Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome back to the Deep Dive.
So today we are pulling back the curtain on a profession that, you know, I think most of us have a very specific, very Hollywood image of. Oh, yeah, you know the scene, right? A guy in some pizza delivery uniform knocks on a door, the person opens it and boom, you've been served. You've been served. Exactly. It's the classic gotcha moment.
[00:00:21] Speaker B: It really is. It's a staple of, I mean, every legal drama from the last 30 years.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: Right. But today we're going to completely dismantle that movie trope. We have a massive stack of documents here. Service agreements, pricing structures, legal disclaimers, and even podcast transcripts. And podcast transcripts? Yeah, from a show called Paper Trails, which is actually produced by this company, Lafayette Process Servers, llc. And let me tell you, the reality is not about dramatic one liners. It is a complex, high tech and frankly, kind of dangerous operation.
[00:00:56] Speaker B: It really is. When you look at the source material, you realize we're not just talking about a courier service. This is the machinery of justice.
[00:01:03] Speaker A: Machinery? Yeah.
[00:01:04] Speaker B: I mean, this is the physical infrastructure that lets the legal system even function. We're talking GPS, time stamping, 256 bit SSL encryption, strict safety protocols. It's a whole thing.
[00:01:17] Speaker A: That's the part that really surprised me, the economics of it all. I guess I just assumed you pay a guy 50 bucks and he drops off a letter, Right?
But looking at these pricing sheets, it is so much more structured. So our mission today is to decode this business. We're going to look at the costs, the risks, the tech, and how it all works in the, well, the very unique legal landscape of Louisiana.
[00:01:38] Speaker B: And we have to start there with that context. Louisiana is unique. It has 64 parishes, not counties, Rights, parishes, and a legal system that's based on the French civil code.
So moving documents across that geography, it just requires a level of expertise that goes way beyond Google Maps.
[00:01:54] Speaker A: So let's just jump into what I'm calling the menu of justice. We have the pricing sheet right here. And it's fascinating how they productize this. It feels less like hiring a PI and more like shipping a package like FedEx.
[00:02:06] Speaker B: Yeah, you've got your standard in your rush, you're basically paying for speed.
[00:02:10] Speaker A: Okay, let's break down standard service first.
It's listed at $120. Now, for the listener who has never sued anyone, what does that 120 actually buy you?
[00:02:21] Speaker B: This is probably the most important distinction to make. You're not buying a guaranteed delivery.
[00:02:26] Speaker A: Oh, interesting.
[00:02:27] Speaker B: You are buying the attempt, that $120 gets you up to three attempts to serve one person at one address.
[00:02:35] Speaker A: And there's a time limit on it, right?
[00:02:37] Speaker B: Yes. For standard, the first attempt happens within 120 hours. So five days. It's a steady, measured pace.
[00:02:43] Speaker A: Okay, five days. But then you have the rush service and the price jumps way up to $200.
[00:02:49] Speaker B: And that premium, that $80, it buys you urgency. With Rush, that first attempt happens within 24 hours.
[00:02:57] Speaker A: So why would someone pay that extra 80 bucks?
[00:02:59] Speaker B: Well, time is often the most expensive thing in a legal case. Imagine you're a lawyer and the statute of limitations runs out in 48 hours. If you don't get those papers served you, your client loses their right to sue forever.
In that context, $80 is nothing. You need that knock on the door, like now.
[00:03:18] Speaker A: That makes a lot of sense. Yeah, but this brings us to the clause that I think would cause the most friction for a regular person.
It's the non refundable clause. The docs are very clear. Fees are non refundable even if the service is unsuccessful.
[00:03:33] Speaker B: Yeah, I can see why that feels unfair to a consumer. You know, you pay for a service, you want the result.
But you have to look at it from the business model of the process server. They just can't control the outcome because.
[00:03:44] Speaker A: They can't control if the person's even home.
[00:03:46] Speaker B: Or if they move six months ago and the client gave a bad address.
Or if the person is inside but just refuses to open the door, the server has still burned the gas, spent the time, put in the labor.
If they only got paid on success, that base fee would have to be like three or four times higher just to cover all the failed tricks.
[00:04:03] Speaker A: So you're paying for the effort, not the handshake.
[00:04:05] Speaker B: Exactly. You're participating in the attempt economy.
