NCJ Number
85890
Date Published
1982
Length
69 pages
Annotation
The U.S. Marshals Service can reduce the costs of serving civil process for private litigants and transporting Federal prisoners between judicial districts.
Abstract
To lessen costs to the Government, the General Accounting Office (GAO) recommends that Congress revise legislation to permit marshals to recover the cost of serving process for private litigants. GAO also suggests that the Judicial Conference of the United States develop judicial procedural rules providing that marshals serve civil process only when required by law or deemed necessary by the courts and which would give all districts the option of using certified mail to routinely serve civil summonses. In addition, the Attorney General should implement a definitive prisoner movement priority system for trip coordinators to use when scheduling trips and gather more specific deadline information for each prisoner movement. Additional recomendations are outlined. Footnotes and agency comments are included.