Denver, CO (PRWEB) December 07, 2011

ServeNow.com, a trusted network of process serving professionals, released an infographic last week. The infographic, titled “Process Server vs. Sheriff,” provides a legitimate answer to the question of who people should trust to have their legal papers served: a process server or a sheriff.

“We had anecdotal evidence of the differences between process servers and sheriffs, but nothing that was supported by unbiased empirical data,” co-founder Trent Carlyle says. “It’s very exciting that we were able to get this information out there.”

The publication of this research is timely as some states have passed legislation supporting certified server programs. In other areas including Dallas, Texas, the burden of serving thousands of evictions, lawsuits, divorce decrees, and child support papers has fallen on the Sheriff’s Office as an addition to the higher priority responsibility of protecting the community.

To get the facts, ServeNow surveyed paralegals, legal assistants, and legal administrators who have papers served regularly. They also gathered pricing information from hundreds of process serving firms and publicly available sheriff pricing.

Notable statistics:

• 78% of legal professionals surveyed prefer process servers over sheriffs

• 90% of the time process servers completed the serve faster than sheriffs
• Process servers averaged 4.28 out of 5 stars for customer satisfaction vs. the sheriff’s 2.55 stars
• Only 13% of those surveyed believe sheriffs know the laws better
• Process servers were rated more likely to successfully serve the documents
• The difference in average cost was negligible