Questions

Serving means delivering documents to a person, so that they have them and there is a record that they received them. Filing means submitting documents to the court, so that the court has them.

They are two separate jobs, and we offer both. A serve starts at $89 per party, and a court run starts at $55.

Which one your situation needs, and in what order, is not something we can tell you. We are not attorneys and cannot give legal advice. Please ask an attorney or your county court’s self-help staff.

No. We are not attorneys and cannot give legal advice.

That includes questions that may seem simple: which court to file in, when something is due, whether the service we performed is sufficient, whether a form is filled in correctly, or what a document you received means. We are not able to answer those questions.

We can tell you exactly what we did, when we did it, and what it cost.

If you do not have an attorney, your county court’s self-help staff and the Colorado Judicial Branch Self-Help Center can explain procedures and forms. Colorado Legal Services and the Colorado Bar Association can help you find a lawyer.

No. Anyone can order process service, a court run or a notary appointment without setting up an account first. You pay at the end of the order form and receive a tracking link.

You also get access to the client portal automatically, using the email address you ordered with. That is where your signed proof is delivered.

Law firms should ask for a firm account, which is what makes net-30 monthly invoicing available.

Four things: the party’s name as it appears on the documents, a street address with the unit number, the ZIP code, and the documents themselves as a PDF.

Please also tell us anything else you know: work hours, a second address, a vehicle, a gate code, the name on the buzzer, or whether the address came from a lease that has ended. Details like these often reduce the number of attempts needed.

If the ZIP code crosses a county line, we will ask you to confirm the county so the proof names the correct one.

Yes. Email info@kestrellegalops.com with your order reference. It looks like SV-2609-0042 and appears in the subject line of every email we send you.

You can cancel at any time before the order is complete. A serve can be cancelled until the person is served, including between attempts. A cancellation takes effect when we receive it, and the refund depends on how far the order had progressed at that moment.

Before anyone sets out, you receive a full refund, court fees included, less a $5.00 cancellation fee. The fee is the same however you paid.

Once we are on the way, before any work is done, we keep the cost of the trip and refund the rest, court fees included:

• on a serve or a court run, we keep a $35.00 trip fee;
• on a notary visit, we keep the travel or facility-visit fee and any after-hours fee. The notary fee is refunded, because nothing was notarized.

Once work is done, no refund is due, except court fees we had not yet paid out, which we always refund. Work is done once an attempt at service has been made, the papers have reached the clerk’s counter, or the notarization is complete. The fee for an attempt is earned whether or not it reaches the person.

On an invoiced order, the same amounts apply: we credit the rest on the invoice and bill only what we keep.

Changing instead of cancelling. Before we set out, you can change an order rather than cancel it: correct a name or address, add or remove a party, or change the speed. Changes are free. If the price goes up, you pay the difference; if it goes down, we refund the difference.

You can reschedule a notary appointment at no charge until we set out.

Standard, $89 per party: first attempt within 3 business days, and four attempts over ten days.

Rush, $149 per party: first attempt within 24 hours, and four attempts over five days.

Same day, $219 per party: order and documents received by 11:00 am, first attempt that day, and four attempts over five days.

A faster tier gets you an earlier first attempt and a shorter window for the four attempts. It does not change whether the person can be found at the address.

On a rush or same-day order, we automatically refund the difference from the standard rate: $60 for each party charged at the rush rate and $130 for each party charged at the same-day rate. The service and the remaining attempts continue as ordered. On an invoiced order, the refund is a credit on the invoice.

The refund is due as soon as the deadline passes, whether or not an attempt has been made by then. You do not need to request it.

This is a refund of the speed premium. It is not a guarantee that service will succeed.

We cover seven counties at the rates on our rate card: Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas and Jefferson.

That includes the outlying parts of each county: Evergreen and Conifer in Jefferson, Nederland and Lyons in Boulder, Bennett and Strasburg in Adams, Deer Trail and Byers in Arapahoe, and Sedalia and Larkspur in Douglas. All are priced at the metro rate, and we will confirm the address first if access looks difficult.

