I’m driving along this afternoon and my phone lights up. “Unknown Caller”. I never answer those, it’s almost always just a junk call.
A few minutes later “Voice Mail” lights up and I listen:
Hello my name is Robert, calling with Continental Document Servers. This message is for David Taylor. David I’m calling because we’re dispatching a process server out to your residence and place of employment today to provide you with legal documents. We will make three attempts to contact you, today is the the first attempt. After the third attempt if no contact has been established then unfortunately we’ll have to classify you as a failure to be served and evading service.
WHAT?
Holy crap, I’m involved in a lawsuit, someone’s serving papers, and I don’t even have a clue about what’s going on?
Worse, I’m actually out of town for a few days so what if they hit those three fails without meeting up with me and it becomes criminal?
Again, WTF?
Fortunately they left a phone number and when I called and referenced the case number that the process server had left in the voice mail, they asked if the last four digits of my social security number were XXXX and I breathed a big sigh of relief. No, that’s not me.
They confirmed with a residence address in Denver and when I clarified that I don’t actually live in Denver either, they believed me and said that records can get confused, but they’ll clear things up and I won’t be associated with the case any more.
I feel a bit sorry for the other David Taylor out there, but hey, mostly I just feel a huge sense of relief.
Sheesh.
This reminded me of a story a local talk show host shared recently … he received a phone call saying he was about to be arrested. It was some sort of scam, but I bet his heart stopped oh so briefly before he put two and two together…
Now, does the OTHER David Taylor have a cool blog, too?
This is a VERY lazy process server. The good ones don’t tell you they are coming. They just show up. Sounds like he wanted you to do his legwork for him.