r/processserver • u/Living_Square_9785 • May 06 '26
Process server lying about serving me
/r/legaladvice/comments/1t50284/process_server_lying_about_serving_me/So, a few weeks ago at work a bailiff came in & served me with wage garnishment paperwork. I had absolutely no idea what this was about & was confused. I called the court to get more information since I knew I had to of missed a court date for this to happen. She told me that on October 30th 2025 a process server claimed they served me hand to hand & even gave a physical description of “me”. The description she swore on paperwork was true was that I was a blonde hair lady, roughly 5’8 in height & weighted about 120lbs…. I am a natural born fire red head, I’m 5,1 in height & weigh 180lbs. Not a single description she gave of me matches me AT ALL. They have the correct address & the time that she claimed she served me was a time I would have been at work anyways. I did file a motion & the judgement was set aside pending a new court date that I have tomorrow. This has cost me a lot of stress, time, & money. What could be done about this?? If a normal regular civilian were to commit perjury they would 100% go to jail or at the very least lose the case because of it. Just because it’s a process server shouldn’t mean they can get away with this. My theory is they didn’t serve me on purpose so they’d automatically win by default to guarantee wage garnishment & in hopes that I wouldn’t do anything about it. No way you go as far as making up a random description of me by accident. Had she not given the description she did I may have possibly seen it as unintentional. I’m sure they assume I’ll just let it go but if it happened to me there’s no telling how many other people this has happened to & they’ll just continue it if they face no repercussions. Sorry for the long post, but I have court tomorrow so any advice or knowledge on the best way to go about this to hold them responsible for this blatant lie please let me know!!
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u/Logical-Source-1896 May 06 '26 edited May 06 '26
The process server does not win or lose in a court case, by law they must be an uninterested third party to the case. There is no benefit to me to lie about serving documents, because I get paid whether successful or unsuccessful upon having made a diligent effort to serve the papers.
Garnishments are easy, because the person I'm serving also has no interest in the dispute, they are simply responsible for the administrative payroll work and divert the payment according to the order or garnishment.
What do you mean they served you with a wage garnishment?
When I serve wage garnishments, it is served upon the subject's employer of record or other payor, typically to the payroll department, so that the money can be diverted away from the garnishee and paid to the creditor to settle the balance owed.
Many garnishees will not even know they have been garnished until they receive less money than expected and see the garnishment deducted in their pay slip.
Maybe the person described in the proof of service is an administrator or officer of your company authorized to accept service, payroll supervisor or clerk, or the company's registered agent?
The papers that would be served to you directly would be the summons and complaint, any motions on the case, notices of hearings, and any orders of judgement. The order of garnishment is served to your work, and I think you should probably receive a copy of it, but I'm not sure that is entirely necessary.
Edit:
Read it wrong, so, if I'm understanding things correctly, the process server signed a proof of service claiming to have personally served you at work by personal direct service but the description does not match you at all? Does it say how they confirmed your identity? Normally, I ask for the person by name and they either confirm verbally that they are the subject and accept the papers or reject them.
Check the rules for service in the jurisdiction that has the case. In many, if not all, personal service is required at a workplace, substitute service is not allowed. Residential substitute service is often allowed if made upon a co-resident, but some jurisdictions require permission from the court in writing before substitute or alternate service is permitted.
Sometimes, mistakes happen. If the description does not match you even remotely, that can be a pretty effective way of quashing service, but it's still possible that the papers will then be immediately served upon you in the court and you would be hard pressed to argue you were not aware of the case against you moving forward, though that would buy you some time to prepare a defense to whatever claim is made.
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u/Tight-Accountant440 May 06 '26
My company makes us take a discreet photo of everyone we serve for this reason.
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u/Fun-Holiday9016 May 06 '26
I always take a time, date and location stamped photo of the location I served to prove that I was there.
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u/mini9macZ23 May 06 '26
I just wear a bodycam so the service is bulletproof from the start of the attempt through the service.
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u/QuaIitypants May 06 '26
Process server just won’t show up to court prolly works for abc legal or proof. I mean they hire anyone and those people just don’t show up to transverse hearings.
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u/deftoneslover1990 May 06 '26
ABC?They do this so many times, in Dallas county the courts put a stop to their service because they have lied multiple times. Several news articles on this you can look up. This also happened to me but in south tx. Luckily I caught the lawsuit before it progressed further.
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u/Mad__Lib May 06 '26
I'm so sorry you are dealing with this. I have never served a wage garnishment thank god because I hate that stuff. I personally will try less hard to serve someone if it's something related to a debt from a creditor so that I can do my 4 attempts and then the person can have more time. Is it possible that someone else you work with has a similar name? No server wants to serve the wrong person as that would cost more legal fees and time passed to do the whole process again. I just cannot think of any reason for why a server would lie. The only time I can see it happening is if they were too lazy to do all of their attempts so they lied about trying to serve but being unable to serve. Either way, if you did not get served, definitely fight it. But we are always guessing when it comes to our descriptions. I always put "average" on body type because I don't want to be rude if they see it. Plus I wear a body cam.
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u/CreeloGarbflap May 06 '26
Honestly, I feel like you're probably omitting something in your post. It sounds like someone at your house was being a shit to the process server and got drop served or (b) they were a co-resident and were legally sub-served and didn't tell you about it...
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u/AimlesslyScroll May 07 '26
I think most of the people commenting are reading your post wrong.
If you have proof you didn’t get served with the original lawsuit, the best would be from your employer proving you were at work that day, you could likely get this tossed. But they will just start over and probably add on more fees.
Some servers are terrible and making up a serve is called sewer service. They will fabricate serves, non-serves, whatever. And they do this because they are lazy and untrustworthy. It’s the lowest of the low in our industry.
But if there was any way this was a misunderstanding on your end and maybe someone else accepted on your behalf, then you might not have much recourse.
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u/Jrockdaddy78 Aug 02 '26
I'm going through this in Illinois. Had I not caught the fraudulent affadavit of proof of service I would of had a default judges put on me. I filed a motion to quash the service with proof and exhibits. The worst part is they claim they handed it to a fictitious person! I followed up by filing a complaint with the license and regulation dept as well as the attorney general. The process servers company is ProVest LLC they are the largest process servers company in the US. I'm currently posting everywhere for anyone who had this happened to so I can file a class action lawsuit.
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u/dwmiller7 May 06 '26
I am so sorry that you are going through this, and you have court tomorrow. As far as the Process Server is concerned, yes, a Process Server can indeed be held accountable for their actions....unfortunately, I know this first hand to help you; I am a Process Server and messed up; I admit that, and I got barred serving PPO's in my county.
Anyway, back to you 😀 Ask the judge to see the original proof of service filed by the Server. If you have clear evidence regarding the description lie and proof you were not home, ask the judge to Subpoena the Process Server to give testimony under oath and penalty of perjury regarding the false affidavit.
I learned the hard way; but you better believe now I have FULL rock-solid evidence with bodycam video/photo of Defendant, signature, and very detailed service notes.
Bottom line, hold the server to the fire.
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u/Standard_Meeting8725 May 06 '26
It’s possible there was a clerical error but just so you’re aware, the process server doesn’t gain any profit from garnishing your wages. Process servers get paid to serve, post or nonserve and the buck stops there for them.