Overview

VIDEO (2 mins): ServePort - Delivering to a Different Party  

Documents are often delivered to a party other than the one that issued the request. For example, a law firm issues a subpoena, but a record service company sends it, acts as the point of contact, and receives the production. Safari lets you record who the documents go to, called the Recipient, so the response reaches the party named on the request.

Each matter has a Recipient section below the Serving Party section. The Recipient is either the Serving Party (the default) or a Different Party. There is one Recipient entity per matter (but you can have multiple emails for the Recipient entity). When the Recipient is a Different Party:

• The Different Party can pay the invoice and download the documents.
• The Serving Party can pay the invoice, but cannot download the documents.
• The Serving Party is notified when the invoice is due and when the Different Party downloads the documents.
• Both parties are notified when the invoice is paid.

This page explains the concept from start to finish:

1. When to Use a Different Party
2. Setting the Recipient on a Matter
3. Who Can Pay and Who Can Download
4. Notifications
5. Opening the Delivery Portal
6. Deposition Officers
7. Correspondence and Reports
8. The Address Book
   

AI Data Extraction Identifies a Different Party Recipient (live 10/24/26)

If your company has enabled AI data extraction, Safari will automatically identify if the response documents should be delivered to a different party than the serving party.   

When to Use a Different Party

Use a Different Party whenever the documents should go to someone other than the party that issued the request. Common examples:

• Deposition officer: in California, a subpoena for business records names a deposition officer, a registered copy service that receives the records in place of the requesting attorney. State law requires the records and the accompanying affidavit to be sent only to that named party. See Deposition Officers.
• Record service company: a law firm issues the subpoena, but a record service company sends it, handles communication, and receives the production.
  
• Other recipient: any other party the request directs the documents to.

TIP: Always enter the party that issued the request as the Serving Party. If a record service company or deposition officer receives the response documents, add them as a Different Party in the Recipient section. The Organization Name field in the Serving Party section has a reminder to this effect.

Setting the Recipient on a Matter

1. Open the matter and expand the Recipient section, below Serving Party. The section header shows the current Recipient: Same as Serving Party, or the Different Party's organization name.
2. Under Deliver Documents To, select Different Party.
3. Fill out the Recipient fields (see below), or click the magnifying glass to look up the party in your address book.
4. Click SAVE.

Recipient Fields

1. Org Type (required). Select Deposition Officer, Record Service Company, or Other Recipient. The Org Type also controls how the Recipient is labeled in correspondence and in ServePort.
2. Org Name (required). 
3. Contact Name (optional).  The Recipient is added to your address book only if both Contact Name and Email are filled in.
4. Email. Needed for ServePort delivery. The email must be different from every other Recipient and Serving Party email on the matter.
5. Phone, Ext, Mobile, and Fax (optional). 
6. Org Address. The same address fields as the Serving Party. Optional for ServePort delivery, but needed if the documents will be delivered some other way, such as by mail.
7. Additional Emails. Click + Add Email to copy up to five more people at the Recipient, such as a paralegal or a records desk, without setting them up as a separate party. Each email must be unique. Additional Emails in the Recipient section always have Full Access to the matter's ServePort delivery portal, meaning they can both pay an invoice (if presented) and download the documents.

Using the Address Book Lookup

The magnifying glass appears only when Different Party is selected. It searches the Serving Party / Recipients address book, and shows every entry, including entries that have only been used as a Serving Party. If the entry you select has no 'Different Party Org Type' yet, the other fields are filled in and you select the 'Org Type' for the Different Party yourself before saving (i.e., deposition officer, record service company, etc.).

Who Can Pay and Who Can Download

Who can pay and who can download depends on the 'Deliver Documents To' setting. People with Full Access can pay the invoice and download the documents. People with Payment Only access can pay the invoice, but cannot download.

When the Recipient is a Different Party, the Serving Party section header shows a Payment Only label, and any Additional Emails in the Serving Party section show Payment Only as their role. The Invoice Payer (if sent) field is read only and simply shows who can pay.

See ServePort - Additional Emails & Payment Only Access.

