Detroit Mayor Kilpatrick Issued Subpoenas for Financial Records

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy issued subpoenas today for all of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s bank and financial records, the records of his wife, Carlita, as well as those of anyone else holding anything on their behalf.

Also being sought in a separate subpoena are Kilpatrick’s payroll, travel allowance, loans, gifts and other payments from Compuware. The subpoena also seeks information on payments to anyone else on Kilpatrick’s behalf.

Kilpatrick was hired by Covisint, a Compuware subsidiary, as a sales representative after his release from jail on obstruction of justice charges. Kilpatrick moved to a gated community in Southlake, a posh suburb of Dallas.

Kilpatrick has been slow in paying court-ordered restitution stemming from his criminal prosecution by Worthy’s office.

Read more here.

Process Server Sues Police

A private process server filed suit Tuesday saying police refused to intervene when a business' security guards would not let him serve garnishment papers on an employee.

Charles Fineberg says in the Circuit Court suit that civil private process servers have the same power as sheriff's deputies, who also serve civil process and court orders and that it is a criminal offense for anyone to prevent a process server from serving papers.

In incidents in June and July, the suit says, Fineberg was denied access to the Nike plant by security personnel from Guardsmark and police told him they were advised from "on high" not to get involved in the matter.

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Old Dominion University Served Papers

Old Dominion University has been served legal papers in a criminal investigation of the school's aborted $40,000-a-year contract with state Del. Phil Hamilton.
That acknowledgment came from ODU this week in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from The Virginian-Pilot.
The university said it has received three documents related to the Hamilton matter but declined to identify them in detail or provide copies. Two are being withheld because they relate to a criminal investigation and the third pursuant to a court order prohibiting its disclosure.

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Process Server Serves Federal Prisoner for State Farm

GULFPORT — Federal inmate Clifton Clark describes himself as a chronically ill 78-year-old with hepatitis C and “a lower back like jelly.”

The former Biloxian has been imprisoned since 1990 because he led a theft ring that chopped up stolen vehicles, then used the parts on wrecked cars for resell at a profit.

So, imagine Clark’s surprise when insurance behemoth State Farm sued him for carelessly causing a house to catch fire in November 2003 while his alleged company was in the process of moving it.

Clark was considered legally notified of the lawsuit in July 2006. A process server said he left the paperwork at Clark’s “usual place of abode” in Wiggins. Because Clark did not initially respond to the lawsuit, State Farm filed a motion for judgement in the company’s favor.

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Process Server Serves Papers to 72 Year Old Woman Who is Being Sued By Her Favorite Football Team

It’s almost time for that annual rite of Fall — the kickoff of the NFL season. Only this year, quite a few season ticket holders will be sitting at home with a lawsuit in their lap instead of a set of pom-poms.

The Washington Post has a compelling story about Redskins’ season ticket holders who’ve asked out of their multi-year contracts because of financial hardship. Instead of that happening, many of them have been sued by the team. The list includes Pat Hill, about as diehard a Redskins fan as they come:

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Britney Spears' Ex-Boyfriend Pleads Not Guilty to Assaulting a Process Server

BRITNEY SPEARS’ ex-boyfriend, paparazzo ADNAN GHALIB, has pleaded not guilty to assaulting a process server.


Ghalib is accused of running over Ram Moskowitz as he tried to hand the photographer legal papers as part of the Toxic superstar’s conservatorship case in 2008.

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Process Server Knocked Out While Trying to Deliver Speed-Camera Ticket

A process server delivering a speed-camera ticket in Gilbert was punched so hard, he was knocked out, according to an article today by Channel 15 (KNXV-TV).

The process server dropped off his paperwork for the woman in the speed-camera photo and was suddenly cold-cocked by the woman's husband. The punch knocked out the server, the article says. Denny Dobbins, a lawyer for the process-serving company, AAA Photo Safety, had this to say to Channel 15:

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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.

Celebrity photographer faces lawsuit over $24 million rennovation

A legal row has broken out over the renovations of two historic properties in New York owned by international celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz.

