Proposed Bill Aimed at Protecting Illinois Process Servers

The Illinois Association of Professional Process Servers (ILAPPS) is pleased to announce its first legislative initiative of the year. SB2004 was introduced by Senator Mike Jacobs (D Moline). It elevates from a misdemeanor to a felony any assault or battery to a process server. Recent attacks prompted the formation of the Association. The bill will go to the Senate Judiciary Committee, where testimony will be presented.

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Six Tips to Help Process Servers Get Paid on Time

As a process server, you likely pride yourself on quick and timely deliverance of your client’s papers. Sometimes you don’t receive the same courtesy when it comes to clients quickly delivering your payment. It is never enjoyable when process servers, or investigators for that matter, have to take on the money-chasing duties of the collection agencies they sometimes have as clients.

Click here to read on and discover six important steps you should take with your business to make sure you are paid on time.

U.S. Twitter Subpoena Is Harassment, Lawyer Says

U.S. prosecutors’ demand that the microblogging service Twitter Inc. hand over data about users with ties to WikiLeaks amounts to harassment, said a lawyer for Julian Assange, the website’s founder.

The Justice Department subpoena, approved last month in federal court and later unsealed, also violates the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable government searches, Assange’s lawyer Mark Stephens said today in a telephone interview in London. WikiLeaks is an organization that publishes leaked documents on its website.

“The Department of Justice is turning into an agent of harassment rather than an agent of law,” Stephens, of the firm Finers Stephens Innocent LLP, said. “They’re shaking the tree to see if anything drops out, but more important they are shaking down people who are supporters of WikiLeaks.”

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Nov. 29 that the Justice Department is investigating the posting by WikiLeaks of thousands of classified U.S. diplomatic communications and military documents. Lawyers have said the U.S. will likely charge Assange with espionage.

“To help users protect their rights, it’s our policy to notify users about law enforcement and governmental requests for their information, unless we are prevented by law from doing so,” Twitter spokeswoman Carolyn Penner said in an e-mail.

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Why Twitter Was the Only Company to Challenge the Secret WikiLeaks Subpoena

Secret subpoenas of the kind the Department of Justice sent Twitter are apparently not unusual. In fact, other tech companies may also have received similar WikiLeaks-related requests. But what is unusual in this story is that Twitter resisted. Which raises an interesting question: Assuming that Twitter was not the only company to have been served a secret subpoena, why was it the only company that fought back? The answer might lie in the figure leading Twitter’s legal efforts, Alexander Macgillivray (right), an incredibly mild mannered (really) but sharp-as-a-tack cyber law expert.

Twitter’s general counsel comes out of Harvard’s prestigious Berkman Center for Internet and Society, the cyber law powerhouse that has churned out some of the leading Internet legal thinkers. The center was founded a little over a decade ago by none other than Charles Nesson, the famous defender of Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg. While at Harvard, Macgillivray helped teach a course on the law of cyberspace, along with Wendy Seltzer, a fellow at Princeton’s Center for Information Technology Policy. Today Seltzer leads the Chilling Effects clearinghouse, a collaboration between several law schools and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which tracks legal challenges to lawful online activity.


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Some people think that Seth Rogen is making his crime-fighting debut this week in The Green Hornet. Those people are mistaken.

Yes, Rogen’s adaptation of the classic pulp character is fighting its way into theaters this weekend, but his turn as Britt Reid is hardly the first time that he’s played a gun-toting hero. Rogen already covered that territory as pothead process server Dale Denton in 2008′s Pineapple Express, and based on comments from Rogen’s screenwriting partner and pal Evan Goldberg, he could be headed back into the wacky world of weed-infused misadventures before much longer.

Speaking with Screen Rant, Goldberg revealed:

“I’m even hesitant to make Pineapple 2, but I’m loosening up to it as of like the last few weeks. Recently we were at Danny Mcbride’s wedding, and we were all there, well David couldn’t make it (David Gordon Green, the director of Pineapple Express); but me, (James) Franco, Seth and Danny were all there and I thought; ‘this is fun, I have fun with these guys.’ … Everyone has always wanted to do it, me and Seth were very hesitant, but frankly I was the driving force behind that hesitancy. I just kept thinking, you know not to say we’re the Coen Brothers, because we’re super not – they’re my idols in a lot of ways – but those guys never make a sequel. Like, great, great films don’t have sequels. … hopefully, there will be a sequel.”

