What is Skip tracing?
Skip tracing is the act of gathering information from multiple sources in order to locate a person that is difficult to find. As a matter of fact, the “skip” portion of the phrase “skip tracing” refers to the act of one “skipping” town. After all, generally, if a person is difficult to find, it is because they have left their last known location.
Not unlike process servers must track down elusive persons in order to be successful at their work. Sometimes, individuals are purposely evasive because they are dodging service, while other times they may simply be off the grid, but, either way, a process server will have to find them in order to successfully complete his or her task.
Whether the reason a person is difficult to serve is due to malicious intent, or simply because he or she has moved or changed jobs, skip tracing makes the job of the process server much simpler when the one for whom service is intended is hard to locate. Or, skip tracing is employed because, sometimes, a process server is given little or no information at all about a person to be served. Either way, it certainly serves as a helpful tool.
What is the skip tracing process?
The main component of skip tracing is knowing the best places to gather personal information about certain individuals. The internet starts as a great starting point since you can peruse social media and order credit reports and search criminal and courthouse databases to get clues to where one may be employed or residing. You can also subscribe to more detailed databases including those listing phone numbers, tax records, motor vehicle department records, job, credit card, and loan applications, and utility bills. If all else fails, there is also skip tracing software, flight and travel records, surveillance, and interviews with known associates.
While skip tracing may seem like something any layperson can do in their spare time, it is not as simple as it seems on the surface. Plus, it is timely and costly, so it is best left to professional process servers. After all, skip tracing is a part of the services that pro se litigants and attorneys pay them for. The best methods for searching do cost a fee, after all, though any additional information, including regular internet searches, can aid in the process servers’ searches.
So, as stated, a professional process server has access to technologies that most of us do have. They also employ high-tech surveillance methods that he or she will be sure to follow federal, state, and parish privacy laws and ordinances in order to use, since they have that knowledge. Also, depending on the availability of information, a professional process server has the ability conduct a skip trace between one and ten days at most.
At Lafayette Process Servers, we have access to several databases and the best in technological advances to find even the most obscure defendants and witnesses. We have a known 20-plus year track record of finding the individuals that you are looking for and serving them properly within the parameters of the law. Give us a call or drop us an email to learn more about our services.
