process serving around the nation and world. We have the resources to provide answers and successful service to individuals and companies no matter where they are located. Again, I thank you for your support in 2021 and look forward to working with you and new clients in 2022. Cheers!

Brandon Muscato
Need our help?
Call (469) 518-9581
or
Email serve@accurateservedallas.com

Visit the Dallas Website
Leave A Review!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM ACCURATE SERVE®
QUICK TIDBIT!

Did you know that Jack Nicholson and Eddie Murphy auditioned to be The Grinch? The role eventually went to Jim Carrey.

D E C E M B E R
11/28 – 12/6 – Happy Hanukkah
12/21 – Happy Birthday Josh Wright! (Plantation Office)
12/25 – Merry Christmas!
12/31 – New Years Eve

Office Anniversaries
Orlando Office
Detroit Office

November 2021 Job Statistics

November 2021 Job Count – 3,806
Average Number of Days from Receiving Paper to Paper Being Served* -4.4

*This includes jobs that may be on hold or waiting for new info. There is no way to take those jobs out of the calculation. So, if a job is placed on hold for 2 weeks, that’s 14 days on that job which factors in to this average. So, we’re even better than what the eyes see, LOL. Some papers get served same day, some next day and some take multiple attempts/addresses to effect service. All we do all day and every day is serve papers. We’re good at it and we love what we do. Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to continue to serve your papers.

CLICK HERE TO FIND YOUR ACCURATE SERVE LOCATION
We Are Proud Sponsors of:
Copyright © 2021 Accurate Serve, All rights reserved.