[00:04:09] Speaker A: I like that. Okay, sticking with money. I want to talk about the a la carte fees, because this pricing sheet, it reads a bit like a budget airline.
[00:04:18] Speaker B: The margins are always in the add ons. What stood out to you?
[00:04:21] Speaker A: The printing fees.
They charge 65 cents per page to print documents. I mean, at my library it's 10 cents.
65 seems steep.
[00:04:31] Speaker B: It does until you realize the volume and the liability. We're not talking about a two page letter. A lawsuit with exhibits can easily be 300 pages and you usually need multiple copies. And they all have to be collated and stapled perfectly. If they miss one page, the whole service could be invalid. So you're paying for document management, not just the ink.
[00:04:52] Speaker A: That's A fair point. And then there's the 6% convenience fee for credit cards. That's double what I usually see.
[00:04:57] Speaker B: It is aggressive, but. But again, look at the ecosystem. This is a cash flow heavy business. They have to pay drivers, buy gas, maintain cars every week. They can't wait 30 days for a payment to clear, or worse, deal with the chargeback.
[00:05:10] Speaker A: Which explains why they require prepayment always.
[00:05:13] Speaker B: I mean, they've probably been burned by clients who say, just serve him and I'll mail you a check and then just disappear.
[00:05:19] Speaker A: There is one more fee I have to mention, just because the name is so evocative. The courthouse runner.
$120 an hour.
[00:05:28] Speaker B: Ah, classic legal service.
[00:05:30] Speaker A: It sounds like a character from a 1920s novel, The Runner, but it's still a vital function.
[00:05:36] Speaker B: We think everything is digital, but for a lot of urgent filings, you need a physical human being to take a document to the courthouse and get it stamped by the clerk.
[00:05:45] Speaker A: So you're basically renting a professional line stander.
[00:05:48] Speaker B: You're renting a proxy. Yeah, if you're a lawyer in New York and need to file something in baton rouge by 4pm, you can't fly there. You pay the runner. And that's just for their time, not the court fees themselves.
[00:05:58] Speaker A: It really shows how much friction is still in the system. It's not all just clicking submit.
[00:06:03] Speaker B: Not at all.
[00:06:03] Speaker A: Okay, so that's the standard stuff. But what happens when the person you know doesn't want to be found? I assume a lot of people know they're being sued and are actively dodging the server.
[00:06:13] Speaker B: Oh, all the time. And that's where the job shifts from logistics to. I'd call it light detective work.
[00:06:18] Speaker A: The menu lists, skip tracing. Ah, I love that term. It sounds so noir.
[00:06:24] Speaker B: It comes from the phrase spipping town. If the client doesn't have a current address, they offer database searches. There's a basic one for $85 and a comprehensive one for 200.
[00:06:34] Speaker A: And what are they actually doing? Is this just like googling the guy?
[00:06:38] Speaker B: It's much more than that. The source material implies they have access to proprietary databases, so they're likely pulling credit header data, utility hookups, vehicle registrations, things that show where a person is actually living right now.
[00:06:52] Speaker A: And what if that's not enough? What if the guy is inside watching TV, but just won't answer the door?
[00:06:57] Speaker B: Then you have to escalate to the stakeout.
[00:06:59] Speaker A: A stakeout? And they actually built for this? $120 an hour with a two hour minimum.
[00:07:04] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:04] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:07:05] Speaker B: It sounds cinematic, right? But the reality is probably a lot less exciting. It's sitting in a car parked down the street, drinking lukewarm coffee and just waiting.
[00:07:15] Speaker A: Just brute forced time investment.
[00:07:16] Speaker B: Exactly. Sometimes the only way to serve someone is to catch them in that split second between their front door and their car door.
[00:07:23] Speaker A: This brings us to the most intense part of the documents we reviewed. We've talked money, we've talked hiding, but we haven't talked about the danger. There's a specific form here called the Mandatory Officer Safety Disclosure.
[00:07:36] Speaker B: This was the most sobering part of the material for me. It really shifts your perspective on what this job actually is.
[00:07:42] Speaker A: The form states that the client must disclose if the recipient has a known criminal history, a history of violence, or owns firearms.
[00:07:50] Speaker B: Think about that dynamic for a second. You're a stranger walking onto private property, usually delivering bad news, a divorce, a foreclosure.
[00:07:59] Speaker A: Emotions are high and the server has no idea what's on the other side of that door.
