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10 Reasons you will need a Denver Process Server For your Lawsuit

2011-06-22T17:13:00.001-06:00

There are numerous reasons why someone should work with process server to manage their legal disputes. Process servers properly and successfully present the legal documents required for all types of lawsuits, such as, complaints, summons to court, an order to show cause, a writ, and other papers that may be relevant to a suit and also the legal proceedings.

A process server is specifically qualified to handle presenting files for any type of legal claim. This means that a process server does all that they are able to, to have your documents served on time, this will certainly give you ease from the worry associated with your case, while also saving you money and time. And on top of that, a great number of states will have regulations that are connected to serving documents, employing a process server guarantees that the documents are supplied legally, that will guarantee your lawsuit does not hit any kind of hurdles from incorrectly served documents. You are going to be reassured and informed once your papers have been served, a process server is required to supply you with an Affidavit of Service / Proof of service, this will inform you of as soon as your papers have been given, keeping you on top of the information on your serve. A process server will additionally provide other services, which include submitting your papers to a courtroom, to help you in your legal case. A process server will correctly and efficiently serve your paperwork providing you with ease regarding your case.

Listed below are 10 reasons that you will have to find a Denver professional process server on your lawsuit.

1. Small claims lawsuits

2. Divorces - lawful termination of marriage.

3. Subpoena - paperwork that comes from the court for someone to show in the court and testify.

4. Surveillance - observation of a person to uncover illegal activity.

5. Complaint - paperwork from a person stating legal rights against the individual

6. Summons - a paper from the courtroom for a suit, which includes all information.

7. Eviction - when a tenant is removed from a property.

8. Insurance fraud - untrue claims towards an insurance company.

9. Order to show cause - a courtroom order to appear in the court.

10. Court Services- Family court, Criminal Court, Court of Appeals, Supreme Court. etc.

Find a Denver Process Server

Front Range Legal Process Service

303 S. Broadway, Suite 200-215 Denver, Co 80209

(303) 578-3851

Process Servers in Colorado Uniting Against Industry Threats

2011-04-08T11:21:00.002-06:00

Steve Glenn has fun serving process, and it has proved lucrative for him. Getting paid to serve hard-to-locate people, and serving people whom others couldn’t … he says it’s a puzzle for him and he doesn’t like to lose. So, when he hears about things which could separate him from his fun and income, he doesn’t take it lightly.

Sensing the need for someone to protect the interests of process servers in Colorado and keep their livelihoods safe, Glenn recently founded the Process Servers Association of Colorado (PSACO). Glenn took the time to explain to ServeNow.com his motivations for building a state association from the ground up.

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Process Servers Attracting More Clients Through Local Search

2011-04-08T11:14:00.002-06:00

You may have heard the term “local search” recently and wondered what it is and how it can help your process server business. Local search basically ensures that people can find your business online when searching for local terms such as “Process Server Denver” or wherever your business may be located. This is accomplished through optimizing your Google Places, Yahoo! Local and Bing Local profiles, and then submitting your business to Superpages, YellowPages, DexKnows, 411.com, WhitePages and more than 100 other sites. So when people search for your key terms, your business shows up.

In this article, we’ll take a closer look at how local search benefits your business and how the submission process works.

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Canadian Process Server Enjoying the Fast Track to Success

2011-03-30T14:39:00.001-06:00

Jim Carr knows what it takes to succeed. The 67-year-old family man has built a successful Canadian process serving company in Hamilton, Ontario, from the ground up, and more recently has began to experience success in an entirely different industry – horse racing.

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Illinois Association of Professional Process Servers Opposes Proposed Bill

2011-03-11T12:02:00.003-07:00

The Illinois Association of Professional Process Servers (IAPPS) was recently formed to provide education and training to the profession of process servers in Illinois. Our Association has established a Code of Ethics and Best Practices. Our members are committed to practicing the highest professional standards.

