Who is more successful as a process server; a man or a woman? Process serving has been a gender coded job from the beginning. Most defendants expect to be served legal documents by an intimidating, threatening man. The natural reaction is therefore apprehension. This notion goes a long way in showing just how much easier and more comfortable even for the defendant for the process server to be a woman. Does it mean that women have an easier time serving papers? Not definitely. Process serving is a dangerous and intimidating process. There are numerous factors to be considered all of which can go wrong at any point. For instance, some defendants just overreact on the prospect of being served legal papers; no matter who is serving them. This is why most if not all female process servers take a self-defense course before taking on the role. But I digress.
Woman Vs Man as a Process Server
So what makes a female process server have a higher success rate than a male process server? A number of factors come into play:
a. Ability to correctly read social cues
Women are generally intuitive. This is what makes them such good nurturers. Their ability to read a room, read a face and interpret what the person is feeling or have an incline as to what they are thinking makes it easier for women to make comfortable rational decisions. In a situation where you need to serve an elusive defendant legal papers, you need to be able to read their reaction fast enough for you to diffuse it before it gets out of control. This saves you the drama and also saves the defendant the public humiliation of running from a process server.
b. Raising suspicion
Who are you more likely to find suspicious if you found them on your doorstep; a man or a woman? If you found a woman at your doorstep, the first thing on your mind wouldn’t be to take cover or protect yourself. The most natural instinct would be to help her. The damsel in distress sells even when the damsel isn’t in trouble and is really not a damsel at all. This gets her foot through the door making it easy to serve successfully.
c. Easy to blend in
It is far easier for a woman to blend into a scene than a man. A woman can walk into an office; ask for the defendant without raising any eyebrows. And when the defendant gets notified, he is more likely to listen to her than he is to ask that she be sent out. A man on the other hand, would find restrictions from the doorway all the way in. Women are generally friendly and easy to approach which helps them catch the defendant off- guard when they serve the legal papers.
d. A listening ear
It is a fact that men are less patient than women. One of the best ways to diffuse a potentially explosive service situation is to offer the defendant a helping hand. When they start complaining and you catch something that you can offer an answer or a solution to, it makes them feel like you are for them and not against them. For instance, offering direction on what they should do next in the legal process, or showing them where to sign, who to call when they have a response and so on helps them see that you are not against them but just doing your job.
e. Focus
Yes, women are the queens of multi-tasking. This makes it seem like it is impossible to focus on one task at a time. Quite the contrary. Their ability to multi-task means they are able to focus on many things at the same time. You will notice that when a woman seems to be multitasking, all the tasks she undertakes have a common final goal; they all work together to achieve that particular goal. This goes a long way in process serving. They can easily pick up on conversations for instance, and the lay of the office or home area and be able to talk to one person while listening to another in order to find out how best to find the defendant. Once in the defendant’s presence, they are able to listen to them while deciphering how best to handle the situation if it seems to be going wrong. This is an ability that no one man can master in one situation. Unfortunately, men get easily distracted making it easier for the woman to serve.
Final words
Though seen as the weaker sex, women are strong in ways that go beyond physical ability. In this regard, they come out stronger in process serving, giving them a higher success rate.
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