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Casey Anthony Team Denied Subpoena for Blogger's Photos

Casey Anthony's defense attorneys suffered another blow today when they were denied a subpoena to collect what they suspect are a blogger's photos of the vacant, wooded area where her daughter's remains were found in 2008.

Judge Belvin Perry this afternoon denied a defense motion to subpoena searcher Joe Jordan's blog and internet photos, finding no factual basis to compel those items that may have appeared online.

Perry was not satisfied they would reveal meaningful "tangible" evidence and he expressed concerns that the defense was going on a "fishing expedition."

"I cannot give you a license to fish," Perry said soon before issuing his ruling today.
Perry did, however, deny the motion without prejudice, meaning the defense attorneys could revisit the issue if they can make a more compelling argument for the obtaining the information they seek.

Anthony, 24, is charged with first-degree murder in the 2008 death of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee Marie, whose body was found in a lot off Suburban Drive near the Anthony home months after she was reported missing.

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Louisville Police to get Electronic Subpoenas in January

A decades-old problem of making sure Louisville Metro Police officers know when they need to be in court may be fixed, thanks to a new electronic subpoena system that will start next month.

Outgoing Mayor Jerry Abramson stood with Police Chief Robert White and other city officials Monday to announce the end of the county's cumbersome system of hand-delivering subpoenas to officers, an antiquated process that has helped cause thousands of felony and misdemeanor cases to be dismissed when police failed to appear.

“It will improve by leaps and bounds everything that we have been able to do in terms of subpoenaing,” said Abramson, noting the city is funding the new system through $480,000 in federal stimulus funds. “It will become a model for other communities statewide.”

In recent years, an estimated 10 percent of the approximately 100,000 paper subpoenas issued annually to Louisville police never reached officers, according to department officials.

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A Day in the Life of a Process Server — Business is Good

TAMPA, Florida — Michael G. Murray pulls his Honda Civic up to the gatehouse at Cheval Golf and Country Club, one of Hillsborough County's priciest residential neighborhoods. The guard inside smiles as she takes Murray's laminated photo ID, which identifies him as a certified process server.

"You again," Cheval's gatekeeper says with a grin. "How many you got this time?"

Murray, 45, pulls the top papers from a stack of recently filed foreclosure complaints piled on the armrest. "Just one stop today," he says as the guard returns his ID.

"All right then," she says. "Good luck!"

From the front seat of Murray's car, which racks up about 50,000 miles a year zigzagging around northwest Hillsborough County, one thing is clear: Florida's foreclosure wave has washed away class distinctions. On this day in late November, he'll try to deliver foreclosure papers to owners of a double-wide as well as a $1.6 million lakeside mansion. He'll ring doorbells at a small pink-shuttered block home with grass gone to sand, a condo with a U.S. Marine emblem on the door and a sprawling corner-lot estate with a well-tended lawn.

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Subpoena was not Meant for Plant Worker

ANDOVER — A subpoena served at the North Andover Water Treatment Plant last week by Andover police was not intended for water operator Shawn Rock, even though the police log said it was handed to him.

The subpoena was addressed to the "keeper of records" at the plant, according to North Andover Assistant Town Manager Ray Santilli. A "keeper of records" is anyone who can access the records, he said.

"It wasn't intended for anyone specifically in North Andover," Santilli said.

Santilli said Rock was the person on duty and accepted the subpoena when Andover Detective Michael Lane dropped it off around 9 a.m. last Wednesday. It was written in Andover's police log that the subpoena was "served in hand to employee Shawn Rock" but it did not say it was addressed to the records keeper.

The subpoena is one of two served last Wednesday by Andover police. The other was served in hand to Cynthia Vaughn, who previously worked as a water compliance specialist in Andover, at her West Newbury home.

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Former Andover Water Employee Served a Subpoena at West Newbury Home

ANDOVER — Police served a subpoena to a former employee of Andover's water treatment plant at her West Newbury home last week.

The subpoena comes after police Chief Brian Pattullo announced in September that the district attorney's office is preparing evidence to present to a grand jury as the result of an investigation into allegations of criminal misconduct involving two former employees at the Lowell Street water treatment plant.

Cynthia Vaughn, who previously worked as a water compliance specialist in Andover, was served the subpoena by Andover Detective Michael Lane at her 1 Dole Place home in West Newbury around 9:45 a.m. Dec. 22.