ILAPPS opposes as currently drafted two identical bills filed in both chambers: SB2069 and HB1450. These bills would create the offense of false impersonation and make it illegal for agents to be armed for personal protection.

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How To Identify Someone Who May Be Evading Service

2011-03-11T11:54:00.004-07:00

Not only do process servers have a number of duties and responsibilities when service of process goes as planned, but when service becomes difficult these responsibilities increase exponentially. It is of utmost importance that process servers ensure that their service adheres to both state law and their clients’ instructions so as to be valid. Failure to do so can result in a number of problems such as increased costs and time for both the client and the server. Accordingly, ensuring that the party who is to be served actually is the person served oftentimes requires thinking outside of the box when faced with a difficult target.

Click here to read our 10 Tips for Verifying the Identity of a Difficult Subject.

Proposed Bill Aimed at Protecting Illinois Process Servers

2011-03-11T11:49:00.001-07:00

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

2011-03-11T11:38:00.004-07:00

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

2011-01-18T11:24:00.001-07:00

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

2011-01-12T11:36:00.004-07:00

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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2011-01-11T11:37:00.001-07:00

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

2011-01-06T11:13:00.001-07:00

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

2011-01-05T11:24:00.002-07:00

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

2011-01-04T11:02:00.003-07:00

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

2010-12-30T10:54:00.001-07:00

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

2010-12-29T10:59:00.002-07:00

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

2010-12-28T11:42:00.003-07:00

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

2010-12-23T12:19:00.001-07:00

(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

2010-12-21T13:35:00.000-07:00

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.

Read more here.

Florida Attorney General Investigating Companies That Serve Foreclosure Papers

2010-12-16T10:53:00.002-07:00

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

2010-12-15T11:43:00.003-07:00

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

2010-12-14T11:13:00.002-07:00

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

2010-12-02T10:08:00.001-07:00

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

2010-12-01T11:45:00.002-07:00

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

2010-11-30T10:30:00.003-07:00

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

2010-11-24T10:33:00.003-07:00

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

2010-11-23T10:56:00.002-07:00

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

2010-11-10T12:39:00.002-07:00

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

2010-11-09T10:11:00.003-07:00

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

2010-11-04T10:17:00.003-06:00

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

2010-11-02T10:06:00.005-06:00

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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Bank of America, JPMorgan Get Texas Subpoenas on Foreclosures

2010-10-27T11:50:00.001-06:00

Oct. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase and Co. and seven other banks or loan servicers were subpoenaed by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott for information about their foreclosure practices, a spokesman said.

“The state is subpoenaing information and documents,” Jerry Strickland, the spokesman, said yesterday in an interview. He didn’t elaborate. The state also subpoenaed Ally Financial Inc., CitiMortgage Inc. and Wells Fargo and Co.

Abbott began investigating foreclosure practices in Texas following the disclosure of a December deposition in which an employee of Ally’s GMAC Mortgage unit testified that his team signed about 10,000 documents a month without verifying their accuracy. On Oct. 13, all 50 state attorneys general announced a joint investigation of foreclosures.

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Lindsay Lohan - Process Server Fails To Hand Lohan Legal Papers

2010-10-26T09:58:00.002-06:00

A photographer who is suing Lindsay Lohan is struggling to serve the actress with legal papers - a process worker was turned away recently as he tried to present her with the lawsuit during her stay in rehab.

The Mean Girls actress is accused of failing to honor a deal to give snapper Scot Nathan a one per cent share in her clothing line 6126 in exchange for a photo shoot.

He launched legal action against Lohan in April (10) and a process server attempted to visit the troubled star at the Betty Ford Clinic in Rancho Mirage, California earlier this month (17Oct10) - but he was denied access and instead gave the papers to the security guard.

