How to Pick the Top Legal Courier Service In Your Area

Legal Courier Services Demystified

Legal courier services are businesses that specialize in the secure and professional delivery and collection of important documents, subpoenas, and other legal paperwork. These documents may include court filings, exhibits, affidavits, or other legal records that need to be delivered to law offices or at the court. A legal courier service will transport documents using speed and confidentiality, and can guarantee secure delivery to ensure the safety of the paperwork involved and the people involved with them. These services are available for a flat fee per trip, or on a contract within a geographic area. They also deliver parcels across long distances, and even some legal courier services are associated with other businesses that can extend direct services on multiple levels. Other legal courier services specialize in a specific section of the law, such as medical malpractice or family law. Lawyers, both individual practitioners and within large firms, frequently utilize courier services. Some services contract or employ former police officers or deputies, so they can already build relationships with the offices at which they deliver and pick up documents. As a result, other law offices and their employees may trust the use of these services, confident that their privacy will be honored and their legal information and documents will be kept secure and confidential. In addition , good legal courier services can also assist in copying and indexing documents or even photographing, measuring, and inspecting products, materials, and properties. Additionally, they can often reduce the geographic dependency of the staff, as some legal courier services will transport documents across counties for a flat fee. Also, these services can usually be called upon at a moment’s notice to deliver a last-minute filing or to pick up an item when the regularly-scheduled driver suddenly cannot make it. Homework for the lawyer also becomes simpler when documents can be sent directly to the client with just a phone call. Other benefits of a legal courier service can also include time-saving and efficiency. They keep documents organized during the process of moving from one location to another, meaning that information is less likely to get lost along the way, and employees can spend valuable time on more productive work. This allows the law office to make more money. Of course, legal courier services are also confidential, and they handle archived documents and files efficiently. These benefits mean that legal courier services will make it far more likely for law offices to have more productive employees, and to gain and to retain more clients. For these reasons and many others, using legal courier services is a wise investment.

Advantages Of Local Legal Courier Services

When you’re deciding on which legal courier service to use, think about how quickly you need a package or document delivered. Your best bet for end of the day service is a local courier service. For next day or other services, a regional courier may be the fastest for where you are located. Many people mistakenly think that "fastest" is only the fastest that gets to a package to another country or international destination. However, select couriers can get packages and hard copies of documents anywhere quickly.
Legal couriers have a great deal of loyalty to the legal industry and that means being familiar with the local courts. If you’re delivering to a court house, you can count on your courier to understand the quirks that each location has. A local courier will also be your best bet for the fastest service possible. They’ve had years to develop good relationships with the courthouses and are able to convince them to give you priority. DHL and FedEx are not terribly careful about the information they give you regarding your delivery times. If you need something to get through customs quickly (for example, a court document) that’s not to say it will actually do so. For this reason, a local courier is much more reliable than national or international carriers could ever be.
For some people, Monday morning is their busiest day of the week. This is when they find out all of the work they have to do and how meetings or depositions take too long, or perhaps paid emails were simply never answered. For these people, they do not want to think about how they’ll deliver their packages from Friday or over the weekend. This is why local legal couriers can be particularly valuable. There are some who will even be able to make deliveries on Mondays. So instead of stressing about how totes full of court documents will get delivered, there’s a courier that can simply handle the entire situation.

What To Look For In A Legal Courier Service

When choosing a legal courier service, there are several features and capabilities that should be taken into consideration. For an attorney, one of the main considerations is confidentiality. Attorneys are privy to information the general public is not, and their clients need assurances that their personal information will not get leaked out to the public. Legal courier services should be confidential and discreet. When choosing a legal courier service, ask how the staff is vetted, screened, and whether background checks are done prior to hiring. Make sure the individual delivering documents is kept in the loop as to the confidential nature of what you are sending.
Tracking options are another important feature to look for in a legal courier service. Many delivery companies offer tracking and confirmation of delivery via a website, email, or text message. It can help to put your mind at ease during an urgent legal situation to know exactly where your package is in transit and when it has been delivered. Some courier services even offer GPS tracking to provide you with real time updates on your package’s whereabouts. If a mistake occurs and the package is delivered to the wrong place, the GPS tracking can be invaluable.
Another feature to look for is insurance. Some courier services offer insurance for up to $100,000. This is a significant guarantee if there is loss or damage. When choosing a legal courier service, see if errors and omissions insurance is something they carry. If a letter or document is misdelivered and you are sued, you need peace of mind knowing your legal courier service will cover the cost of hiring an attorney.