[00:08:04] Speaker B: Unless the client tells them. That disclosure is a lifeline. If a server knows the subject has a history of assault or keeps a shotgun by the door, they're going to approach that situation very differently.
[00:08:14] Speaker A: The documents also say the client has to provide a photo ID of the subject.
And if they don't have one, the company will source one from the DMV for a fee.
[00:08:23] Speaker B: And that's critical. One, you have to serve the right person. But two, from a safety perspective, you need to be able to identify your target before you even walk up the driveway. You need to know who you're looking for.
[00:08:33] Speaker A: It really drives home that this isn't just paperwork. It's a physical confrontation, however polite, with a stranger.
[00:08:40] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:41] Speaker A: And that carries real risk.
[00:08:42] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:08:43] Speaker A: So we established it's expensive and potentially dangerous.
Now let's look at the how, the logistics. Because they really emphasize their technology.
[00:08:52] Speaker B: They do. The modern process server isn't some disheveled guy with a wrinkled map. It's a tech heavy operation.
[00:08:58] Speaker A: They mentioned secure online intake forms that are Hypakaa and SoC2 compliant, 256 bit SSL encryption. Why is that level of security so necessary?
[00:09:08] Speaker B: Because of what they're carrying. These documents have Social Security numbers, medical records, financial data, the most sensitive information in people's lives. If that data leaks, the liability is massive. They have to treat these PDFs like they're gold bars.
[00:09:23] Speaker A: And then there's the transparency. They mentioned real time email updates and GPS timestamping.
[00:09:27] Speaker B: That GPS timestamp is the game changer.
[00:09:30] Speaker A: Why? Why Is that so important?
[00:09:32] Speaker B: It's all about proof in court. Let's say a defendant doesn't show up, and later they try to get the judgment thrown out by saying, I was never served. That process server is lying.
[00:09:42] Speaker A: The classic he said, she said defense.
[00:09:45] Speaker B: Exactly. But with this tech, the server can produce a digital log and say, you, Honor, here is the GPS record. I was standing at these exact coordinates, the defendant's front porch at 2.14pm it makes that service much harder to challenge.
[00:10:00] Speaker A: There's a great quote here from a paralegal named Sarah Jenkins. She says the flat rates save us the headache of calculating mileage.
[00:10:07] Speaker B: And that gets at the business to business aspect. Law firms are high volume customers. They don't want to spend hours calculating 35 cents per mile for every single trip. They just want a flat fee so they can build their own client easily.
[00:10:19] Speaker A: Speaking of mileage, let's talk about the geography, because doing business in Louisiana seems specific.
[00:10:24] Speaker B: It's very specific. We have these transcripts from their podcast Paper Trails with Scott Frank, who's the director, and he makes a huge point about the difference between national companies and local experts.
[00:10:35] Speaker A: He mentions that Louisiana has 64 parishes, not counties. And he says, quote, they all do things differently.
[00:10:42] Speaker B: And that is the nightmare of the national model. You have these big aggregators who claim they can serve papers anywhere in the U.S.
but Scott argues they don't actually have employees in, you know, Ville Platte or Tallulah.
[00:10:56] Speaker A: They just subcontract it out.
[00:10:57] Speaker B: Exactly. They take the order, skim a fee off the top, and then hire a local guy like Scott to actually do the driving.
[00:11:04] Speaker A: So the client is just paying a middleman fee.
[00:11:06] Speaker B: Right. Scott's argument is hire direct. You save money, but you also get that crucial local knowledge. A call center in Ohio isn't going to know that a certain road in Cameron Parish is washed out.
[00:11:18] Speaker A: I looked at their coverage map. They cover the whole state from Texas to Mississippi. They had these hubs, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette.
[00:11:26] Speaker B: Those are the population centers. That's where the flat rates apply.
[00:11:29] Speaker A: But then you get to the rural areas, and they say serving someone out there might incur mileage fees, which is just economic reality.
[00:11:36] Speaker B: Right. If a server has to drive two hours round trip to a farm in the middle of nowhere, that 120 flat fee barely covers gas and wear and tear.
[00:11:45] Speaker A: I want to pivot to the legal side because there are some very specific disclaimers here we need to unpack. The biggest one being we are not attorneys.
[00:11:54] Speaker B: Standard, but absolutely crucial. They are very clear that they provide informational content and do not give legal advice.