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SLO Process Server Gets New Felony Charge

2010-10-21T10:51:00.001-06:00

Lyza Johnsen, a process server with the San Luis Obispo-based Johnsen & Johnsen Legal Support Services, was taken into custody on Oct. 20 during an appearance at SLO County Superior Court.

Facing three felony charges and one misdemeanor ranging from writing bad checks to grand theft, Johnsen was originally scheduled for an arraignment. But on Oct. 19, the District Attorney’s Office filed another felony charge claiming that Johnsen wrote another bad check just days before her court appearance.

Deputy District Attorney Matt Kerrigan asked Judge Michael Duffy to sign an arrest warrant for the latest case before Johnsen was arraigned on her other felony charges. According to Kerrigan, Johnsen wrote a check for about $1,500, using an account that was closed after she allegedly wrote about $50,000 in bad checks, for which she is now facing felony charges.

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MBS Investors Get Themselves Organized for Repurchase Lawsuits

2010-10-20T11:48:00.002-06:00

GMAC Mortgage is following the lead of Bank of America, assuring the public about independent reviews and returning to the foreclosure process in the 23 judicial states when those reviews are completed. They continue the party line of all servicers that they have “found no evidence to date of any inappropriate foreclosures.”

This flies in the face of the standard practice to reward fraud at the foreclosure mill law firms.

"Some employees of Florida’s largest “foreclosure mill” were given jewelry, cars and houses from the firm, in exchange for altering and forging key documents used to obtain foreclosures, according to a statement released today by the Florida Attorney General’s Office.

The office released transcripts of two interviews it conducted for its investigation into the law offices of David J. Stern. The sworn statements were from Kelly Scott, a former employee of Stern’s and Mary R. Cordova, a former employee of G&Z, a process server used by Stern’s office. The women’s testimonies appear to back up that of former Stern’s employee Tammie Lou Kapusta, whose statement was released last week. The three statements paint a picture of a secret system designed to speed up the foreclosure process. Attorneys and staff members forged signatures, changed dates, passed around notary stamps, the women say in interviews with attorney general’s staff.

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TEMECULA: City Having a Hard Time Serving Tribe With Suit

2010-10-19T10:34:00.001-06:00

The city of Temecula hit an early hurdle with its lawsuit against the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians: The tribe won't allow a process server to enter the reservation to formally serve the suit, city officials said Wednesday.

Mayor Jeff Comerchero said he's been briefed on the situation and he said the city plans to continue to make every attempt to serve the tribe.

If the tribe ultimately succeeds in stymieing the city's process server, however, Comerchero said there are other options.

"We go into the court and demonstrate that (the difficulty in serving the tribe), and that should suffice," he said.

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Charges dog a SLO process server

2010-10-14T10:44:00.001-06:00

At first, Brian Stacy believed everything Lyza Johnsen told him. He originally hired her as a process server in his lawsuit against French Hospital Medical Center. Soon, though, Johnsen was providing him advice and putting him in contact with experts who would help his case—or so he thought.

When Johnsen first told Stacy she would put him in touch with a clever Santa Monica-based paralegal named Hope O’Connell, he didn’t think much of it—he just wrote a check. When he saw that O’Connell’s e-mail was a Gmail account, he didn’t think much of it—and he wrote some more checks. After writing about $24,000 worth of checks to Johnsen, a woman who was recommended to him, he started to get suspicious.

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Broward Law Firm Challenges Foreclosure Subpoena

2010-10-13T12:11:00.002-06:00

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- A Broward County judge is mulling over a law firm's challenge to the validity of Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum's investigation into foreclosure practices.

Attorneys for the Law Offices of David J. Stern claimed Tuesday that the attorney general's office has no authority to investigate. State lawyers contend they have authority in their role as consumer advocates.

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Laura Dern Surprised By Divorce Papers

2010-10-12T10:24:00.001-06:00

A process server went to Laura Dern's home on Saturday with divorce papers and demanded that she come to the door ... or else, sources tell TMZ.

