Subcontractor Terms & Conditions

Every assignment we send you links to these Terms. By accepting an assignment, confirming it, or beginning work on it, you accept these Terms as they read on that day. The assignment email (the "dispatch") and any written instructions we give you for it are part of the agreement. If the dispatch and these Terms conflict, the dispatch controls for that assignment.

You are an independent contractor, not our employee, partner or agent for any purpose other than performing the assignment. You decide whether to accept an assignment, and you control the manner and means of your work, subject to the law, the court's rules and the instructions in the dispatch. You provide your own vehicle, phone, equipment and supplies and pay your own expenses unless the dispatch says otherwise.

You are responsible for your own taxes, licenses, insurance and business registrations. We do not withhold taxes or provide benefits, and you are not covered by any workers' compensation insurance of ours. Before we pay you for the first time, you agree to give us a completed IRS Form W-9. We issue tax forms as the law requires.

A request for a quote or rate is a request for that assignment only. Responding to it does not commit either of us, and we may give the assignment to someone else. We do not promise any amount or frequency of work.

You represent that you are at least 18 years old and legally qualified to perform each assignment you accept, including every license, certification, registration, appointment, bond or commission that the law or the court requires where you perform it. You agree to give us proof on request and to tell us right away if any of them lapses, is suspended or is revoked. You may not accept an assignment you are not qualified to perform.

You agree to carry any insurance the law requires for your work, including auto insurance for any vehicle you use. If a dispatch requires other coverage, you agree to provide a certificate of insurance before you begin.

The dispatch states the assignment: the papers, the person or entity, the address, the method of service, the deadline and the agreed rate. Follow it exactly. Do not go beyond its scope without our written approval. If substitute service, posting, mailing or another alternate method may be needed, document the facts and email us before you use it. If the dispatch says "personal service only", serve the person in hand and no one else.

Please confirm that you received each dispatch by replying to it. Same-day and rush assignments need your confirmation right away. If you cannot meet the deadline, tell us as soon as you know.

You may not hand an assignment, or any part of it, to anyone else, including another server or company, without our written approval.

You agree to perform every assignment in compliance with the law and the court's rules where you perform it, including the rules on who may be served, when, where and how. In particular, you agree:

• not to trespass, force entry, or enter a place you have no right to enter;
• not to use or threaten force, and to leave if a situation becomes unsafe;
• not to impersonate a law enforcement officer, a court officer or anyone else, or to misrepresent who you are or why you are there;
• to observe any law that restricts service on Sundays, holidays or at certain times or places;
• to record audio or video only where the law allows it, including any rule that requires every party's consent; and
• to photograph people only where the law allows it and only to document the assignment.

Your safety comes first. No assignment requires you to take a risk to your safety.

Regular updates are very important to us. Keep us informed throughout the assignment. After each attempt, email us the date and exact time, the full result, who you spoke with, what you observed at the address, and photographs where relevant. When service is made, email us who received the papers, their relationship to the person served if substitute service was made, a description of the person served, the date, time and place, and any photographs or notes that support the proof of service. If the person who takes the papers refuses to give a name, describe them in detail (gender, approximate age, height, weight, hair and any other identifying feature); the return will list them as John Doe or Jane Doe with your description.

Your reports must be complete and true. Location data from your phone or service software, when you use it, must reflect where you actually were. A false report, a made-up attempt or a backdated time is a serious breach of these Terms and may be a crime.

You agree that we may use your reports, photographs and notes, without your business name or contact details except where a return form requires them, in our records, in the returns and affidavits we prepare, in our reports to our client, and in answering a payment dispute or legal claim about the assignment.

We prepare the return of service or affidavit from the facts in your report, using your own business address. We send you a copy. Where the law allows an electronic signature, you authorize us to apply your electronic signature to a return or affidavit that states the facts you reported, and you adopt that signature as your own. Where the return must be notarized or signed by hand, you agree to sign it as the law requires, scan and email it to us, and mail us the original. If anything in a return we prepare differs from what happened, tell us immediately and do not sign it until it is corrected.

You agree not to file a return, affidavit or other proof with any court yourself, and not to send it to anyone other than us, unless the dispatch asks you to. If you will be needed as a witness about your service, we will ask you, and you agree to cooperate, at a rate we agree with you in writing.

Your rate is the amount agreed for the assignment in writing, in the dispatch or in our written exchange before it. Unless the dispatch says otherwise, the rate for service of process covers up to three diligent attempts at one address, at varied times of day where possible, and your report and proof details.

We pay nothing beyond the agreed rate unless we approve it in writing before you incur it: additional attempts, a new address, waiting time, mileage, rush or same-day work, printing, postage, parking, filing fees, witness fees or anything else.

