New York State Professional Process Servers Association – Virtual Legislative Fundraiser

Posted March 8, 2021 in Non-CALSPro

Date/Time
Date(s) - 03/08/2021
9:00 am - 5:00 pm

Categories


The New York State Professional Process Servers Association is having a Virtual Legislative Fundraiser to be held on Monday, March 8, 2021 from 9-5PM. The event will be held live via Zoom and streamed on our Facebook page and Website.

The purpose of this benefit will be to enlist lobbyists and publicists to launch a multi-faceted campaign on the following issues.

CERTIFICATE OF CONFORMITY

The certificate of conformity has been a burden to process servers both in New York State and outside New York State for many years. It’s based on statues in the CPLR and RPL which require authentication of a notary’s signature outside of New York when incorporated into an affidavit of service in that state. The New York State courts will not enter default judgments for service done outside the state without a certificate of conformity which certifies the signature and license of the notary. Since this is done by a certificate, it must be done by an attorney. NYSPPSA has on several occasions attempted to craft legislation to amend the NY Civil Practice Law to allow out of state process servers, under the penalty of perjury, for services performed in their states on services coming out of the state of New York. This certificate will remove the notary requirement and therefore would not require a certificate of conformity. Because of this onerous requirement, many New York State process serving companies are being compelled to send their New York City services to sheriffs who statutorily do not have to do an affidavit of service. This is in contradiction to NAPPS’ desire to use out of state process servers. Although it is not legislative yet, familiarity with its proposal is to our benefit to monitor and gather opposition.

LOGBOOK BILL

Since 1970, some 51 years ago, the New York State Dept of Consumer Affairs has required, because of section 89A of the General Business Law of the State of NY, use of a manual handwritten paginated logbook describing process services performed on a daily basis. At the time these laws were enacted, annual inscription was the sole method available to record services. In the 51 years that have passed, many changes have occurred regarding this method of recording. With the advent of electronic recording, manual recording has become ineffective and obsolete. The fact that it still exists, presents the court with an ineffective and redundant way of recording services which have become a burden to process servers in New York City. Furthermore, this obsolete and antiquated method of recording is not indelible. The current recording methods that are prescribed by the Department of Consumer Affairs of New York City present them and the courts indelible record of service that cannot be tampered with. In too many instances, logbooks have been lost, stolen or damaged. With the electronic recordings, these options are not available. In summary, electronic recording is a far superior way of prescribing services and most importantly remove the necessity of face to face confrontations between examiner and server.

SECRETARY OF STATE

A proposal from New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo’s budget revealed a request by the Governor to amend the Business Corporation Law, General Business Law, Limited Liability Law, Company Law, Partnership Law and Real Property Law. This amendment will allow process to be served on the New York Secretary of State through electronic system operated by the Department of State. This bill would authorize the Secretary of State to forward notice of service of process to entities by email and then make copies of process available to such entities. In particular pursuant to BCL 306, which is predominant service currently performed, this would drastically change the role of the process server particularly in the Albany region. The corporation subject to this amended method of service would have to had previously “opted” into the system. This bill would take effect on January 1, 2023. NYSPPSA is opposed to this proposal and though it is in its embryonic state, we must be diligent in gathering oppositional support.

Process servers must stick together, we must unify. We are in our early planning stages but we ask that you get the word out to your association members. This initiative could have far reaching advantages for process servers across the country. When industry collaborators get together, there is always an opportunity to learn. Please tell all to SAVE THE DATE and encourage to donate to this important cause. I will be providing more information on the donation platform, sponsorships, entertainment and presentations in the next week or so. Any questions, please feel free to or email. Thank you from NYSPPSA.

Sincerely,

Ellen Eakley – NYSPPSA Director – 914-328-1069 x 201 – ellen@ijslegal.com
Larry Yellon – NYSSPA Legislation Chair -516-248-8270 x 112 – larry@ijslegal.com

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