A company that lent the photographer $24 million to renovate the 19th century red brick, vine covered buildings has filed a law suit claiming she is in breach of contract.

Art Capital claims that the loan was backed by the negatives and intellectual property rights to every photograph Leibovitz has ever taken, and by property she owns.

Read more here.

Belize Accedes to Hague Convention

Belize has become the most recent country to join the Hague Convention, affecting international service of process.

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Process Server Falsifies 200 Affidavits

The case of a Hennepin County process server who allegedly falsified multiple affidavits of service has created a tremendous amount of work for the District Court and for the three law firms that used him to serve debtors with summonses and complaints.

Read more here.

Adnana Ghalib Back in Court for Hitting Process Server

Britney Spears former paparazzo boyfriend Adnan Ghalib was back in a Los Angeles court Wednesday to answer charges that he ran over a process server with his Mercedes.

Read more here.

New York AG Sues to Overturn Default Judgments

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is going to court to try to overturn about 100,000 default judgments he claims were improperly obtained against consumers — including more than 6,000 in Orange, Sullivan and Ulster counties.

The lawsuit, filed this week in state Supreme Court in Erie County, names as defendants 35 law firms and two debt collection agencies who relied on a Long Island company, American Legal Process, to notify consumers they faced debt-related lawsuits.

Read more here.

Illegal Download Site Pirate Bay Gets Served Via Facebook, Twitter

Never let it be said that the music industry is completely clueless about the digital world; the Dutch antipiracy outfit Brein, perhaps realizing that the medium may be more important than the message a lot of the time these days, has notified the founders of the BitTerrorist haven Pirate Bay that they’re due in court not through a process server, but via Facebook and Twitter.

Read more here.

AZ Couple Allegedly Points Shotgun at Process Server

Sheriff's deputies questioned a Prescott couple after a woman allegedly pointed a shotgun at a process server Thursday.

According to Yavapai County Sheriff's spokesman Dwight D'Evelyn, the official went to the home on L Bar L Road to serve foreclosure papers to the homeowner.

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Whitler Receives Life + 48 Years for Killing CO Process Server

James Whitler knew before his sentencing hearing Monday he'd be spending the rest of his life in prison for murdering Stephen Allen, but Judge Dan Kaup made sure the Loveland father's violent actions toward his children also carried significance through punishment.

The judge sentenced Whitler to an additional 48 years in prison to be served consecutively to the murder sentence for trying to strangle his children to death May 28, 2008.

Read more here.

Million Dollar Connecticut Marshal

John T. Fiorillo is the million-dollar marshal.

Boosted by his ties to the state's two major foreclosure firms, Fiorillo, a Hartford County marshal, reported a net income of more than $1 million for delivering court papers in 2008, according to disclosure forms filed with the Office of State Ethics.

Law firms paid Fiorillo more than $3 million to serve legal papers last year. But he reported spending nearly two-thirds of that on employee and office expenses, leaving him with a bottom line of $1,119,706. Fiorillo's take was more than double the next-highest-earning marshal.

Read more here.

Court Case With Unserved Summons in MN

Imagine opening up the mail and finding out you're in default—a judge issuing a judgment against you that could lead to your financial ruin.

It’s happened to up to 200 people in Hennepin County, all by mistake. Authorities say one man is to blame and he could go to prison.

Angus Mceachern, 23, had one key job: Serve people with papers saying they're being sued for owing money. But investigators say he never did that and now 1,000 cases are under review.

Read more here.

Britney's Ex to Stand Trial for Hitting Process Server with Car

While he's out of Britney Spears' (non pink) hair these days, paparazzo Adnan Ghalib is still finding ways to stir up trouble. Brit's sometime ex-boyfriend will appear for a preliminary hearing May 18 to set a trial date in the case involving a process server he allegedly hit with his car, TMZ reports.

Read more here.

Man Who Killed Process Server Testifies

Jurors in James Whitler's murder trial saw a video recording Tuesday of Whitler telling authorities he began beating Stephen Allen, the man he's accused of murdering, after he came to view the process server as the object of his marriage's lost hope.

