You've Been Served

My office sub-leases office space to a few other lawyers. This means sometimes people show up to see them, people drop things off for them, etc. Not all the of lawyers are in our office full-time. One entire law firm has their main office in another part of the Bay Area, and they rent a small space from us. Every so often they call us and request to reserve the conference room or small office, and they show up for a few hours.

On Thursday, an old woman came in and announced she wanted to serve me. I asked who exactly, she wanted to serve. She mentioned one of our sub-tenants. Immediately I picked up the phone to call that lawyer's other office, to make sure it was kosher to accept service on their behalf. The lawyer was really nice, and assured me it was okay. He told me the woman was a new lawyer and imagined she was quite young. As she looked on, I stammered, "Uhh... it's actually in the opposite direction." There was a pause, and then, "Oh!"

This woman's hands were shaking! She was TERRIFIED. So, let's talk a little bit about process servers. Across the board, they're usually men. Now, sometimes it can be a dangerous job. Some people become really hostile when they get served. Usually men. If you're serving a corporation it's no big deal. But say a battered wife is filing for divorce and having an abusive husband served. Say the abusive husband with a temper gets served at work. They get embarrassed. They get loud. They then attract the attention of their coworkers and then feel humiliated that everyone knows. Then they get violent. Some people really do kill the messenger.

Anyway. Lawyers can act as process servers (in certain circumstances, maybe only in certain states), as this woman was. I've never seen any lawyer so blatantly nervous. She didn't arrive at our offices prepared, which struck me as unprofessional. When you're delivering documents, the documents should be in final, bound, stapled or clipped together neatly, and ready to be handed over.

This woman spread everything out on the front counter, and created a big mess of paperwork. The image of Pig-Pen came to mind. At one point, she asked me if she needed to clip the paperwork together. It's possible my jaw dropped before I collected myself enough to tell her, "I'm not a lawyer, so I really can't give you any legal advice." I wanted to shout, "Pull yourself together, woman! Think about what you're saying!" Even a layperson should know the answer to that one. If you're handing someone a document, should it look messy, or should it look professional? This is not rocket science. Clearly nerves had gotten the better of this woman. It was sad.

On Friday, the sub-tenant showed up, and wanted to confirm he'd reserved the conference room for an up-coming deposition. I love depositions! This news made my day. People get really freaked out if while they're speaking, someone is writing down every single little thing they say. And as long as a deposition is about individuals rather than corporations, emotions are flying high and you can count on drama.

The sub-tenant then informed me that the nervous lawyer would be at the deposition. He laughed as my eyes lit up in excitement. I hope they leave the conference room door open so I can listen!