Usually, yes. The tier price applies, plus $1.00 a mile round trip, and the order shows as “needs a quote” until we have priced it. Nothing is charged until you have seen the quote.

If we do not recognize the ZIP code, the order is quoted by hand in the same way, so the price you see is the right one.

If an address is too far for us to serve well, we will let you know instead of quoting it.

Metro ZIP codes often cross county lines, and the proof of service needs to name the correct county.

80123 is in Arapahoe, Denver and Jefferson. 80212 is in Denver and Jefferson. 80603 is in Adams and Weld, and Weld is outside our service area. 80020 covers Broomfield, Adams and Jefferson.

Because the ZIP code alone cannot determine the county, the county you confirm always takes priority over our lookup table, and it is the county that appears on the proof.

Four attempts are included in every tier. Standard spreads them over ten days; rush and same day spread them over five.

We make them at different times of day and on different days, because someone who is not home at 2:00 pm is often home at 7:00 am.

Additional attempts beyond the four are $25 each. Most clients wait to see the results of the first four before adding more.

If no one is home on any of the attempts, the order ends as a non-service, and you receive a signed declaration recording every attempt with its date, time, address and outcome. That declaration documents what was attempted, which you may need for your case.

The service fee covers the attempts, so it is not refunded. Our fee pays for the attempts and the documentation, not for a particular outcome.

From there, you can order additional attempts at $25 each, or a skip trace at $75, or $40 if no new address is found.

What a non-service means for your matter is a question for your attorney or the court.

If early attempts show the address is bad, because the person has moved, the property is vacant or the unit number is wrong, we contact you before making the remaining attempts. You can then choose to:

• Stop there.
• Search for a new address with a skip trace: $75 when we find a new address, and $40 when we do not. If we find one, we make the remaining attempts there.
• Continue with the remaining attempts at the same address.

The service fee is flat and is not refunded, whichever option you choose.

A skip trace is worth ordering up front when the address came from an old lease, a returned letter, or any document more than a year old. The service fee is the same whether or not the address is current.

Yes. When you place the order, tell us that the party is a company or a registered agent, and give us the name exactly as it appears on the record, along with the suite or floor number.

Office parks and registered-agent addresses usually have a front desk, and visitors are not always directed to the right suite, so the suite number matters.

Which person or agent is the correct one to serve, and whether serving them accomplishes what you need, is a question for your attorney. We serve the party you name at the address you give us.

We wait at a location for a party who is expected to be there at a known time, rather than knocking and leaving.

$85 an hour, billed in whole hours with a one-hour minimum. An hour and ten minutes is billed as two hours, so please give us the narrowest window you have.

Wait and serve works best when you know the party will be there, for example at a shift change, a scheduled appointment or a hearing.

We do not serve evictions. That means no eviction papers of any kind: no landlord’s demand for compliance or possession, no eviction (FED, or forcible entry and detainer) summons and complaint, and no writ of restitution. If you need one of those served, please use another process server.

We do serve protection and restraining orders, other writs such as writs of garnishment, subpoenas, summonses and complaints.

A subpoena that commands someone to attend requires a payment to the witness: the witness fees and mileage that must be tendered with it. Please send that payment with your order, usually as a check made out to the witness. We tender it when we serve and say so in the declaration. We do not calculate the amount; please ask your attorney or the court.

When you order, tell us the deadline you are working to and we will tell you whether the tier you selected can meet it. We cannot tell you what the deadline is or what the order requires; those are questions for your attorney or the court.

Some of these papers are served in difficult circumstances. We serve them calmly and professionally, and we record exactly what happened.

We record what happened: the date, the time, what was said, and that the person refused.

Whether a refusal counts as service, and how your court will treat it, is not something we can tell you. We are not attorneys and cannot give legal advice. The declaration records the facts, and your attorney or the court decides what they mean.

Our declaration always records exactly what happened, without embellishment.

