RESULTS OF THE SURVEY REQUEST – PROCESS SERVICE, A PI FUNCTION OR NOT?

September 7. 2009

Following up on the last “Skills for Security” arranged Sector Meeting for the purpose of conducting the legally required Review of the NOS for the Investigations Sector (NOS - National Occupational Standards)

One question that arose at this last Meeting being whether or not Process Service is, or should be included within the various National Occupational Standards for an Investigator.

Some Delegates at this Meeting took the view that as Process is not a licensable activity, and that “anyone can do it” and/or it related more to Bailiff or Enforcement, it should be moved from Investigation Standards to those of the Enforcement Sector. Process Service in their view, should not therefore be assigned a set of standards within the Investigation NOS Suite.

The vote was split, and the question therefore adjourned until the next Meeting which takes place tomorrow Tuesday September 8. 2009.

I therefore conducted a simple survey with the co-operation of the ABI, British Agents and UKPIN eGroups as well as the open eGroup of WAPI.

The questions posed were as follows:

1) Do you undertake Process Serving as part of your Services?

2) What percentage of your Gross Sales relates to Process?

(The ABI varied this to: Is more than 50% of your Sales related to Process?)

3) Do you agree that Process Service should be considered as part or/aligned to the Investigation Sector? Yes/No

4) Do you agree that those who may desire to formalize their skills in a recognized Exam or Assessment should be able to do so?

5) Do you agree that a “Competent Professional Investigator” should understand Process Service, whether or not undertaken?

The results substantiated that the vast majority of England & Wales based Private Investigators do undertake Process Service as part of their Agency Services (88%), 28% of the responses determined that half or more of their sales were from Process, whilst Those whose business turnover undertook over 50%, whilst 79% of replies supported the concept that process should be part of the Investigator Portfolio!

Less than half of those who replied (45%) supported the notion of an exam or competence assessment covering Process Service! Whereas 72% of those replying supported the notion of (competent) Investigators having knowledge of Process Service?

I intend to re-present the case for the Investigation Sector to be provided with a set of standards within the Investigative Suite of standards to enable an Awarding Body to assess the competence of a person wishing to be assessed or tested for a formal qualification.

The Standard for Process Servers as part of the Suite of NOS for Investigators would combine demonstrated knowledge, understanding and skills required to perform the Service of legal Documents competently and in compliance with the law and rules applicable. This would necessarily include demonstrated ability to prepare and complete proofs of Service (Statements, Affidavits & Notarized Affidavits) This Standard would be the benchmark of competence that people will be trained to, and measured against.

Notes: Scottish Members do not normally undertake Process Serving.

Some additional comments from Responders included a member who only serves Statutory Demands, not other Process, 3 replies which outright wanted Process to be exclusively the domain of Enforcement/Bailiffs.

I would like to express my thanks to the ABI (Tony Imossi), UKPIN (Barry Smith), BAG (Stephen Turner) and WAPI (Tony Smith) for their co-operation in permitting this Subject and Survey to be circulated.

Ian (D. Withers)

UK/EU Regulation

WAPI - Past Chairman

www.WAPI.com

Ian@PILimited.com