The darkest subject change I’ve ever heard: From summons delivery to hanging black people
Disturbing things I wish I wasn’t learning about hiring a process server
Writer’s note on January 26, 2023: After speaking with a few people about this incident, I finally did reach out to the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. Both women I spoke with were horrified by the statements made. But because the process server was “smart” enough to say it when he knew I wasn’t recording the phone conversation (because why on Earth would I?), it would be my word against his. Both suggested I contact the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (ARDC) to report the attorney threatening any non-five-star reviewer with “slanderous” content.
The response I got from ARDC was that someone else’s attorney has “no obligation to pursue his client’s interest in a manner agreeable or advantageous to you.” Senior Counsel went on to state that the attorney’s “notification to you that his client may pursue legal action against you is not, in itself, evidence of professional misconduct.” The part about a process server discussing hanging people was ignored altogether. Am I surprised? No. But at least it’s on file in case this attorney defends this process server for so much worse in the future. Hopefully, that never happens.
I’ve always found it strange to meet law school students who would pass the bar and dodge the courtroom like it was COVID-19. It never made sense to me. Why do all that studying and spend all that money to then avoid doing the obvious? I suppose people with literary degrees could say the same thing. Everyone doesn’t want a best-selling novel. There are other ways to use a degree. But a conversation with one lawyer stuck out to me. She absolutely despises litigation, stating it involves “too much paperwork and a lot of waiting around” when she could be making money elsewhere.
Never in my life have I understood her opinion on that more than I do now. The amount of hoops one has to go to in order to just get in front of a judge is so tedious that it’ll make you throw your hands in the air and say, “Just forget it.” I’m stubborn. I won’t. But there was a moment yesterday where I came very close. And I still don’t understand how I arrived at a conversation about hanging black people.
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I’ve hired a process server before. For privacy reasons, I cannot go into specifics. However, I remember being a bit annoyed that the process server was given specific times to meet the person to serve him with a summons, and he chose to come every single time but the times suggested. What I found most unfair was the law firm insisted he be paid for his services regardless, even though it was never delivered.
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I shook my head and always thought, “If I ever have to do it myself, I will absolutely make sure I don’t get duped like that.” And so I did. I shopped around for pricing, county service areas and availability. One company had a 5-star rating, and I thought, “How could I go wrong?” So I called.
While the reader can decide whether they think this is discriminatory or not, the process server charged one rate for people with attorneys and a $20 higher rate for pro se (self-represented) cases. But it didn’t make any sense to me. If you’re making the same trips to deliver the same paperwork, what difference does it make if you have an attorney or not? (In several cases of working directly with attorneys, I’ve never heard of this price change.) I wrote a Google review stating that I didn’t like that idea and would hire elsewhere.
Within minutes, that process server company called me, demanding I take my Google review down, accusing it of being “slanderous.” I challenged the caller, stating that “slander” would be saying something malicious that wasn’t true, not critiquing what I have documented proof of. I disconnected the call. This same guy called back again, threatening me with his own attorney and demanding I take the review down a second time. I refused. He recited my mailing address to me.
“Are you threatening me?” I asked. “I just want to be sure of this before I respond.”