Serving Process: What Should I Charge?

So how much should you charge for serving process?  The answer varies depending on whom you ask. I’ve heard that the “golden rule” states that the rate for service of a single instrument (one court document) be competitive with the rate charged by the local sheriff or constable’s office for the same exact assignment.  In my business dealings with other process servers however, I have experienced a variance in the price that, in some instances, wildly swings from one extreme to the other.

In my opinion, there is no hard and fast rule. An amalgamation of factors plays into pricing.  To a small degree, consider what the sheriff or the constable charges for serving papers.  They have traditionally been the ones that served civil process before private process servers came on the scene, and as such, many feel they have set the standard.  Perhaps not in terms of quality or speed of service, but for some reason the local shire reeves (this is the original pronunciation for the sheriff from the old English dialect) appear to have set the standard.  I would not consider them the only factor.  After all, the reason private process serving has become an industry at all is because the volume of work available is so enormous that the quality and speed of the service derived from the sheriff or the constables is substandard, particularly in large metropolitan markets.  Not because they are terrible at what they do, but for the most part they simply do not have the resources to do otherwise.

When considering what local law enforcement charges the public for service of process, factor in other things, too.  First, would be fuel costs.  Factor in the distance traveled to deliver a paper as it relates to fuel costs.  If you have to travel thirty miles to deliver a court document pricing should reflect that cost.  It has been said that for every dollar cost per gallon of gas, one should factor a cost of $5.00 for the service.  Now, that is not to say that if gas costs $1.00 per gallon that you should charge $5.00.  No, what it says is that if gas costs $3.00 per gallon, then your fuel costs for the average process serving assignment should be $15.00 plus the cost of actually doing the service.

 
You might be scratching your head, so let me give you an example.  It is usually recognized that if you have an overall price of $60.00 per court document served in your local market, $30.00 should be for the actual serving part of the assignment - $30.00 for your time to go from your office to the service address.  Then you add $15.00 to cover fuel costs.  Now you are at $45.00.  Wait you say; that doesn’t add up to $60.00, and you’re correct.  Factor the remaining $15.00 for your office expenses, such as paper and other office supplies, insurance, utilities, advertising costs, and taxes.  Taxes?  Process serving usually doesn’t come along with sales tax, you say.  Correct; but you have to factor in your income tax withholdings, property tax, franchise tax, and all other government levees placed upon your business in accordance with the laws of your city, county, and state governments. 

So what happens if fuel costs go up?  Well, if a gallon of gas goes from $3.00 to $4.00 t you should probably consider raising your price from $60.00 to $65.00.

Next posting, we will discuss more pricing considerations.

If you are interested in starting up your own Process Service business, please check out my book “The Business End of Process, Running a Process Service Company From the Ground Up” available now on Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=%22The+Business+End+of+Process%22&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3A%22The+Business+End+of+Process%22&ajr=0.