Lt. James Hashem said the subpoena is part of "an ongoing district attorney investigation" and declined to comment further. He referred all questions to the Essex County District Attorney's office.

Stephen O'Connell, spokesman for the district attorney's office, declined comment on the matter.

Town Manager Reginald "Buzz" Stapczynski said that Vaughn previously worked for the town but was "terminated" from her post in August. She was hired by the town in July 1996, according to the town's Human Resources Department.

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Problems with Foreclosure Notices Loom as Next Flaw in Process

Improperly served foreclosure notices may be the mortgage industry's next roadblock to repossessing homes.

The Florida attorney general's office is investigating two of the state's largest companies that serve court summonses on homeowners, while at the same time judges are throwing out rulings based on faulty deliveries.

This month, appeals courts in Miami and Palm Beach County sided with homeowners in foreclosures where judges agreed their summonses were not appropriately served.

In the Miami case, the homeowner said she was recovering at her mother's home after surgery when the person serving her the summons swore he personally handed it to her at her residence.

But the server's own notes on the file showed he left the documents at the door after seeing curtains move and assuming someone was home. The homeowner later said she had no knowledge of the foreclosure until a final judgment was entered against her.

"Curtains may move because of the wind or curious cats, and not just because some prospective defendant is attempting to avoid service," the appeals decision noted.

Once entrusted only to sheriff's deputies, summonses may now legally be handled by "special process servers" certified by the court. With the crush of foreclosures statewide, process service has become big business.

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Judge Enforces Chevron's Subpoena of Penn. Lawyer

(CN) - A federal judge said Chevron can subpoena a Pennsylvania lawyer and his firm over his role in a $113 billion environmental lawsuit against the oil company in Ecuador. Meanwhile in Ecuador, one day after a judge closed the window to submit new evidence, Chevron tried to invalidate the complaint because it allegedly contains forged signatures.

Joseph Kohn of Kohn, Swift & Graf forfeited his right to attorney-client privilege by letting a documentary crew film strategy sessions, U.S. District Judge Jan DuBois found.

Kohn and another attorney, Steven Donziger, helped Ecuadorians sue Chevron over damage to their community from 30 years of drilling in the country conducted by Texaco, which became a Chevron subsidiary in 2001.

In a bid to draw international attention to the case, and mount pressure on Chevron, they also invited filmmaker Joseph Berlinger to document the rainforest devastation. Berlinger's access gave him an intimate look at the legal strategy adopted by the plaintiffs suing Chevron in Lago Agrio, Ecuador.

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Lawyer's Ties to Convicted Process Server Probed

The Nevada State Bar is investigating whether longtime attorney Lizzie Hatcher was truthful to authorities about her professional dealings with the convicted owner of an unlicensed process serving company.

The owner, former Las Vegas police officer Maurice Carroll, was convicted in October of perjury and submitting false affidavits in court.

Assistant Bar Counsel Phil Pattee said Friday that the investigation is the result of a Sept. 9 Las Vegas Review-Journal article on Hatcher's links to Carroll. The report said Hatcher had made conflicting statements about her relationship with Carroll and his company, On Scene Mediations.

Pattee said the results of the investigation will be turned over to a screening panel of the bar's Southern Nevada Disciplinary Board to decide whether to pursue sanctions.

It is against bar rules of professional conduct for a lawyer to engage in "dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation," or to make false statements to judicial officers.

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Florida Attorney General Investigating Companies That Serve Foreclosure Papers

The first step in foreclosure process is that the homeowner is supposed to informed that the foreclosure is beginning.

But as millions of Americans face foreclosure, even the process of alerting the homeowner with the serving of a summons has been filled with errors. The Times-Union wrote about some of those problems in October. You can read that story here.

Now the Miami Herald has disclosed that the Florida attorney general is investigating two of the larger companies whose job it is to deliver those papers. The Herald reported that investigation began earlier this month of Gissen & Zawyer Process Service of Miami and ProVest of Tampa.

ProVest is one of the nation's largest process servers. It was also the company involved in several of the cases that the Times-Union wrote about in October. A judge threw out one foreclosure case when he determined that the summons was allegedly served before the case was even filed.

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AccuServe Process Server Seeks Law Firm Clients as Doggedly as Defendants

AccuServe LLC’s daily grind is the stuff of TV movies.

The doorbell rings. The protagonist answers to what he thinks is a flower delivery, but the delivery agent drops the flowers and slaps a thick envelope into his hands instead.

