Any person who makes more than ten (10) services of process within California during one calendar year must file a certificate of registration as a process server with the County Clerk. This does not apply to any sheriff, marshal, constable, or government employee who is acting in the course of his or her employment, an attorney or his or her employees, any person who is specially appointed by a court to serve its process, an employee of a person who is already registered, a licensed private investigator or his or her employees, or any agent or employee of a nonprofit or fraternal organization who serves process on behalf of the organization and receives no fee for such service. The fee is $117.
A certificate of registration shall be accompanied by a bond of $2,000 which is executed by an admitted surety insurer. The county clerk shall, upon filing the bond, deliver the bond forthwith to the county recorder for recording. The recording fee shall be paid by the registered professional process server. The fee may be paid to the county clerk, who shall transmit it to the recorder. The fee for recording the bond is $14.00 for the first page and $3.00 for each additional page by check made payable to the "Marin County Recorder". The fee for filing, canceling, revoking, or withdrawing the bond is $7.
A certificate of registration is effective for a period of two years. Thereafter, a registrant must file a new certificate of registration.
The Marin County Clerk maintains a register of process servers and assigns a number to each process server. Upon renewal of a certificate of registration, the same number is assigned, provided there is no lapse in the period of registration.
If you need additional information or have more questions, please contact us. Our office is located at the Marin County Civic Center, 3501 Civic Center Drive room 234, San Rafael, CA. You can also contact a member of the County Clerk staff via phone at (415) 473-6152 or via email. Office hours are from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM Monday through Friday (closed major holidays). However, due to processing time, licenses and applications are accepted for filing between 9:00 am and 3:30 pm.