The importance of process serving

Service of documents is an important part of the justice system and service of those documents has to be carried out in accordance with the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR). This can often be confusing, with different procedures required for different types of documents.
 
That is just one of the reasons why many organisations choose to use a process server. Perhaps one of the most important reasons is that service will have taken place by an independent party, particularly if the matter is contentious.

A process server will provide a Certificate of Service, a Witness Statement or Affidavit, detailing how service has taken place. These can be presented to Court and are formal legal documents.

As part of the debt recovery process, documents that can be served include:

• Statutory demands
• Bankruptcy petitions
• Winding up petitions
• Orders to attend court for questioning
• Suspended committal order
   

This service is used by many different organisations within debt recovery, such as central government, local government, utility companies and solicitors.

In the current financial climate, debt recovery is more important than ever, with the new Chancellor focussed on plugging the £20 billion deficit in the economy.

Public and private sector debt recovery plays an important part in providing public services and supporting business and economic growth. Process serving and enforcement are sensitive, but essential, areas of the economy.

Excel Civil Enforcement, part of High Court Enforcement Group, provides a process serving service and our clients choose us because: we are equipped to handle high volumes of process serves, we are capable of working with our clients in the most difficult situations to ensure service takes place, we operate nationally and we have the capacity for urgent service.

In 2018, we won one of the largest central government process serving contracts, serving circa 10,000 documents nationally per year.

When this contract came up for renewal, it was placed within the Debt Resolution Services Framework (RM6226), and was released in December 2021. RM6226 is aligned with the cross-government debt management strategy to provide a more consistent and unified approach.

Our parent company, High Court Enforcement Group, was appointed for process serving under Lot 14 and Excel Civil Enforcement was successfully reappointed to undertake this work.

Outside the debt arena, the following types of document are also served:

• Divorce petitions
• Possession proceedings
• Injunctions
   

Serving of possession proceedings and injunctions are managed by our Commercial Services team. These can often lead to an eviction of protesters, travellers and trespassers, which is a specialist operation run by our National Eviction Team.

Process serving is just one element of the debt recovery services that we cover. As a group, we cover both High Court and civil debt, and our clients will often take advantage of the full scope that we provide:  

• Recovery and enforcement of council tax, business rates, commercial rent and parking fines
• Transfer up of County Court Judgments to the High Court for enforcement under a writ of control for debt or writ of possession for the recovery of property and land
   

Apart from anything else, it makes for a single-stage procurement process to cover all aspects of debt recovery.

Operating across England and Wales, we have a national team of field agents with the capacity for a high volume of serves (on average 30,000 per annum), with an extremely high service rate.

We also enforce a high volume of writs each year and are the largest independent enforcement company in the country, with a strong track record. For us, delivering ethical enforcement with integrity is the keystone of our business culture.

Laura Anne Smith
Director of Client Relationships
Excel Civil Enforcement, part of High Court Enforcement Group