[00:12:01] Speaker A: Protects them from liability. Sure, but it also manages expectations.
[00:12:05] Speaker B: Right. A client might ask the server, what should I do now? And the server has to be super disciplined and say, I just deliver the paper. I can't advise you, but there's one.
[00:12:14] Speaker A: Legal nuance here that feels like a trap for the unwary. It's called the appointment rule.
[00:12:19] Speaker B: Ah, yes, the motion and order.
[00:12:22] Speaker A: This sounded complicated. Can you break it down?
[00:12:24] Speaker B: It's a procedural rule In Louisiana for certain cases. If you want to use a private process server instead of the sheriff, you can't just hand them the papers. You first have to file a motion with the court asking the judge to appoint Lafayette Process Servers LLC specifically.
[00:12:38] Speaker A: So you have to ask the court's permission to use them.
[00:12:41] Speaker B: Yes. And the judge has to sign an order.
If you skip that step, even if the server does their job perfectly, the service could be considered invalid.
[00:12:50] Speaker A: So you could do everything right physically, but because you missed one piece of paperwork, the whole thing counts for nothing?
[00:12:57] Speaker B: Potentially, yeah. The defendant could argue the court never authorized that person to serve them. It just shows why that local knowledge is so vital.
[00:13:05] Speaker A: I also noticed a small detail about the ecosystem they operate in.
The Paper Trails podcast has a sponsor mentioned 337 Media. Right. Scott mentions them. They're a local business doing SEO and websites.
[00:13:20] Speaker B: It's a nice little reminder of the local economy. It's a network of small businesses. Right. You have the law firms, the process servers, the marketing agencies. They all refer business to each other.
[00:13:29] Speaker A: That really reinforces Scott Frank's whole point about local versus national. It's a community.
[00:13:34] Speaker B: Exactly. It builds trust.
[00:13:35] Speaker A: So let's zoom out a bit. We've gone from a secure PDF upload to a guy named Scott managing a fleet of drivers to a server potentially waiting in a hot car on some gravel road in rural Louisiana. It's a wild journey for one piece of paper.
[00:13:50] Speaker B: It is. It's a blend of high tech logistics and just old school grit. You have the SSL encryption on one end and the physical reality of pyres on pavement on the other.
[00:14:01] Speaker A: And if we connect this to the bigger picture, you realize that without this service, without these people willing to do the driving and the knocking, the court system just.
It just stops.
[00:14:11] Speaker B: It halts completely. I mean, we talk about the rule of law, but the law is abstract. Process serving is where the law becomes.
[00:14:17] Speaker A: Physical, where it's the bottleneck.
[00:14:18] Speaker B: It is do process your constitutional right to know you're being Sued relies on this physical act. It relies on a human being handing a document to another human being. Without that affidavit of service, the judge can't rule. The whole machine just waits.
[00:14:31] Speaker A: That is such a provocative thought. We live in a world where I can facetime someone in Tokyo instantly. I can send money globally in seconds. But to sue my neighbor, I still need a person to physically drive to their house and hand them a stack of paper.
[00:14:46] Speaker B: It raises a huge question for the future, doesn't it?
[00:14:49] Speaker A: What's that?
[00:14:50] Speaker B: As we get more and more digital, why does the legal system still rely on this dangerous physical act? Why is the handoff still the gold standard?
[00:15:00] Speaker A: Is it just tradition?
[00:15:01] Speaker B: Partly. But it's also about the.
The undeniable reality of it. You can claim you didn't see an email. You can say a notification went to spam. It is much, much harder to claim you didn't see a person standing on your porch. The physical act forces a confrontation with reality.
[00:15:17] Speaker A: That's true. It makes it real. But I Wonder if in 20 years, we'll look back at this like we look at the pony express.
[00:15:22] Speaker B: We might. Maybe one day we'll get served via a biometric push notification that locks our phone until we acknowledge it.
[00:15:29] Speaker A: That is a terrifying thought. But until that dystopian future arrives, I guess we still need Scott and his team at Lafayette Process servers.
[00:15:37] Speaker B: We certainly do. The wheels of justice don't turn themselves.
[00:15:41] Speaker A: Well, that is all we have for today's deep dive. Next time you see a nondescript sedan parked on your street, you take a second look. It might not be Amazon. It might just be the machinery of justice at work. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you on the next one.
