Joel Stashenko and Noeleen G. Walder - New York Law Journal - July 23, 2009
Complaint contends that American Legal Process' process servers did not make efforts to properly serve defendants
New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo is demanding information from dozens of debt collection law firms throughout the state as part of a civil lawsuit to overturn more than 100,000 faulty default judgments, he announced Wednesday.
The suit, Pfau v. Forster & Garbus, 2009-8236, was filed in state Supreme Court in Erie County on behalf of Chief Administrative Judge Ann Pfau. It asks Justice Timothy J. Drury to vacate all default judgments where the sole evidence that a defendant received service notifying him that he was being sued was an affidavit from American Legal Process of Lynbrook, N.Y. (See the complaint.)
In April, Cuomo's office arrested American Legal Process owner William Singler and charged him with fraud and other felonies. Singler has denied the charges.
The complaint against Singler contends that American Legal Process' process servers did not make efforts to properly serve defendants in lawsuits prescribed by CPLR §308. Instead of making the required three attempts to serve papers before being allowed to "nail and mail" -- or mail a copy of the lawsuit and affix a copy to the person's door -- Cuomo alleges Singler's servers often gave up after one attempt.
That, in turn, left thousands of consumers unaware they faced default until their bank accounts had been frozen or their ATM cards were rejected, Cuomo contends.
Read the rest of the story:
Suit Over Alleged Process Server Fraud Aims to Vacate 100,000 Judgments
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