Illinois Association of Professional Process Servers Opposes Proposed Bill

The Illinois Association of Professional Process Servers (IAPPS) was recently formed to provide education and training to the profession of process servers in Illinois. Our Association has established a Code of Ethics and Best Practices. Our members are committed to practicing the highest professional standards.

ILAPPS opposes as currently drafted two identical bills filed in both chambers: SB2069 and HB1450. These bills would create the offense of false impersonation and make it illegal for agents to be armed for personal protection.

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Council Seeks to Crack Down on Process Servers Who Lie

In a proposal aimed at unscrupulous debt collectors, the City Council is considering legislation that would require process servers to use global positioning systems to show that they have actually visited consumers’ homes or workplaces to deliver notices of collection proceedings.

Lawmakers hope the measure will help curb a long-running practice known in legal circles as “sewer service,” which occurs when process servers fail to serve court papers on defendants but file affidavits swearing that they did so — which allows the cases to proceed.

The victims are often debtors involved in collection suits. When they fail to show up in court they are hit with default judgments, often for thousands of dollars.

The bill would require process servers in New York City to electronically record every instance in which they serve or try to serve someone, using a global positioning system that would pinpoint their exact location.

Advocates for consumers say that sewer service has grown in recent years because of the recession and an increase in the number of collection firms that buy bad debts from credit card companies for pennies on the dollar and then seek to collect them.

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Bill Regarding Service of Process

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D) of Rhode Island has introduced a bill that would require foreign companies that import goods into the United States to designate registered agents in the U.S. that are authorized to accept service of process on behalf of the manufacturer.

Read the text of the bill here.