As a professional process server, your affidavit is your ultimate work product. Your customers rely on you to produce legible, professional affidavits that will be accepted by the court. In this slideshow, Torri Schaffer, president of Torri's Legal Services, discusses the basics of a properly filling out and creating affidavits.

1. CREATING
BULLETPROOF
AFFIDAVITS
ByTorri Schaffer
President ofTorri’s Legal Services
June 2017
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2. Torri Schaffer
■ President ofTorri’s Legal Services
■ Has been in the process serving business for over 20 years
■ Founding Member of Mid Atlantic Association of
Professional Process Servers (MAAPPS), Former
President and current Director
■ Former Board member of the National Association of
Professional Process Servers (NAPPS)
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3. Affidavit is the Product
of our Work
“We are the arm of theAttorney. Our work is
the reflection of the attorneys that sent you
the job. Affidavits of Service are the product
of our work as process servers. It’s our job to
provide our clients with professional
affidavits”
Torri Schaffer
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4. What is an Affidavit?
■ Affidavit is defined as a written statement of facts, sworn to and
signed by the affiant. Some states require a notary.
■ A good way to think of an affidavit is a document of facts where you
swear that the facts are true and correct.
■ If you’re signing an affidavit, make sure you read what you’re signing
to in its entirety. If you can agree to all of the statements in the
document, sign it.
■ If the state where the documents originated, requires a notary seal,
the documents must be signed in front of a notary.
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5. Service of process
■ When a case is initiated, you cannot go forward until the defendant is served
with the legal documents.
■ “Service of Process” makes sure that the legal documents have been
delivered to the person required to respond to them.
■ To utilize the service of process, the documents should be given to the
process server by the plaintiff, defendant, attorney or process serving
company.
■ There are several ways to serve process.You must follow the instructions
provided by the plaintiff or the attorney.
■ For example, in case of personal service, the process server must physically
give the copy of the documents to the person being served.
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6. Affidavit in Process Serving
■ An Affidavit in process serving, also known as Affidavit of Service
or Proof of Service, is a document provided by the process server,
that states the pertinent facts of the service.
■ It’s an official document to confirm the service has been effected.
In most cases it gets filed with the court.
■ In the case of a non-service, an Affidavit of Due Diligence is
provided.
■ There should be an affidavit created for every party served.
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7. Types of affidavits of service
■ There are State and Federal Affidavits of Service for the
documents issued by state or federal courts respectively.
■ State Affidavits:
– Individual/Personal
– Substitute/Personal
– Corporate/Partnership service
– Substitute Business
– Due diligence (Affidavit of attempts)
– Posting
– Federal Affidavits will be discussed a bit later in this
presentation.
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8. Parts of the
affidavit
■ Case caption
■ Affiant
statement
■ Service
statement
■ Signature block
■ Notary block
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9. Case caption
■ Case caption should include
■ Plaintiff
■ Defendant
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■ Court Name
■ Court case number
■ Affidavit Name

10. Case caption – contin.
■ It can also look like this:
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11. Affiant Statement
■ In the Affiant Statement you state who you are and how you
relate to the case parties. In the case of Affidavit of Service this
part can look like this:
■ Or like this:
■ Or like this:
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12. Service statement
■ Service Statement should contain: Date andTime of service, Name
of the person served,Type of Documents served,Type of Service,
Address of Service, Description of the Person Served.
■ In case of personal service it can look like this:
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If the list of documents served do not fit in the designated space on
the affidavit – you should type them on an additional sheet, title it
“List of documents served”, and attach to the affidavit.

13. Service statement – contin.
■ Or, in case of Corporate service, it can look like this:
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14. Signature and notary blocks
■ They can look like this:
■ Note: Not all states requireAffidavits to be notarized. For example,
Maryland andVirginia do not require notary, but the District of Columbia
does.
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15. Substitute/personal affidavit
■ In substitute service, in most states the person you are sub-serving must be a co-
resident of the person being served.
■ Substitute to a Person, also called Substitute Service at a ResidenceAffidavit
should include the relationship to the party being served (husband, wife, mother,
co-resident…)
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16. Substitute business affidavit
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17. Due Diligence affidavit
■ When the numerous attempts of service have been made and the service was
unsuccessful, the Affidavit of Due Diligence is provided. It’s also called the
Affidavit of Attempted Service.
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18. Due Diligence affidavit – contin.
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19. Posted service affidavit
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 Follow the rules of civil procedure in your state.
 In Maryland, you must have a court order form from the judge to post legal
documents.
 Once process is posted on the main entrance door, take a picture and attach it to
the affidavit.

20. How to prepare the affidavit
of service
■ Upon completion of the service, the Process Server is responsible for
preparing their ownAffidavit of Service. If you are a contractor at a process
serving company, the company will do it for you.
Affidavit of Service can be prepared in one of the following ways:
■ Use professional Process Serving software. It has built in templates for different
types of services. If you fill out all the information correctly in the job, the Affidavit
of Service will be generated automatically upon your request.
■ Download NAPPSAffidavit of Process Server from napps.org (you need to be a
member to do so), fill it out and print.
■ Type in a form of aWord document
■ If you have no access to any of the above, hand print legibly in blue ink.
■ Remember about quality as we are the arm of the attorney!
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21. Federal affidavits
■ FederalAffidavits:
– AO 440 - Summons in Civil Action
– AO 88 – Subpoena to Appear andTestify at a hearing orTrial in
a Civil Action
– AO 88A – Subpoena toTestify at a Deposition in a Civil Action
– AO 88B – Subpoena to Produce Documents, Information, or
Objects or to Permit Inspection of Premises in a Civil Action
■ All Federal Affidavits forms can be found online and downloaded
on your computer. Make sure you have the forms with the latest
revision date.
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22. Federal affidavits – AO 440
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23. Federal affidavits – AO 440 contin.
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24. Federal affidavits – AO 88A
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25. Federal affidavits – AO 88A contin.
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26. Federal affidavits – AO 88B
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27. Federal affidavits – AO 88B contin.
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28. Thank you for watching
and I am happy to answer
your questions now!
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