Securing The Right Legal Courier Service Near You

To start your search for a legal courier service near you by exploring reviews and testimonials from other clients. Look for recent feedback that specifically mentions the type of services you need, whether it’s court filings, document retrievals, or any other particular task you have in mind. Online reviews can be found on various platforms including Google, Yelp, and other independent review websites.
Next you can ask for recommendations from colleagues who have used legal courier services before. By tapping into your professional network, you can quickly narrow down your options to those that have received positive endorsements from people you trust. Recommendations may also provide you with private insights into the advantages and disadvantages of particular services.
You can also contact potential providers directly and ask them for their qualifications and areas of expertise. Inquire about their experience with legal documents, document reliability tracking, same-day services, and witness services. Do they have experience in serving sensitive documents? And will there be an additional charge for services of this type? The longer the service has been in business, the more reliable they are likely to be. As they become familiar with your particular needs, they will reward you with special offers, such as discounts for large orders.
Another point in your search should be to verify a courier service’s credentials. Make sure the company is properly registered and insured. This safeguards your documents from any loss and damages incurred during transit, and ensures that you are working with a legitimate business.
Once you have narrowed down your list of options, create a shortlist. Having the option to compare services side-by-side will help you in making a decision. Ask a variety of questions that are most important to you, so you can best determine which company meets your needs.

Legal Courier Price Points

Understanding the cost of legal courier services is crucial for professionals aiming to stay on budget. One of the factors that directly influence the cost of legal courier services is how quickly you need a delivery made. Any extra fees the sender has acquired can also affect the final price.
For example, expedited services are often an additional expense, although this expense may or may not be a flat fee depending on your service provider. How far away a package needs to be transported can also affect courier fees , as certain courier services charge a distance fee based on both how far away a package is being taken, as well as its final destination.
Another factor when choosing a courier is the nature of the documents being delivered. Is a parcel simply sitting in the back of a vehicle or does it require the strictest of protocols to be transported and delivered? Envelopes, contracts, and articles of litigation tend to cost a lot less because they are easily transportable and require less attention from a courier than, say, fragile artifacts, large pieces of machinery, or massive amounts of sensitive data.

Tech use in Modern Legal Courier Services

Technology has had a significant impact on the legal industry as a whole, including legal courier services. Where fax machines and messengers used to dominate in decades past, today the handling of legal documents is increasingly done via secure email or uploads through websites and applications. While not necessarily a replacement for legal courier services, this transition has altered the landscape slightly, and few law firms will now rely on couriers to deliver documents directly to clients’ offices or to the courthouse. Instead, documents that do not need to be delivered by hand (such as court filings) are emailed in PDF format in lieu of delivering a physical copy.
Nevertheless, this shift has paved the way for courier services to provide increasingly fast and secure methods of routing documents to and from clients and courthouses. Many legal couriers now provide online tracking to law firm clients to allow them to see the progress of their documents and verify when the documents have arrived at their destination. This functionality typically utilizes barcode technology and mobile apps to make the process as seamless and easy as possible for everyone involved.
Likewise, the process of proving that a sensitive document has been delivered where it was supposed to has been made even easier with technology. Most courier companies these days use mobile apps that enable the delivery driver to take a digital signature from the recipient. This signature is then stored electronically in a secure database and can be viewed at any time, such that there is always an electronic record of when and where the service was completed.
Moreover, as mentioned above, the routing of documents now often does not require hand delivery – many legal couriers will accept digital copies of documents affixed with an electronic signature, along with payment over the phone or through the Internet. This is particularly relevant for legal couriers that specialize in "rush" deliveries or that are often required for emergency purposes. Clients now demand that their business moves at faster pace, especially when time is of the essence, and courier services that can accommodate those needs (whether through speed, hours, or both) will stand out from others.
At the same time, that is not to say that there is not still a substantial need for couriers to deliver documents in hard copy form. For those couriers that offer fast and secure delivery service, they often have a requisite knowledge of courthouses in the area, including which courthouses require simple filing or scanning of documents, which courthouses require in-person filing, where filing fees need to be paid, and how fast these processes can be completed.
In short, technology is revolutionizing the legal industry – including legal courier services. By providing law firms with the tools they need to track their documents through the course of delivery and secure proof of delivery, couriers now allow clients to know exactly what is happening with their documents, every step of the way. Moreover, this advances only help to streamline the process in which the documents are routed, and helps to break down barriers when sending and receiving sensitive information. Legal consumers expect everything to happen quickly and securely, and trends in courier services are only reflecting that.

Case Studies on Choosing the Right Legal Courier Service

We’ve written about how to choose a courier for your firm, but what are some examples of legal clients who have benefited from a high-quality courier? How can great courier services help you hit deadlines and overall improve the practice of law?
One New York law firm was in a pinch. They had an envelope of documents they needed to deliver to a court across town right before the lunch hour. Their self-described "exploratory" method of getting to the court house was definitely going to make them late. The partner made the wise decision to call a courier instead. Our Brooklyn dispatch was able to arrive in 15 minutes and deliver the mess of documents before the lunch hour got the best of the firm.
Another law firm had missed a filing deadline for a court that required an original signature. After a quick call and a short wait , we were able to get the form filed just in time to meet the deadline, saving the client from penalties and fees.
Finally, one law firm was going through a re-branding. The firm had a new logo they wanted to start using immediately on business cards and letterhead. We were able to get their old cards and letterhead delivered to the recycling center along with the new marketing materials. This helped save them storage space at their office and let them share the good news of their re-branded status with their clients.