Even without the additional health concerns inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic, personal service inherently poses certain challenges for process servers. The United States Federal Rules of Civil Procedure mandates that, in a legal suit, all defendants or responding parties must be notified via service of process. In order to verify proper legal documentation is successfully delivered, personal service is often seen as the ‘gold standard’, which involves process servers physically handing over court documents directly to the defendant, often with a photo of the responding party in possession of those documents.

In the throes of an unprecedented pandemic, it’s essential to review how service of process continues to be handled during the pandemic, and what adaptations are being made to allow this important piece of the judicial process to continue with effectiveness and efficiency in jurisdictions across the U.S.