We're told the couple's nanny came to the door and told the process server she would accept the divorce papers Ben Harper filed late Friday afternoon, but sources say the process server

fired back that if Laura didn't come to the door he'd find her out in public and embarrass her.

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New Subpoenas Issued In John Edwards Campaign Probe

2010-10-07T10:30:00.003-06:00

Federal prosecutors have issued a new round of subpoenas in their probe of John Edwards' campaign finances -- giving the investigation seemingly stalled for a year fresh signs of life, the Associated Press reported.

Lawyer Wade Smith told the AP that he learned from other attorneys and sources that several new subpoenas were issued, but declined to discuss who received the subpoenas or what those subpoenas were seeking. Smith did not immediately return a message left by TPMMuckraker, and Justice Department spokeswoman Laura Sweeney said the department was declining comment.

But according to CNN Producer Raelyn Johnson, prosecutors are casting net "much wider than they did a year ago."

"They're talking about people who were schedulers, staffers, small-time staffers, including very, very big people involved with the campaign," she said Thursday.

Edwards, who ran for president in 2004 and 2008, admitted in 2008 that he'd had an affair with Rielle Hunter, a videographer on his campaign -- though, initially, his former aide Andrew Young announced he was the father of Hunter's child. Earlier this year, Edwards publicly admitted for the first time that he fathered Hunter's child and Edwards and his wife Elizabeth separated after 30 years of marriage.

The feds are looking at whether the Edwards campaign used funds to cover up his affair. Hunter and Young made appearances at a federal courthouse in Raleigh, N.C. last year to testify before a grand jury. Young said he did not receive a subpoena this time around.

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Call Girl Hits Back at Beckham, Files Lawsuit Claiming She Told Truth

2010-10-06T11:34:00.002-06:00

As if he didn't have enough issues to deal with, David Beckham is getting hit with a countersuit by former call girl Irma Nici.

Nici has been making the rounds claiming she had a one-night stand with the soccer stud—leading him to sue In Touch, which first printed her story. Now, she says the backlash sent her to the hospital and Beckham must pay!

Nici and her lawyer, Paul Rolf Jensen, issued a carefully worded statement Friday announcing their legal action seeking to have Beckham's lawsuit tossed.

"The former call girl who was sent to the hospital earlier this week as a result of the hounding she received at the hands of David Beckham and his legal team has struck back," their statement began.

Without specifically mentioning any affair or the In Touch report, they claim that Nici did "tell the truth to the press" and that should keep her from being targeted in a lawsuit.

"California law does not allow public figures like David Beckham to stifle free speech. Maybe he didn't live here in Los Angeles long enough to learn how precious we here consider our rights to tell the truth in print," says Jensen.

"Beckham must have confused American law with the law back in his home country, where there isn't a such a sacred respect for free speech."

We're not certain how up to speed Becks is with American law, but he's sure getting a crash course this week.

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ACC Bank Granted Permission to Serve Legal Papers on Jim Corr

2010-09-30T10:40:00.002-06:00

ACC Bank are to bring High Court proceedings against musician Jim Corr and another man arising out of an alleged failure to repay a €1.3 million loan obtained to buy land.

The dispute arises out of loan agreement the Dutch-owned bank claims it entered into with Mr Corr and Mr Liam Marks of the Coach House, Sandymount, Blackrock, Dundalk, Co Louth for the purchase of 91 acres of land at Barrowmount, Goresbridge, Co Kilkenny.

The bank claims that last June it demanded repayment of €1.36 million from both men.

However ACC says that the money has not been repaid, and intends to seek judgment for the full amount against both men. The bank loan was sanctioned in 2004.

Mr Corr (46), along with his three sisters, is a member of the internationally acclaimed Dundalk band the Corrs.

Today, ACC secured an order from the High Court allowing them to serve the musician notice of the proceedings that the bank intends to bring against Mr Corr at his place of residence in Bangor, Co Down by ordinary post.

