NYC Council to Update Process Servering Laws, Reduces "Sewer Service"

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Ulrick Chatelain, 74, of Washington Heights says all of his bank accounts were frozen, but he didn't know why. Turns out, a former landlord had sued him and won a judgment in civil court.Problem was Chatelain was never notified about the lawsuit.

New York City Council will vote on legislation on Thursday to stop so-called "sewer service" -- the deliberate failure by process servers to notify a person about a pending lawsuit.Among the new regulations, process servers will now be required to pass an exam for proper service.

Servers will also be required to use an electronic tracking device such as GPS to prove when and where a person was notified.

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Process Server Admits Fraud

A Long Island-based process server who was accused of leaving thousands of New Yorkers unaware that they had been sued for unpaid debts, subjecting many of them to surprise judgments, liens and wage garnishments, has pleaded guilty to fraud.

William Singler, owner of American Legal Process, entered the plea Friday in Nassau County Supreme Court, admitting to one count of a class E felony. He is to be sentenced March 24 and still faces a civil suit in which New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is seeking damages and penalties.

In a statement announcing the guilty plea Friday, Cuomo said that ALP employees had not served properly, or at all, thousands of notices attorneys and creditors had paid them to serve.

When the uninformed defendants did not respond to the undelivered notices, an estimated 100,000 default judgments were entered in courts across the state. Some 4,800 of those judgments were filed in Erie County, and 2,700 in Niagara County.

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