Tip 10: Live Out of State? That’s Great! Cities routinely mail photo-enforcement notices to violators who live out of state. Many such violators dutifully pay up. You, however, are no dummy. In theory, Arizona cities could pay process servers in other states to deliver their tickets. In practice, they don’t. Make no mistake: Left unpaid, a ticket issued by a … Read More

Tip 9: Don’t Use a Home Address When Registering a Vehicle Anti-photo-enforcement activist Sherman Potter recommends that when registering a vehicle, one should use a private mailbox that has a physical address. “They cannot process-serve the mailbox place, and they cannot do a motion for alternative service to anyone,” Potter says. Problem is, renting a mailbox costs money. If you’re … Read More

Tip 8: Register a Vehicle to a Corporation Cities often mail notices of violation to corporations (if they don’t toss the violations outright), politely asking the firm to identify a violating driver. Such notices can be safely thrown in the trash, because corporations can’t be served a ticket that by law must be issued to an individual person. Don’t own … Read More

Tip 7: This Isn’t Your Grandpa’s Car, It’s Just Registered to Him One of the best ways to beat photo enforcement used to be to simply drive a vehicle that’s registered to someone else. Before sending out a notice of violation, photo-enforcement workers compare the violator’s face with the driver’s license picture of the vehicle’s registered owner. If those don’t … Read More

Tip 6: Live in a Gated Community   Tom Zollars, our aforementioned process-server pro, says he and his ilk tend to have trouble getting past gates that require a code to unlock. A guard at the gate might open up for an insistent process server with bona fide court paperwork, especially if the server calls police for help. But that … Read More

Tip 5: Once in a While, a Process Server Might Cheat How many kids in your fourth-grade class said they wanted to be a process server when they grew up? Process servers tend to get paid for each ticket they successfully deliver. Not to put too fine a point on it, but some may interpret this as an incentive to, … Read More

Tip 4: Beware of Scottsdale   The city of Scottsdale fights back. If you blow off a violation notice in Scottsdale, the city will file an alternative-service motion showing that a server attempted to deliver the ticket three times — in the morning, the afternoon, and the evening, all on separate days. Once a judge grants the motion, the process … Read More

Tip 3: Make It Seem Like Nobody’s Home — Ever Process servers tend to go where they think they’ll find their quarry. On the flip side, they may avoid returning to a residence that doesn’t appear to provide a likely payoff. So keep the car in the garage and shut the blinds. This serves two purposes. One, it makes it … Read More

Tip 2: If No Ones’s Home, No One Gets Served “It’s real simple,” says Tom Zollars of Superior Process Services. “Don’t answer your door.” Generally speaking, a process server can’t leave the ticket at your door. Under Arizona law, a citation must be given to the defendant or a “person of suitable age” who lives at the home. Translation: To improve … Read More

Tip 1: Ignoring a Notice of Violation MAY Result in Your Case Being Dismissed By law, after a ticket is filed in court, a municipality has 90 days to notify you.(Arizona Revised Statute 28-1592) The first thing a city will do is to mail you a notice of violation, asking you to sign and return a waiver (along with, ideally, a check to … Read More