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 discusses the basics of a properly filling out and creating affidavits.

1. By Torri Schaffer
President of Torri’s Legal Services
June 2017
1

2.  President of Torri’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)
 “We are the arm of the Attorney. 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
2

3.  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.
3

4.  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.
4

5.  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.
5

6.  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.
6

7.  Case caption
 Affiant
statement
 Service
statement
 Signature block
 Notary block
7

8.  Case caption should include
 Plaintiff
 Defendant
8
 Court Name
 Court case number
 Affidavit Name

9.  It can also look like this:
9

10.  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:
10

11.  Service Statement should contain: Date and Time 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:
11
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.

12.  Or, in case of Corporate service, it can look like this:
12

13.  They can look like this:
 Note: Not all states require Affidavits to be notarized. For example,
Maryland and Virginia do not require notary, but the District of Columbia
does.
13

14.  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 Residence
Affidavit should include the relationship to the party being served
(husband, wife, mother, co-resident…)
14

15. 15

16.  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.
16

17. 17

18. 18
 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.

19.  Upon completion of the service, the Process Server is responsible
for preparing their own Affidavit 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 NAPPS Affidavit 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 a Word 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!
19

20.  Federal Affidavits:
 AO 440 - Summons in Civil Action
 AO 88 – Subpoena to Appear and Testify at a hearing or
Trial in a Civil Action
 AO 88A – Subpoena to Testify 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.
20

21. 21

22. 22

23. 23

24. 24

25. 25

26. 26

27. 27