Whitler also told investigators he was praying to God to take care of his two children while he strangled them after beating Allen.

If sheriff's deputies hadn't stopped him, he said he probably would have killed his children and then himself.

Read more here.

Head of American Legal Process Arrested for Alleged "Sewer Service"

One process server claimed to have made 13 round-trips in one day to serve legal papers between Brooklyn and upstate Cattaraugus County - a nearly 800-mile distance supposedly made more than a dozen times within 24 hours.

That was one of the many egregious examples of fraud cited by state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who Tuesday announced the arrest of Long Islander William Singler, head of one of the largest process-serving firms in the state. Singler is charged with running a massive fraud scheme in which his employees claimed to serve legal papers that allegedly were never delivered.

As a result of the actions by Singler, the head of American Legal Process in Lynbrook, and the process servers he employed, thousands from Long Island and around the state never had notice of pending legal actions against them by creditors, and never had a chance to contest them, Cuomo said. Consequently, many had their finances frozen or wages garnished, without being present for a court hearing, the attorney general said.

Read more here.

Cuomo Launches Probe Into Process Servers

State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has launched a wide-ranging investigation of possible fraud in the process-serving industry, in which thousands of people may have had their financial accounts frozen or wages garnished without any knowledge of court proceedings against them, according to officials.

A spokesman for Cuomo, Richard Bamberger, confirmed the existence of the probe and said it's an important issue in a time of increasing economic hardship. He declined to elaborate on the scope of the investigation or on firms under scrutiny.

Read more here.

TX Process Servers Comment on Accusations Against Sheriff

Ruben Dominguez made strong accusations against the Ector County Sheriff's Office Friday as he was still questioning whether a deputy was in his right to come inside his yard, knock on his door and then shoot his rottweiler after she started chasing the deputy through his yard.

"He (deputy Bobby Hodges) saw the dog, the dog didn't seem like a threat, he decided to get down (out of his car and in the yard)," Dominguez said. "He decided he wanted to kill that dog."

Meanwhile, Sheriff Mark Donaldson gave more details to how the Monday morning shooting unfolded as he stood by deputy Hodges' actions.

Donaldson contended the gates to Dominguez's fence was left open that day, meaning anyone including the deputy had a right to approach his front door. He further said Hodges never actually had the man's phone number before the shooting, contradicting Dominguez's claim.

Read more here.

New Zealand Judge Allows Papers Served Via Facebook

Earlier today, New Zealand High Court Associate Justice David Glendall approved the delivery of court papers via Facebook to a man being sued over business dealings, Craig Axe. Axe reportedly took US$241,000 from his family's "market garden company account".

Axe was believed to be in Great Britain, though his exact whereabouts were unknown. It was known, however, that he had and maintained a social presence on the Facebook website. Because of this, Daniel Vincent, the plaintiff's lawyer, requested that Facebook be used as the means to serve papers to Axe, as there would be difficulty serving him using conventional methods.

Read more here.

Chrysler Subpoenas Deceased Man at His Own Funeral

The Chrysler company sent a process server to the funeral of Harold St. John of New Jersey last week, demanding that Mr. St. John’s body undergo further testing to prove that he did in fact die as a result of mesothelioma cancer.

A lawsuit filed by Mr. St. John, a retired airline worker, named Chrysler and Honeywell as responsible for his asbestos exposure, and a trial was scheduled to begin today. Mr. St. John alleged that he was exposed to asbestos while installing automobile brakes in his father’s automobile shop in the late fifties and sixties. A number of cases of asbestos cancer as a result of exposure to asbestos-laden automobile brakes have been reported, as asbestos usage was not regulated until the late seventies. Asbestos was widely used in brake linings and brake pads due to its ability to withstand high temperatures.

Following his death on February 28th, the trial was postponed.

Chrysler secured a court order on the day of Mr. St. John’s funeral, which mandated that his body be accessible for further tissue testing, and a process server was sent to the funeral home where the funeral director was served with court documents. Mr. St. John’s body was not buried.

Read more here.