In documentation put before the court, a lawyer acting for ACC expressed his belief that Mr Corr had been evading being served notice of the bank’s proceedings against him.

Mr Justice John MacMenamin granted ACC an order for substituted service allowing the bank to serve Mr Corr notice of the proceedings by ordinary prepaid post at his normal place of residence at an apartment Sharman House, Old Windmill Road, Crawfordsburn, Bangor, Co Down.

The court further made an order allowing the bank to serve further documentation arising in the course of the proceedings on Mr Corr by ordinary prepaid post. The orders were granted on ex parte basis (one side only.) In seeking the orders, Bernard Dunleavy Bl for ACC told the court that the ACC had been unable to effect service on Mr Corr, who is a well known musician.

Counsel added that it was ACC’s intention to apply to have the proceedings admitted to the commercial Court, the big business division of the High Court.

In an affidavit to the court, solicitor Donnacha O’Donovan for ACC said he believed that Mr Corr was evading being served notice of the proceedings ACC intended to bring.

Mr O’Donovan said that a summons server attempted to serve Mr Corr with the proceedings on four separate dates in late July early August last without success.

Mr O’Donovan said that he also wrote to Mr Corr informing him of the proceedings and asked to meet with him in order to effect service of the proceedings on him.

Those letters were delivered to Mr Corr’s address by both ordinary and registered post. However earlier this month the registered letters were returned to Mr O’Donovan's office marked “Not Called for”. The letters sent by ordinary post were not returned.

Mr O’Donovan said that a solicitor’s firm acting for Mr Corr informed him that they were not in a position to accept service of the proceedings.

However Mr O’Donovan said that a caretaker at the apartment block where Mr Corr resides informed the summons server that the musician continues to reside there.

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Judge Denies 'Hurt Locker' Subpoenas

2010-09-28T10:15:00.002-06:00

A federal magistrate judge in South Dakota has denied an attempt by the producers of the Oscar-winning film "The Hurt Locker" to obtain the identities of 143 accused illegal file sharers from their Internet service provider.

The judge's decision last week however likely means only a temporary delay for Voltage Pictures, the independent studio which made "The Hurt Locker."

Voltage is one of more than a dozen indie studios that have hired the Washington, D.C., law firm of Dunlap, Grubb & Weaver to file copyright complaints against as many as 50,000 individuals they accuse of illegally sharing their movies. To file the suits, the law firm first obtains Internet protocol addresses of people sharing files. Then, the firm goes after the identities of those who own the IP addresses by subpoenaing records from Internet service providers.

Last month, Midcontinent Communications said no to Voltage. The ISP, which services areas in South and North Dakota and Minnesota, filed a motion to "quash" the subpoena it received from Voltage requesting information on the Midcontinent customers. The ISP argued that Voltage and Dunlap had not followed proper federal procedure by filing the subpoena with jurisdiction in South Dakota.

On Wednesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge John Simko, for the Southern District of South Dakota, agreed with Midcontinent's argument and granted its motion.

But Thomas Dunlap, one of the attorneys representing Voltage, said today that the holdup was a procedural technicality and his firm plans to obtain a subpoena in South Dakota soon. He said typically an ISP and his firm will talk by phone to work out any issues but Dunlap said Midcontinent didn't do that.

"This seems like an expensive way for [Midcontinent] to handle it but the issue is pretty minor," Dunlap said. "We will reproduce the subpoena in South Dakota and we will end up getting the information."

The litigation that Dunlap, Grubb & Weaver is leading has stunned file sharers all over the country. The practice of filing lawsuits was thought to be dead after the music industry stopped filing such complaints nearly two years ago. Executives from a group of indie studios told CNET this month that they are without a lot of options when it comes to defending their material against piracy and unauthorized file sharing.

