Firefly Legal

Today I had the opportunity to join the PAAPRS Presentation, which was organized by Steven Glenn and presented by Trent Carlyle of ServeNow. This presentation proved to be both informative and worthwhile as it went in depth as to why the PAAPRS initiative is important.

To recap, Trent Carlyle began the presentation by explaining that from what they have observed, process server assault is becoming a nationwide issue, and as such necessitated a campaign to promote awareness and legislative reform.

As Carlyle explained in the presentation, the goal of PAAPRS is to provide a platform to raise awareness, prevent assault, collect assault data, bolster association initiatives, and garner legislative support. Awareness is critical to the campaign, as the general public likely has little to no knowledge of the increase in attacks on process servers as reported in the presentation. PAAPRS would like to see legislators get involved and make moves to increase penalties for violence and aggression against process servers. PAAPRS also wants to work with process serving associations to gain endorsements and to help increase awareness about the growing problem.  Their hope is that they become a resource for lawmakers, process servers, and legal professionals, and that legislation is in place to protect process servers across the board. Glenn and Carlyle both emphasized that the purpose of this campaign, first and foremost, is to promote safety for process servers.

On the PAAPRS website, a safety test is available to gauge how process servers would respond if put in different situations. There are also tips and resources for process servers to prepare for assaults and to report them, as well. Since those involved with the PAAPRS initiative are only gathering preliminary data, past assaults within the last couple years can be reported. At this point in time, they do not require a police report or evidence to report the assaults on this website, though reporting assaults to the local police department are highly encouraged. The presentation concluded with a question and answer session.

I left the webinar feeling a bit more informed about what it is that ServeNow and the PAAPRS initiative intends to accomplish. Check out their website to see what you can do to help spread the word and help process servers nationally.

Firefly Legal hopes that all process servers, nationally or the process servers in Chicago, our own backyard, are safe. Whatever we can do to promote that, we want to participate in.