Everybody knows about processing services, the individuals who deliver summonses and court processing papers to receivers, but have you ever thought about the impact these services have on the environment? Process servers like Accurate Serve play a major role in keeping the wheels of justice spinning, delivering important paperwork to those who need to receive it. Unfortunately, they also produce an unprecedented amount of paperwork. Hundreds of thousands of sheets of paper have been used per year, historically, by process serving companies. Increasingly, many of these services are beginning to look at ways to lessen their environmental impact.
Astronomical Paper Use
Each time a paper is served, a signed affidavit is needed in order to prove to the client that the papers have been delivered in due process. A separate affidavit then has to be filed with the court in question similarly proving that the papers have been served. For high volume processing services, these filings alone amount to many hundreds of thousands of sheets of paper per year, not to mention the paper used in normal office settings such as email printouts.
Cutting Back on Paper
Processing services who care about the environment have been taking major steps to reduce paper waste. Some of these services have instituted email systems for affidavits. In these cases, the signed papers are scanned and emailed to the clients as proof. This alone cuts out an average of 100,000 pieces of paper per year for high-volume processing services.
This still leaves the documents used for court filings. Fortunately, many courts have begun an e-filing process that allows for processing services to file their proof-of-serviced papers electronically when combined with the email alerts to clients, this effectively cuts out paper use completely from the process serving procedure
When you are in the market for a processing service, make sure to use a company who uses e-filing and email systems for affidavits. This is one way that you can do your part to protect the environment.