Notifications

When the Recipient is a Different Party, ServePort notifications work as they do today, with these differences:

• Documents ready: the notification to the Serving Party says that the Deposition Officer, Record Service Company, or Other Recipient can now download the documents, and that the Serving Party was specified as a response payer.
• Documents downloaded: when the Different Party downloads the documents, the Serving Party and its Additional Emails receive an email titled Case No. [Case No.]: Documents Downloaded by [Recipient Org Name]. It is sent once per portal, and no action is needed.
• Invoice paid: whichever party pays, the payment notification goes to every Serving Party and Recipient email address.

As always, each person receives a separate email. See ServePort - Recipient Experience.

Opening the Delivery Portal

When the Recipient is a Different Party, the Delivery Setup section of the matter changes:

• Step 2 is split into 2A. Serving Party Contact Info (Payment Only) and 2B. Recipient Contact Info (Full Access).
• Each step has its own Additional Emails, with + Add Email, and shows the role for each email.

Once the portal is open, the matter shows the Serving Party contact email with Payment Only next to it, followed by a Doc Recipient Contact field with the Recipient's email.

In ServePort, the Document Request Details also show the Doc Recipient, Doc Recipient Type, Doc Recipient Contact, Doc Recipient Email, and any additional Recipient emails, so both parties can see where the documents are going.

See ServePort - Open a Delivery Portal.

Deposition Officers

Scheduled Delivery on the Return Date

When the Recipient Org Type is Deposition Officer and the matter status changes to TO DO Delivery, the delivery setting defaults to Scheduled, with the Return Date filled in as the Scheduled Date. You can change it if needed.

Deposition Officer Is Serving Party Warning

A request that names a deposition officer should not have the same party as both the Serving Party and the deposition officer. Safari shows a compliance warning when:

1. the Recipient Org Type is Deposition Officer, and
2. the Recipient Org Name matches the Serving Party Org Name.

The match ignores capitalization, commas, periods, extra spaces, and common entity endings such as Inc, LLC, Corp, Co, and PC. The check runs each time the matter is saved.

The warning, Deposition Officer Is Serving Party, appears in the Compliance section at the top left of the matter, and works the same way as the No Jurisdiction and Not Domesticated warnings. To resolve it, enter a comment of up to 1,000 characters and save. The warning text turns grey, but the warning stays visible. The warning and comment remain on the matter even if the details are later changed so that the warning would no longer apply.

See Workflow - Action Alerts, Warnings, Notifications & Escalation Emails.

NOTE: Owners and Admins can turn this warning off for a Subtype. In Setup - Subtypes, under Compliance Fields & Warnings, set Depo Officer Matches Serving Party to No. The setting is on by default and is available only for Document Requests.

Correspondence and Reports

Sending Correspondence

When the Recipient is a Different Party, the 'Send To' picklist for email and fax includes the Recipient, labeled by its Org Type. For example, if the Org Type is Deposition Officer, the choices are Serving Party, Deposition Officer, and Other. If the Recipient's email or fax number is missing, the field shows a red message, such as Deposition Officer email is blank. See Corresp. - Send Email or Fax.

Template and Report Fields

These fields are available in templates and reports:

• Deliver Documents To
• Recipient Org Type
• Recipient Org Name
• Recipient Contact Name
• Recipient Email
• Recipient Phone, Recipient Mobile, and Recipient Fax
• Recipient Org Address (Street 1, City, State, Zip Code, and Country)
• Recipient Additional Emails
• Warning Resolution - Depo Officer Match

When Deliver Documents To is Serving Party, the Recipient fields show the Serving Party's information, so one template works for both kinds of delivery. The Recipient Org Type may be blank in that case.

NOTE: The field formerly called Delivery Portal Additional Recipients is now called Recipient Additional Emails. See Reports - Standard Reports & Fields.

The Address Book

Recipients are saved to the same address book as Serving Parties, which is now called Serving Parties / Recipients in System Setup. A Recipient is added when documents are delivered, but only if both Contact Name and Email were filled in.

The same organization can be a Serving Party on one matter and a Different Party on another, so each entry has two Org Type fields: Org Type - Serving Party and Org Type - Different Party. The address book list shows both in one column, Org Type (Serving | Different), with a dash when one is blank. When documents are delivered to a Different Party, the entry's Org Type - Different Party is updated to match that matter.

Is there a question we haven't answered? Please send it to us at support@safarilaw.com.