New York Process Servers Granted Partial Restraining Order Against New Regulations

For those of you interested in or are following the developments in the city and state of New York as it relates to the Sewer Service fallout, the Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) for the city of New York has published the new regulations that impose additional requirements on individual process servers and process serving agencies. 

Needless to say the New York State Professional Process Servers Association (NYSPPSA)  has mobilizing its members in an effort to minimized the impact of the proposed and adopted rules over the course of the last year.  To that end, NAPPS too has offered its support and financial assistance.  Due in part to the generous contributions NAPPS made financially (approximately $50,000.00) NYSPPSA was able to retain a law firm to file a restraining order in an effort to block or at least temporarily stop the implementation of the new regulations. 

Today NAPPS announced the following:

The New York State Professional Process Servers Association (NYSPPSA) was granted a partial restraining order on March 21 to allow the Association and the City of New York to continue negotiations over new regulations for professional process servers within the city limits.

For the full press release please click here.

If you are interested in reading the current version of the regulations I encourage you to visit the DCA website for a complete description of all the requirements.  The following are links to all the new reg's and the forms the DCA has posted on their website. 

New York City Licensing Law and New Rules
License Application for Agencies
License Application for Individuals
Process Serving Agency Background Information Form
Process Server Individual Background Information Form
Roster of Process Servers
Roster of Process Serving Agencies
Surety Bond Model Template
List of Bonding Companies
Excel Spreadsheet for Maintaining Electronic Records
Compliance Plan Affirmation
Process Server Individual Trust Fund Enrollment Form
Child Support Certification Form
Granting Authority to Act Affirmation

I went through them the other day and found myself wondering will the small and mid-sized agencies survive. Depending upon whether you are getting a license as an agency or an individual, there are as many as fourteen (14) forms to complete, hundreds if not thousands of dollars to be paid, bonds in the amount of 10K or 100K to obtain and countless new reporting requirements to comply with.  As if that were not enough, this version of the regulations do not even deal with the proposed GPS or electronic tracking requirement that the DCA will likely implement later this year.

In my humble opinion these regulations impose a significant challenge and/or barrier for everyone impacted but will most severely impact the solo  agencies and mid-sized agencies as well as independent process servers.  So much so, that unless NYSPPSA successfully stops or changes many of these requirements many of those folks will find themselves unable to comply and as a result will likely be forced out of business.  

As is typical in situations like this, those that created the current problem that resulted in these new regulations are not going to be the ones who suffer the consequences. 

posted by Jeff Karotkin