ABC Legal's Safe Service Procedures & Restart Roadmap

Next week, we will continue to train, supply, and certify nearly 2,000 process servers with the goal of resuming service in most geographies in early May.

As the leading provider of process service nationwide, we take our role in this industry’s safety seriously. From the moment we recalled every process server on March 27th, our mission has been to resume serving safely and responsibly. 

We identified 3 critical requirements:

1. Serving process must be safe and not spread the virus
   It would be devastating for a process server or community member to contract COVID-19 while serving documents for one of your cases. To prevent that outcome, we have developed the ABC Legal Safe Service Procedure. These protections affect every stage of the delivery cycle, from printing and prep to how service is performed and documented. Learn more.
2. Law firms should control which cases to resume when
   Delivering legal notice safely is a necessary but insufficient component in your decision to resume serving defendants. Your explicit authorization is also necessary to resume suspended services. We have added online features giving you the ability to find, resume, or cancel each of your suspended services. Learn about managing suspended services. Learn more.
3. Process servers should not face penalties for serving
   When the first shelter orders were issued on March 23rd, we received first-hand accounts from process servers told to stop serving by law enforcement or court personnel. Meanwhile, our legal review revealed wide variation in which functions were exempted from each order. Our intent is to respect the letter and spirit of each order, not to generalize process service as an exempt activity everywhere. Our schedule for resuming service in each geography will reflect this, even after criteria #1 and #2 are satisfied. Learn more. 

We are proud of the role our process servers play in upholding judicial integrity. It's why we feel urgency to resume serving—safely and responsibly.  But we also recognize that our decision to resume service does not mean you or your clients should choose to do so. The relative urgency of each case is unique. And frankly, so are the stakes.

Since the beginning of the crisis, we have been concerned with protecting our process serves and the public while also maintaining our customers’ reputations. To that end, we understand and applaud the many firms who will continue to pursue their clients’ long-term interests by determining that this is not the appropriate time to resume service in all cases.