It is an unsworn declaration signed under penalty of perjury under the law of Colorado, in the form used under C.R.S. 13-27-106, delivered as a signed PDF in your client portal.

It names the documents served, the party, and every attempt with its date, time, address and outcome. When service is made, it records how it was made and to whom the documents were delivered.

For a court outside Colorado, attach that court’s own proof form and we will complete it, or order a notarized affidavit: $20 per party, plus a $15 notary fee, the legal maximum, charged by the notary who notarizes it. If your matter needs a different form of proof, please tell us before we serve, and we will let you know whether we can provide it. Whether a particular proof satisfies a particular court is a decision for you or your client.

Not as standard. Our standard proof is an unsworn declaration signed under penalty of perjury under the law of Colorado. Colorado’s civil rules accept a declaration in this form as proof of service. It is not a notarized affidavit.

For a court outside Colorado, attach that court’s own proof form and we will complete it, or order a notarized affidavit. It is $20 per party served, because each party receives a separate proof, plus a $15 notary fee. The $15 notary fee is the legal maximum, charged by the notary who notarizes it.

The affidavit is signed by the person who served the papers and notarized by a separate notary, because a notary cannot notarize their own signature.

Which form of proof your court requires is a question for your attorney or the court. We are not attorneys and cannot give legal advice.

You download it from your client portal as a PDF. We email you when it is ready.

For your security, the proof is not attached to the email or shown on the tracking page.

To sign in to the portal, enter the email address you ordered with and we will send you a single-use link. There is no password to remember.

Because the proof is kept in the portal, it is always available there, even if an email is filtered or missed.

Only if you order it, as a separate court run.

We can take the proof to the counter for $55 next day, or $85 same day when ordered by 1:00 pm. We bring back the receipt or a file-stamped copy, and you remain the filer. We do not currently offer e-filing.

Whether the proof needs to be filed, and by when, is a question for your attorney or the court. We file only what you ask us to file.

A standard serve is $89 per party, rush is $149, and same day is $219. A court run is $55 next day or $85 same day. Mobile notary is $15 per document notarized, plus travel from $45.

Every rate we charge, including add-ons, is listed on the rates page, and the order form shows you an itemized quote before you pay.

Court and clerk fees are passed through at cost and shown separately. Nothing is marked up.

If we have to pay for parking on a serve, court run or document delivery, which is common in downtown Denver, it is billed after the job at exactly what we paid, with the receipt in your portal, and never more than $30.00 on one order without asking you first. It is charged to the card you paid with, or added to your next invoice if your account is invoiced.

Individuals pay by card at the end of the order form. Work begins once the payment clears.

Agencies prepay the same way. An agency that places 15 or more process service orders in a calendar month moves to a monthly invoice from the following month, and the 10% volume discount then applies to its invoices.

Law firms prepay their first two process service, court run and notary orders and then move to a net-30 monthly invoice.

Invoices are paid by ACH bank transfer, or by check payable to Kestrel Legal Support Operations LLC and mailed to the address on the invoice. Invoices cannot be paid by card.

If an invoice is more than 30 days past its due date, new orders are prepaid until it is paid. Past-due amounts accrue interest at 8% a year. There is no late fee.

If your order needs a quote prepared by hand, because the address is outside our service area or we do not recognize the ZIP code, you pay after you have seen the quote. Nothing is charged before then.

Card details go directly to Stripe. They do not pass through our systems, and we do not store them. If you pay by card, you check a box at payment that lets Stripe keep the card on file, so that any parking we pay for on a serve, court run or document delivery can be charged to it once after the job, up to $30.00, at exactly what we paid, with the receipt in your portal. Invoiced accounts receive parking on the next monthly invoice instead.

Yes. Your first two process service, court run and notary orders are prepaid. After that, your account moves to a net-30 monthly invoice, issued on the first of the month, covering every order closed the previous month and itemized with your matter reference on each line.

Invoices can be paid by ACH bank transfer or by check; we do not accept cards for invoices. ACH payments go through the payment link in the invoice email. Checks should be made payable to Kestrel Legal Support Operations LLC and mailed to the address on the invoice.

