What do you do to protect yourself?

As a process server we can get into some sticky situations with some less than outstanding citizens. With the jury selection and start of the trial of a man accused with beating a process server to death after he was served divorce papers I wanted to see what others in the profession are doing to protect themselves.

Personally I have not yet had the misfortune of running into a violent encounter during a serve but I feel confident I would be prepared for the worse. The first step I take is knowing some back round intel about the person I am serving. A quick check into their criminal history using Black Book Online can let you know if the person to be served has a violent past. Secondly no matter what the back round intel provides I am always aware of my surroundings and alert to what is going on in all directions as I approach the residence. I personally do not carry a firearm or pepper spray but I do have self defense training and worked in the bar business in some pretty rough areas of town. Most importantly after the serve is complete my head is on a swivel until I am back in my vehicle. I have the local police and sherrif of what ever area I am serving in handy incase the need arises.

I would like to hear comments from anyone who takes a different approach to making sure they are safe on the job. Our profession can be dangerous but we can also avoid a lot of problems by being knoweldgeable and prepared for any situation.

Please visit me on the web Apex Process Servers for all your process serving needs in Minnesota.

Sending Out Emails to Lawyers

Today I spent the majority of the day emailing Law Offices with my price list and introductory letter. I am not sure how effective this is. I have done this a few hours a week and have pulled a few clients from these leads. Do you send out emails? Do you find it effective? What do you use as your subject line?

www.apexprocessservers.com

Introduction and Information

As the first post in this new blog I feel that I should introduce myself, my company, and provide some information on what we do.

My name is Brian Aleksivich. I am a 31 year old divorced father of a wonderful 7 year old son. I live in Hopkins, MN. I grew up in western NY and moved to Minnesota about 8 years ago with my ex wife. I have had a wide range of work experiences but feel that I have settled into something that I will do until it is time to retire.

In November of 2008 I was laid off from a construction job that I had held for over 3 years. After sulking for a few weeks I decided I had to make some changes in my life. I did a lot of looking into different career moves and made the bold decision to open my own company. Apex Process Servers was born.

Apex Process Servers is a small company located in the Twin Cities area of MN. We provide service of process and legal courier service. We have clients ranging from law firms to property managers to private land lords. Local clients and "out of state" clients needing service of process in Minnesota. We also have a vast contact list of process servers across the country to help out local clients in locating reliable servers when the need arises.

I plan to use this blog as a place to post the day to day ins and outs of Apex Process Servers. From marketing and advertising successes and failures, to interesting or funny stories about actual serves. I plan to make a quick update at least every evening if not more frequently so stop back as often as you like and please feel free to leave comments.