NY AG Shuts Down Process Server Outfit For Allegedly Engaging In "Sewer Service" Racket

From the Office of the New York Attorney General:

• Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo [] announced that his office has shut down a Brockport-based process server company that repeatedly claimed in legal affidavits that its employees had made proper service of legal documents to thousands of consumers when in fact it had not. We Serve It For You served summonses, complaints and other legal documents on individuals on behalf of law firms.

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• Generally, process servers deliver legal papers via one of three methods: to the defendant personally (actual service), to a person of suitable age and discretion at the location of the intended person to be served (substitute service), or to the door of the intended person’s actual location and by mail to their last known address (“nail-and-mail” service). After providing service to the intended recipient, process servers would print an affidavit of service to prove that they had indeed provided the legal documents to the defendant.

• Attorney General Cuomo’s investigation determined that those documents were regularly signed and mailed to John Coy, who would notarize them without witnessing the signature. From 2007 to 2009, We Serve It For You served approximately 54,000 complaints and maintained a database detailing each service. The Attorney General’s Office and the Unified Court System determined that:
  
  On more than 1,100 occasions, We Serve It For You process servers claimed to have made service or service attempts at two or more places at the same time.
  
  On more than 700 occasions, We Serve It For You process servers claimed to have made service or service attempts before they even received the documents to serve.
  
  On tens of thousands of occasions, John Coy notarized the signatures of We Serve It For You process servers when he did not witness the signatures.

For the New York AG press release, see Cuomo Shuts Down WNY Process Server Company For Lying On Affidavits Of Service ("We Serve it For You” servers claimed to be in two or more places at same time, claimed to serve documents before receiving them; Company and operators must pay $10,000 to state, cooperate with ongoing investigations, and cease process serving).