Fifteen or more serves in a calendar month earn 10% off that month’s service fees, credited on the next invoice. Pass-throughs are not discounted.

If an invoice is more than 30 days past its due date, new orders are prepaid until it is paid. Past-due amounts accrue interest at 8% a year. There is no late fee.

No, and they are never marked up. Court fees, clerk fees and state fees are pass-throughs: third-party fees charged at exactly what the third party charged, with the receipt.

They appear as a separate total on the quote and the invoice, apart from our service fees, so your cost recovery matches what the court charged.

If we advance a court fee for you, you pay exactly what the court charged, with the receipt attached. There is no advance fee, however you pay.

We will not pay a fee larger than the amount you approved. If the clerk asks for more, we will call you first.

Parking is the one exception, because it cannot be quoted in advance. If we have to pay to park on a serve, court run or document delivery, which is common in downtown Denver, it is billed after the job at exactly what we paid, with the receipt in your portal. We will not charge more than $30.00 in parking on one order without asking you first. On an invoiced account, each order’s parking is one line on the next monthly invoice. On a prepaid order, it is charged to the card used to pay for the order, which you authorize with a checkbox at payment. There is no markup and no advance fee.

No. The service fee pays for the attempts and the declaration, and you receive both whether or not the party is reached.

No process server can guarantee that a person will be served, so we want to be clear about this before you order.

What you do receive is the record: every attempt with its date, time, address and outcome, in a signed declaration.

If early attempts show the address is bad, we contact you before making the rest, and you choose whether to stop, have us search for a new address (a skip trace, $75, or $40 if no new address is found), or continue. Stopping early does not refund the fee, because it is flat.

Separately, if we miss the first-attempt deadline on a rush or same-day order, the speed premium is refunded automatically: $60 for each party charged at the rush rate and $130 for each party charged at the same-day rate. On an invoiced order, it is a credit on the invoice.

Notary fee (statutory): $15.00 per document, capped. The fee is counted by document, not by signature: one document is one $15 fee, however many people sign it.

Travel is separate and is not capped. It is $45 for the first 15 miles, then $1.00 a mile. A visit to a hospital, care facility or jail is $95 and replaces the travel fee rather than adding to it. After hours, meaning before 8:00 am, after 7:00 pm or on a weekend, is $25.

For example, three documents at an office within 15 miles cost $45 in travel plus $45 in notary fees, for a total of $90.

Colorado requires the fees in writing before the appointment, so your quote lists the notary fee on its own line. You see it before you book.

Before we notarize, we tell every signer each fee for the appointment and give each signer a written list of them, including any fee your firm or another person is paying.

No. We do not offer remote or electronic notarization. Every appointment is in person, on paper, with the signer physically present.

If you need a remote session, please use a notary who offers remote online notarization.

No. We do not currently offer e-filing or litigation support.

We do offer court runs. We take papers you have prepared and signed to the clerk in person, file them or pick them up at the counter, and bring back the receipts or certified copies. You remain the filer.

A next-day run is $55, and a same-day run ordered by 1:00 pm is $85. Clerk and court fees are passed through at cost.

We cannot tell you what to file, where, or when. We are not attorneys and cannot give legal advice.

Order update texts contain four things: our name, the order reference, a short status phrase, and a tracking link. For your security, they never include a case number, a party name, an address, or anything from a document.

Right after you opt in, you receive one confirmation text with our name, how often we text, a note that message and data rates may apply, and how to get help or opt out. That text, and our replies if you send HELP or STOP, include our contact details instead of an order update.

Tracking links show the status and the attempt timeline as dates, times and outcomes. They do not show addresses, names or case numbers.

The client portal holds the full order details, and it is the only place your documents are kept. You sign in with a single-use link emailed to the address that placed the order.

Texts are opt-in, the box is unchecked by default, and replying STOP ends them. See the privacy policy for what we collect and who we share it with.