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Process Server Safety Questioned After Murder

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Jun 8, 2008 6:18 pm US/Mountain

Process Server Safety Questioned After Murder

Reporting
Mike Hooker
FORT COLLINS, Colo. (CBS4) ― He was murdered while doing his job and now a process server's death raises the question of how to make a sometimes dangerous job safer.

The people who deliver court papers are often private citizens with no required training or licensing to make the job safer.

Stephen Allen was murdered in Loveland last week while serving divorce papers.

James Whitler is now charged with killing Allen. Police say he also tried to kill his own children. Allen's family says more has to be done to protect process servers.

Law enforcement will also serve court papers, but there's a fee and it's often slower than hiring a private server like Allen.

"People that serve papers are just doing a job. They're doing a job and they need to be protected," Allen's brother Scott said. "They need to be backed up so that these kinds of tragedies won't occur again." 

Allen's family says perhaps the state should require law enforcement to serve the papers that have the most potential for violence, like divorce and restraining orders.

"You're always aware of the public policy implication of any tragedy like that," Rep. Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud, said.

The killing happened in Lundberg's district.

"When it comes to process servers making sure that they're in a reasonable realm of safety, it is the government's responsibility? Or is it the responsibility of the private business to sort that out?' Lundberg asked.

"It's such a rare, rare incident that something like that would happen that there's really not a lot you can do differently other than be aware and use good common sense," said. Steve Wennstedt, a process server.


Wennstedt says in his seven years as a process server, he's only been threatened verbally. Wennstedt says requiring law enforcement on some jobs could help, but training, perhaps through licensing, would definitely make the job safer. And there are some jobs he just says no to.

"If I look through it and deem it dangerous, I recommend to the client that they go through the sheriff's office," Wennstedt said.

The president of the National Association of Professional Process Servers says there's a new law in New Jersey that makes tougher charges for assaulting a process server. But he says that's probably not a real deterrent that would protect someone one from being attacked.

(© MMIX CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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