What else can a process server do?

Notary public

The natural first addition, because you are already standing in front of people who need documents signed, and because your own affidavits sometimes need a jurat. In Texas, a notary is commissioned by the Secretary of State for a four-year term. The application, the bond, and the fee are all handled through that office.

What it adds: per-notarization fees set by statute, and the ability to notarize for clients you are already visiting.

Never notarize your own signature. A notary cannot take their own oath, so your returns still use the unsworn declaration under penalty of perjury, or another notary.

Mobile notary and loan signing

Mobile notary work is the same commission, performed at the signer’s location, and it pays for the travel rather than the stamp. Loan signing agents handle real estate closing packages and are typically engaged through signing services and title companies, which generally expect a background screening and errors and omissions coverage.

Why it fits process serving: the same vehicle, the same routes, the same comfort standing at a stranger’s door with documents. Evening and weekend availability, which is already how you work, is exactly what signing services are short of.

Court filing and records retrieval

Law firms need documents filed, file-stamped copies returned, and records pulled from courthouses and agencies. It is unglamorous, repeatable work that pairs with a serving route, and it is often the first thing a firm will hand a server they already trust.

What it takes: an e-filing account, knowing each clerk’s preferences, and being reliable about turnaround. Nothing else.

Courier work for law firms

Same idea, wider: deposition exhibits, closing binders, original documents that cannot be emailed. Firms pay for certainty and for someone who understands that a document has a deadline attached.

Skip tracing

You already locate people in order to serve them. Some servers sell that as its own service: a locate effort, documented, with an affidavit describing what was searched and what it produced.

The rule that governs it: use records you are lawfully entitled to use, never misrepresent who you are, and never use someone else’s login to a restricted database. A search you cannot describe truthfully to a court is worthless, because describing it truthfully is the entire product.

The private investigator line

This is the one to be careful about, and it is where servers get into trouble without meaning to.

Occupations Code 1702.104 defines an investigations company as, among other things, a person who engages in the business of obtaining or furnishing, or who accepts employment to obtain or furnish, information about a person’s identity, habits, conduct, movements, whereabouts, or acts. That work is licensed by the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Attempting service at an address is ordinary process serving. Being hired to watch a location and report someone’s movements is a different activity, and selling it as a service is the part that implicates the statute. The practical question is not what you call the line item; it is what you were engaged to do.

Before you bill for surveillance or a stakeout, get an answer in writing. Whether a particular activity falls inside Chapter 1702 is fact-specific, and the people who can tell you are DPS and an attorney, not another server on a forum. Getting licensed is a real option, with its own requirements through DPS.

What each one costs to start

How to price the additions

• Charge for the trip, not just the task. Mobile work is priced on travel and timing; the stamp itself is a statutory fee.
• Bundle honestly. A firm that sends you a service and a filing on the same street should see that reflected.
• Bill attempts and locate effort separately, and say so up front. A server who is paid for attempts makes better attempts.
• Decline what you are not equipped for. It costs one fee and protects the certification that earns the rest.

This guide is general information for Texas process servers, not legal advice, and it is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Judicial Branch Certification Commission or the Texas Department of Public Safety. Rules and licensing requirements change; confirm anything here with the agency that administers it before you act on it.