“You’ve been served,” the agent says, then spins on his heels and walks away.

Believe it or not, the cliché is sometimes true, said Kirk Wilhite, co-owner of AccuServe, a Grandview Heights-based process service firm. But it’s not common.

“It’s true, there can be a lot of trickery to it. A lot of people are expecting the complaint or summons, so they try to evade service. It’s not uncommon for them to not answer the door,” Wilhite said.

Not that that helps them. Wilhite said in AccuServe’s eight months in business, he has a 100 percent success rate.

In a nutshell, the business of process serving focuses on a brief and elemental moment in civil cases – the serving of a civil complaint, summons or subpoena. AccuServe is a small but growing firm that wants to make that moment in time big business.

With only $5,000 in start up costs, Wilhite said the company has done $20,000 in its first eight months in business.

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Bill to target process servers

In Mississippi, not much is required to be a process server, and some lawmakers believe that needs to change.

Rep. Hank Zuber, R-Ocean Springs, says he'll file a bill in the 2011 Legislature that would require licensing and educational training for process servers. Zuber believes the proposal, which died in the past, will have a chance next session because of the recent scrutiny given process servers handling child support cases for the Mississippi Department of Human Services.

Earlier this year, judges in Hinds and Jackson counties were reviewing hundreds of child support cases to determine whether some process servers had lied about delivering subpoenas.

The process servers worked for subcontractors of YoungWilliams Child Support Division, a Jackson-based company that received a $23 million contract to file about 15,000 cases, manage another 13,000 and operate a call center. Company President Rob Wells has said about 30 of those cases are being reopened because they involved a process server facing the allegations.

Zuber said there have been other instances of process servers failing to properly perform their jobs and it's caused hardships for average citizens. Zuber said the case of Natalie Parker of Ocean Springs is the reason he first filed the bill in 2008.

Parker's driver's license was revoked in 2003 and, because of that, she missed out on job opportunities. She eventually wound up living in her car. Zuber said Parker had told him about how a process server had lied about delivering papers to notify Parker about a lawsuit that had been filed against her.

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U.S. Subpoenas GOP Records

Federal investigators slapped the Republican Party of Florida with a subpoena seeking financial records as part of a wide-ranging corruption probe by the FBI, IRS and U.S. Attorney's Office, the Herald/Times has learned.

The subpoena, delivered Election Day, sought documents related to big spending by top Republican honchos who were given party-paid American Express cards.

Top RPOF officials and investigators declined to comment on the federal probe or the subpoena.

For more than a year, the party has reeled from scandals tied to the credit cards as well as four unrelated state criminal probes into its former chairman, a fundraiser, a former Florida House speaker and a Capitol insider.

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Eddie Montgomery's Wife Tracy Files for Divorce

It's not shaping up to be the most wonderful time of the year for Eddie Montgomery. Just a couple of weeks ago the Montgomery Gentry singer revealed that he's been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Now his publicist has confirmed that his wife of more than two decades, Tracy, has filed for divorce.

According to publicist Kirt Webster, Tracy called Eddie Tuesday night and asked what he was doing. As it happened, he was having dinner at his steakhouse in Kentucky with the couple's 23-year-old daughter Brooke. Shortly after the call, a process server presented him with divorce papers right there at the table in front of his daughter.

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You've Been Served, Thanks to Company's iPhone Program

Consumers who default on credit- card payments may get an opportunity to meet an employee or agent of Scott Levine.

Levine, owner of JJL Process Corp. of West Palm Beach, Fla., operates a legal process serving company and many of his clients are credit card companies.

So consumers who fail to make payments on their credit cards shouldn't be surprised to meet one of his iPhone-carrying workers on their doorstep. The JJL worker will be serving the individual with notice that he is a defendant in a civil lawsuit, often over an unpaid credit card debt.

That's not good news, of course, but it beats the alternative: Not getting served and finding out that you face a default judgment because you didn't respond to the lawsuit.

Levine's company has a copyrighted software application for the iPhone that enables him to use the global positioning system track his process servers and determine that they indeed did go to the homes of defendants. The process servers take a photo of the home to show that they stopped there, and global positioning system backs up that evidence.

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Good Service of Process

In reality, foreclosure starts when the complaint is filed against the homeowner. Then service of process happens, informing Joe Homeowner that a lawsuit is filed against him and with a summons to reply.

