There are many different types of court orders and documents that a process server might be employed to help serve. These can include orders to attend court, divorce petitions, bankruptcy petitions and so on.
Injunctions are another order that a process server may be required for, especially due to their urgent nature. In this article, we’ll explore what injunctions are (and the common uses for them), and what makes them need to be served with such speed and efficiency.
Whether you’re looking for a process server in Bolton to help with serving injunctions, or you’re just interested in learning more, here’s everything you need to know:
Injunctions Explained
There are lots of different types of injunction that might be served against someone, but they broadly fall into two main types – prohibitory injunctions, and mandatory injunctions.
Prohibitory injunctions are designed to stop a person/organisation from doing something, while mandatory injunctions are the opposite, with the intention of making someone do something.
Prohibitory injunctions are pretty common in business protection cases, and they’re often used at the start of a case to make sure that people working for the business don’t take certain actions. A common one would be disposing of assets, pending the outcome of a claim against the business.
A business could, in theory, dispose of its assets if it feels it is at risk of losing a claim against it, so that it didn’t have the same value/means with which to pay out for the claim.
Prohibitory injunctions are designed to stop that from happening.
Mandatory injunctions can be used for various reasons, but a common example would be to require someone to produce business records, for example.
Regardless of the type of injunction that’s being used, they must be served personally against the respondent. An injunction couldn’t be emailed to someone, or posted to them with hope that they read it.
They’re extremely important, which is why personal service is essential, and why many solicitors or courts will use experienced process servers to ensure proper service.
Injunctions are serious business, and they’ll often have a power of arrest attached to them by the courts. This means that the police can arrest the respondent if they knowingly and willingly break the injunction’s terms, and once the respondent is brought to court, they can be committed to prison.
Claimants can make a claim for contempt of court where they know a respondent has breached an injunction. And with a maximum prison sentence of 24 months, that’s often enough of a deterrent to make sure the respondent follows the terms of the injunction.
Why So Speedy?
Efficiency and urgency are critical when it comes to service of injunctions, because they often aren’t a surprise – and so someone could take action that an injunction would otherwise prevent or compromise before they are served.
Let’s use the examples already given. If a business knew that it was likely to lose a claim, and it became aware that an injunction was likely due to prevent it from disposing of assets, there’s nothing technically wrong with disposing of those assets prior to being served the injunction.
That’s why fast service is so important – a business could rapidly try to dispose of the assets before they’re stopped, to make sure they can still act before they are in breach and potentially at risk of a prison sentence.
The same goes for mandatory injunctions, though this is more of a grey area. For example, someone could in theory destroy records before an injunction is served on them to force them to produce those records, but that would definitely be viewed unfavourably by any courts and could still cause legal issues.
Still, from the perspective of those serving the injunctions, it’s always best to act swiftly so that the respondent is served at the earliest opportunity, and prevented from acting.
Serving Multiple Respondents
This becomes even more critical in those cases where multiple respondents may need to be served. When this happens, it’s typically important to try and serve them all at a similar time, or at least as quickly as possible.
It’s for the simple reason that, if you serve one person, they might then have time to warn the others that injunctions are coming their way. As long as they haven’t been served the injunction, they’re technically free to take any action that would soon be prohibited by the injunction.
Again, disposal of assets is a common example here. If a business has multiple senior staff who could be served, and one is served before the others, then they can warn the other staff members who could still dispose of assets.
Private Investigators & Injunctions
There are several options for serving injunctions, but if you need help then hiring a private investigator that offers this service is often your best choice.
As private investigators who’ve worked closely with solicitors and courts, we offer several advantages. We understand the laws and regulations around process serving, including what we legally can and can’t do in order to serve papers, and the required reports that may be needed as evidence.
Of course, our main strength is our ability to track someone down. With injunctions especially, this can be crucial – someone who knows an injunction is imminent could try to evade service, but as private investigators we’re capable of using our skillset to find them and ensure they are served as quickly as possible, preventing their actions that would otherwise break the injunction.
If you’re in the market for process serving for injunctions or for any form of court order, give our team at EJM Investigations a call. We’ll be happy to discuss your needs with you, and find a suitable solution for your budget. Call us on 01772 334700 if you want to know more.