Rick Ramirez Scaled Laser Legal Service to Serve Michigan’s Legal Community

Hi, my name is Rick Ramirez. I’m the owner of a process service company in the state of Michigan. The name of my company is Laser Legal Service. And I opened it in 1990. And primarily what we do is filing of court cases, service of any type of legal document. And I started off as a messenger at a top law firm in the state.

So that’s a kind of a funny situation is like I said I was going to college and I was in my early 20s and I was I was interning at a law firm standing in line in a courthouse and I was approached by a guy and he was asking me hey how would you like to make three times the amount of money you’re making now and I kind of chuckled and that was back in the days of Amway and and prepaid legal and I thought it was possibly some sort of scheme like that and he said no it’s serving legal papers and you know we went out we had a couple a couple cups of coffee and talked and and I said yeah I’ll give it a shot and it was very conducive to the life that I was leading as a student so I started out doing that.

So right now I deal with all major law firms and even the private sector. I work with several different courts in Michigan and then I’ve got an online presence and through the COVID, most of the courts in Michigan shut down and we were a state that was shut down for a very long time. And because of my online presence, a lot of law firms that needed stuff served in the state of Michigan, they were still up and running and their courts were open.

And they just started reaching out to me and that gave me and my guys, you know, extra work while the court was shut down. And primarily what we do is we will start, when you start a case, it’s called a summons and complaint. That’s the very start of the case. And some firms need runners to take the stuff to court to file it. Probate matters. Bankruptcy matters. And from my time of being a runner at a law firm, I learned how to do that. So we implemented that and then from there, they also need the documents served. And that’s the very start of the lawsuit is getting people noticed. And that’s what gets the two lawyers started in the case.

So when I started, they would give a server a whole entire county. And as you know, throughout the United States, some counties are a lot larger than others. And I happened to get Oakland County, which is a very large county. And I started thinking like, wow, this is a lot of ground to cover. And so I started with one company. And then before you know it, I was working with 12 different companies, getting as many papers as I could in an area and making my area smaller and with more work which were subpoenas, summons and complaints, garnishments, PPOs, papers of that nature I was able to shorten my area, create more stops and be more efficient and then as I was proceeding through college I ended up with a business degree and thought you know this is is perfect because all these guys are independent contractors so you work when it’s when people are home for number one, and you create your own schedule. And it’s basically catching people and serving them legal papers. Yeah.

I’m in, I handle Wayne Oakland and Macomb counties and that encompasses, if you’re from Michigan, a lot of times you’re using your Michigan map, which is your hand, you know? And I know, most of the population is right in this area. And all of this is pretty much rural. So most of the business is done in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb counties. And that’s where I primarily focus. You need process servers that live, reside in new business in the area of which they’re going to service. That way you’re getting the papers attempted on time and these attorneys need, there’s a lot of time constraints on getting the case started.

Well, you know, now that the courts are back open, what happened was a lot of our cases were filler. They help get the larger cases out. Those are collection cases, whether it’s Ford Motor Credit, Chrysler Credit, know, credit card debt, hospital debt. We handle a ton of hospital stuff, dentists, stuff like that. And so in our business, all you have is your reputation and your name.

A lot of companies will leave papers. I’ve got to deliver the paper to you. To see, this is you. You have to appear for your testimony. If you do not get that paper, you may not show up for the case or the divorce may not go through. So it’s extremely important that you get notified of the case. And attorneys rely on us heavily because they need our service. So, you know, I’ve always said you’re only as good as your last service. And you never think of the money, you think of the job and getting the stuff to the people. That’s the important thing so that the attorneys know that these people are going to show up in court. So for branding, I’m going to continue doing what I’ve been doing. I’ve been doing it, like I said, since 1990. The company just is growing. And now we went through a four year slowdown and there’s a backlog in cases and foreclosures, evictions, things like that, and a lot of people have left the business. So you’re constantly cultivating new employees that are honest to get the job done.

Well, always the case is people watch TV and they think that they know what I do for a living. They think that if I cannot get in contact with you for the Porsche that you bought, you’ll never be sued for the money. So it’s always trying to be one step ahead of the people that you’re trying to serve. You’ve got to get them notified that they’re required to be somewhere or you know, we deal with lot of landlords that need to get these people evicted out of their homes. So that’s the biggest thing. And then, of course, today’s society seems to be a little bit more angrier than pre -COVID. People seem to be very, very intense. you never know what people are doing in their homes in the evening. So you’ve got to constantly be aware of your surroundings.

You know people always tend to want to shoot the messenger so you have to always be aware and be careful people know what you’re doing you’ve got a The primary thing is you don’t want to die over a piece of paper Some people get so angry and frustrated they see you they want to take it out on you So it’s using those things and then of course technology is kind of hindered us with the ring doorbells and things like that But but the court deems that as long as somebody’s got knowledge of what you’re doing and you get the paper in their control, they’re served. You no longer have to touch somebody with it because that can be construed as assault.

Well I’ve got several businesses and I always tell my kids, my independent contractors and the people I work with is, never be concerned with the money. Always be concerned with the task at hand. If you’re always worried about the money you tend to bend the rules. If you’re always involved at the task at hand the money’s gonna come. Honesty is super important in my industry and actually in any industry but you know your reputation is means so much when you’re doing what I’m doing and people look at the reviews you know they review you they see what you’re doing and you can’t take somebody’s divorce paper and just discard it in the bushes or a witness that maybe witnessed a fatal accident and you know these are important things and once you start building a brand, people are going to come. Success breeds success.

For me, it’s always being available. Always being available to talk to people, to talk to secretaries, talk to attorneys, talk to my guys, to understand what’s going on, to understand if they’re having, this is life. People have problems, they have issues, they have illnesses, they have family things happening. And you need to be in tune not only with the people that work for you, but the people you work for.

So my whole thing is just constant communication because there’s nothing you know let’s let’s face it there’s nothing more frustrating than waiting for the cable guy who is going to give you a two to four o ‘clock window and it’s 5 10 and you haven’t heard from anybody you know and so that’s the main thing like like today you don’t want to be waiting for me to show up you want me to be responsible for me to be here on time because you’re trying to be successful.

You know a lot of people think that this is an easy job. You can make a lot of money, you can run your own show. It’s something that is Very lucrative if you’re a go -getter But you have to be a go -getter and then safety is number one because like I said people they don’t want to see us. So And we just have a job that we have to do, you know, and we’re not trained by the police and

And we’re not really given any guidance, so you have to just kind of use your head. So that’s it.

I appreciate you as well and you have a great day. Enjoy the weekend. Thanks.