Why Process Servers Need Felonies

On August 12th Illinois made attacking a process server a felony.   Bill Clutter, one of the founders of ILAPPS, helped start the process of making this a law after one of his process servers was nearly choked to death. Those in the industry know how dangerous this line of work can be and it would benefit everyone if all states were to follow in Illinois’ footsteps.

Recently another incident of an attack on a process server has occurred in Arizona, where a server was shot after trying to serve an individual on four separate occasions.  While the process server was able to make it back to his car and is in stable condition, this situation emphasizes the need for increased legislation to protect process servers.  Many states have associations and while there are a number of reasons to belong to your state association, one of the most important is to enact positive legislation for our industry while defending against the negative bills.  ALL states should have legislation making attacking a process server a felony.  The New Jersey Association of Professional Process Servers is currently pursuing this as are other states.

For the safety of yourself and your fellow process servers, consider joining your state association and taking an active role in enacting bills which once passed would provide greater protection to those in our industry.

State Associations (from the NAPPS website):