If you know a process server is coming after you, do not hide. Process servers will find a way to find you, which may not be convenient to your schedule or dignity. Foreclosures rarely happen at opportune times, but you can control having papers served to you at your home as opposed to while you are out shopping.

Service of process does start the clock, but it is okay for the clock to start. The court needs to get jurisdiction over the dispute and the human. That human is the homeowner. Our justice system is big on notice and opportunity to be heard. Service of process gives the homeowner notice and an invitation to answer.

For the standard complaint or lawsuit, the defendant has twenty calendar days to answer the summons. That is more time than you need to panic, but a reasonable period in which to get legal advice.

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New App Keeps Process Servers in Check

Grand Junction, Colo. (KKCO) - A new phone application will keep court paper servers in check across the globe and the creator lives right here on the western slope.

Local business owner Mike Kingrey created CivilMap.com amid reports nationwide that process servers have not been able to make all their deliveries. Experts say an outdated system has only been feeding into the problem.

Kingrey's CivilMap application will ensure those vital documents will always be signed.. sealed and delivered.

"They do their paperwork electronically and it also electronically verifies everything that transpired during that service," says Kingrey.

The CivilMap application is already getting national recognition with nods from the Amercian Bar Association and positive reviews from the Department of Consumer Affairs.


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New Group Wants Tougher Laws for Assaults to Professional Process Servers

The Illinois Association of Professional Process Servers, newly established, has three goals for the organization: Push for tougher penalties for attacking a process server; encourage mandatory training and certification for process servers; and, ask for uniform laws on the status of process servers.

IAPPS vice president Bill Clutter, who is a private investigator in Springfield, says anyone who is a process server knows that, at times, "It can be a risky occupation." He says one of his agents was nearly choked to death by a man who refused to accept service, and Clutter cites a case in Southern Illinois in which a man poked a server and shot into the air in order to scare her off his property. Clutter says state lawmakers should make it a felony to attack a process server, offering more of a deterrent than the current misdemeanor.


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Case Dropped Against Process Server

The Denver District Attorney's Office dropped a controversial case of criminal mischief filed against a process server who claimed he was a crime victim, not a suspect.

Lynn Kimbrough, a spokesperson for the Denver District Attorney's Office, said a deputy prosecutor "felt the facts of the case didn't support us proving that to a jury" and dismissed the charge on Wednesday.Police and prosecutors had charged Richard Bellizzi after a June 24 incident, which was caught on videotape.

Bellizzi was attempting to serve divorce papers on Englewood anesthesiologist Dr. Oksana Bantley. When the car Bantley was driving stopped on Colorado Boulevard, Bellizzi approached the driver's side and began shouting to Bantley.

Bellizi identified who he was and that he was serving her with divorce documents. Bellizzi was videotaping with one hand, a common measure he says for cases where the subject has tried to avoid being served. He says Bantley had avoided another process server.

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New Questions Being Raised About Court Filings in Foreclosure Cases

The expanding investigation into Florida's foreclosure crisis has turned up a new problem that may involve a number of cases: Individuals hired by law firms to notify struggling homeowners when their foreclosure cases are to be heard in court may have filed faulty or false documents.

Foreclosure defense attorneys and consumer advocates say they have documented a number of foreclosure cases where "process servers" filed questionable paperwork. State investigators who are examining foreclosure documentation problems -- involving law firms that employed "robosigners" to rapidly process claims -- are also taking a close look at process servers, court documents show.

According to lawsuits filed on behalf of homeowners, some individuals appear to have violated the rules of process serving: the personal delivery of legal papers, required by law, notifying people that a foreclosure action has been filed against them. Like "robo-signing" -- the mass signing of foreclosure documents without review by loan servicers -- it's an alleged practice that is putting lenders, and the foreclosure law firms serving them, under fire.

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Parker: Toll gets tricked on Halloween by Process Server

Trick, not treat. Erin Toll answered her doorbell on Halloween armed with treats to dole out to little witches and goblins, but instead she was tricked.

A process server tricked the former director of the state's Division of Real Estate into bagging a subpoena to attend a deposition in an insurance case.

"OMG. I went to the door when the bell rang with the candy in hand, and I was SERVED! Very sneaky. Gotta give the process server credit," Toll wrote on her Facebook page Sunday.

It may have been sneaky, but it's not a tactic that law enforcement officers or private process servers use to track down those who are difficult to find.

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