Serving papers makes for an interesting part-time job
(Published Saturday, August 11, 2007 12:11:56 AM CST)
A d v e r t i s e m e n t
By Ann Marie Ames aames@gazetteextra.com
They are almost always the bearer of bad news.
You're getting divorced.
You have to pay more child support.
You have to go to court.
Of course, "bad" is subjective.
"One lady, I served her divorce papers. She was so happy she invited me in to have cocktails with her and her girlfriends," said Dan Murray, who retired in 1991 as the captain of the Rock County Sheriff's Department detective bureau.
Murray is a civil process server. He said it's a great part-time job that keeps him busy in the evenings when he's done working his part-time job as a security officer at the Rock County Courthouse.
Murray has been serving papers for 15 years.
"It's a nice little sideline, and it continues to increase as I get more well-known," Murray said. "The reason I stay in it is the challenge in it. I find it to be very challenging."
Murray is one of several free-lance process servers and private investigators hired by local attorneys one job at a time to track down people who need to be served. Anyone over the age of 18 can serve papers in Wisconsin, as long as they are not party to the legal matter.
Serving papers is a good part-time job for Rick Stephenson, who works as a janitor for the Janesville School District.
Many people pretend they're not home when he knocks on their doors, he said, although "you can hear them moving around in there."
Stephenson has had his share of spreading joy, too. One woman danced in the yard at 6 a.m. when he served her divorce papers.
But the stories can be sad.
Stephenson once had to serve eviction papers to an 80-year-old woman in October. Just to be mean, many people request papers be served to their soon-to-be-exes on Valentine's Day or on anniversaries.
Despite what the movies depict, servers don't always shove papers in the hands of an unsuspecting person and announce they've been served. It's only necessary to get the person to acknowledge their name, Stephenson said.
And he's shoved papers under the windshield wipers of a moving car.
"It was legal service," Stephenson said.
Stephenson has had to camp out in the hallways of apartment buildings or overnight in front of homes. He's never been threatened physically on the job, but the possibility is there.
"Most people known that they (the papers) are coming," Stephenson said. "I try to avoid violence. For $20, you don't get paid to get beat up."
The people who have requested the papers be served also know they're coming, but what they don't know is they can't change their minds, Murray said.
One woman had been begging him to serve divorce papers to her husband who traveled for work. She told Murray her husband would be home late one Saturday night. When he got to the man's house at 6 a.m. Sunday, the woman answered the door in her bathrobe.
"She told me she'd changed her mind," Murray said. "But there wasn't anything I could do. I walked in and handed him the papers in bed."
Dean Henning, chief investigator and president of Advanced Security and Investigation, said the number of papers he serves changes every week and tends to "flow with the times." He serves at least 12 papers a month, he said.
The trick, he said, is to learn a person's habits up front, even if it means donning a wig and parking in front of their home or job. And those jobs get a little offbeat sometimes, he said.
"One of our clients had a drug house, and we couldn't get the papers served," Henning said. "So one of our investigators just went and got in line."