Email your invoice to us when the assignment is complete (or when the included attempts have been made), with the case or party name, the address, the agreed rate and any charge we approved in writing. Please send it within 30 days. We may decline an invoice we receive more than 90 days after the assignment ends.

We pay after the assignment is complete and we have your report and proof details. We pay by e-check (sent by Deluxe eChecks) or by credit card through a payment link on your invoice, and by another method only if we agree in writing. We aim to pay within 15 business days of receiving your complete invoice and report. We do not prepay, unless we agree to it in writing for a particular assignment.

To protect you and us from fraud, any change to your payment details must be confirmed by us through a phone number or email address already on file. We do not act on a payment change sent only by email from a new address.

If you believe a payment is wrong, tell us in writing within 60 days of the payment. We may deduct from a payment any amount you owe us under these Terms for the same or an earlier assignment, and we will tell you in writing what we deducted and why.

If an assignment is canceled before you make the first attempt, we owe you nothing for it unless the dispatch says otherwise. If it is canceled after you have begun, we pay for the attempts made and any expense we approved.

Our clients are our clients. You work for us, not for them, and every question, instruction and report goes to us, not to the client.

• No contact with our clients. Do not contact our client, the client's attorney or staff, or anyone acting for them about an assignment, and do not give them your contact details, your business name, your marketing or your prices. If they contact you, refer them to us and tell us.
• No solicitation. During the time you work with us and for 12 months after your last assignment, you agree not to solicit, accept or perform work, directly or through anyone else, for any client of ours whose assignment you performed or whose identity you learned through us, except through us. This protects the client relationships and confidential business information you gain access to through our assignments, which are legitimate business interests under Florida law.
• Our loss. Because our loss from a breach of this section is difficult to measure, if you breach it you agree to pay us, as a reasonable estimate of our loss and not as a penalty, the amount we would have charged our client for the work you performed or accepted in breach. We may also ask a court to stop the breach. For an attorney, this section applies only as far as the rules of professional conduct that govern the attorney allow, and it does not restrict the attorney's right to practice law.

Everything you receive or learn through an assignment is confidential: the papers, the case, the client's identity, and the personal information about the people involved. Use it only to perform the assignment. Do not disclose it to anyone except the person being served, a person who lawfully receives the papers for them, or as the law requires, do not post it or discuss it publicly, and do not keep it longer than you need it, except records the law where you work requires you to keep. Keep papers and devices secure. If any of it is lost, stolen or exposed, tell us right away.

Skip trace results and addresses we give you may be used only to perform the assignment. Do not use them for any other purpose, sell them or share them.

On a passive observation assignment, keep the venue, the event and the assignment confidential before, during and after it. Do not identify yourself or confront anyone, follow the field guide we send you, and deliver your files by the deadline in the dispatch.

We handle your own personal information, such as your contact, tax and payment details, as described in our Privacy Policy (served123.com/privacy-policy).

You are responsible for your own acts and omissions and those of anyone who helps you. You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless Served 123, its members and employees, and our clients, from any claim, loss, fine or expense (including reasonable attorneys' fees) to the extent caused by your negligence or misconduct, a false or inaccurate report, your breach of these Terms, or your violation of the law. This does not cover a loss to the extent caused by our own negligence or misconduct.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, our total liability to you for any assignment is limited to the agreed rate for that assignment and any expense we approved for it, and neither of us is liable to the other for indirect, consequential or punitive damages. These limits do not apply to fraud or intentional misconduct, to your indemnity above, or to a breach of the client and confidentiality sections.

Either of us may stop working with the other at any time. We may withdraw an assignment at any time by telling you; follow a stop instruction as soon as you receive it. We pay for work properly performed before the stop, under the payment terms above. After the relationship ends, the sections on proof of service, payment, our clients, confidentiality, responsibility for your work, and disputes continue to apply.

If a dispute arises, either of us must first give the other written notice describing it, and we will both try in good faith to resolve it within 30 days. If it is not resolved, it will be decided by the state courts in Broward County, Florida, and each of us consents to their jurisdiction. These Terms are governed by Florida law. The prevailing party in any lawsuit about these Terms may recover reasonable attorneys' fees and costs.

YOU AND SERVED 123 EACH KNOWINGLY AND VOLUNTARILY WAIVE ANY RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL IN ANY LAWSUIT ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR ANY ASSIGNMENT.

These Terms, with each dispatch, are the entire agreement between us about the assignments you accept, and they replace any earlier subcontractor terms. If a part of them is found unenforceable, it will be enforced to the extent the law allows, and the rest stays in effect. A failure to enforce a term is not a waiver of it. You may not assign these Terms. Notices to us go to info@served123.com; notices to you go to the email address you use with us.

We may revise these Terms by posting the revised version here with a new effective date. The version in effect when you accept an assignment governs that assignment.

For anything about an assignment, reply to its dispatch email.