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Changes Come to Civil Proccess

2010-09-23T08:35:00.003-06:00

With a goal of reducing the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office budget to the best of his abilities, Sheriff Jeff Dawsy is announcing changes in the way his agency will serve civil process, effective Oct. 1.

“Process” is commonly defined as a paper of writing issued by some court in the exercise of its jurisdiction. These documents include divorce papers, liens, restraining orders, evictions, subpoenas, plus other official court documents.

Up until now, deputy sheriffs typically served all enforceable as well as non-enforceable civil process on the intended recipients.

Enforceable civil process includes enforcement of child support, domestic violence injunctions for protection, child custody pickup orders, landlord/tenant actions and seizure of property relating to civil lawsuits. Non-enforceable process includes summonses, complaints and subpoenas.

A recent administrative order signed by Chief Judge Daniel B. Merritt, Sr., of the Fifth Judicial Circuit supplements the service of process by county sheriffs and provides an alternate means of service by private certified civil process servers. An approved list of certified process servers is maintained by the circuit, which includes Citrus, Hernando, Lake, Marion and Sumter counties.

These individuals are authorized to serve non-enforceable civil process on any person found within the circuit where the process server is certified whenever a civil action has been filed against said person in Florida’s circuit or county courts.

Here in Citrus County, sworn deputies will continue to serve all enforceable process, in addition to any court documents originating from the State Attorney’s and Public Defender’s offices and the Florida Department of Revenue.

Starting Oct. 1, private citizens or attorneys looking to have non-enforceable process served will need to contact a private process server. The approved list of civil process servers in the circuit who are currently certified is viewable on the Sheriff’s Office official Web site at www.sheriffcitrus.org.

Sheriff Dawsy is anticipating these changes will save his agency approximately $140,000. One added advantage is two or three of his civil deputies can be reassigned to positions that are currently vacant.

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Denver Police Department Charges Process Server After Car Hits Him

2010-09-22T11:29:00.002-06:00

A Denver process server has been charged with misdemeanor criminal mischief after he was run over and badly injured by a woman he was trying to serve with divorce papers.

Richard Bellizzi, a private investigator and process server told CBS4, "I was in somewhat of a state of shock," after Denver police arrested him and not the driver of the car that hit him following the June 24 incident.

"And I said, 'Process server divorce papers," and she tried to kill me."

Bellizzi was trying to serve divorce papers to Dr. Oksana Bantley, an area anesthesiologist.

Bellizzi said Bantley had avoided another process server and appeared to be trying to avoid him. He spotted her June 24 driving a friend's car. Bellizzi followed her and when she got caught in traffic on Colorado Boulevard Bellizzi jumped out of his car and approached Bantley's car. He held the divorce papers in one hand and a camera in the other hand which recorded what happened next.

The videotape shows Bantley behind the wheel of her car. As Bellizzi stands near the front of her car, he can be heard saying, "Oksana Bantley ... Superior Court …" Bantley shields her face with her hands. But before Bellizzi finishes speaking, she can be seen apparently turning the wheel of her car toward Bellizzi and the car accelerates. The video shows Bellizzi on the hood of the speeding car for a few seconds before the tape cuts off.

"She turned the wheel and gunned the engine, effectively cutting my legs out and forcing me on to the hood of the car," Bellizzi said.

Bellizzi said he hung on for about 260 feet at an estimated 30 to 40 miles per hour before he said Bantley turned sharply, ejecting him from the hood of the car.

"This is not going to end well," Bellizzi remembered thinking as he held on to one of the car's windshield wipers. The incident left him with a broken left ankle and deep bruises and cuts. He hobbled back to his car and drove to the Denver Police Department's District 3 station to report what happened.

"I fully expected to sign a complaint and go to St. Joseph's Hospital and have my injuries attended to," he said.

But Bellizzi said he was immediately met with sarcasm, hostility and aggression by an officer manning the station's front desk. Frustrated by the officer's attitude, Bellizzi asked to speak to a supervisor. He provided Denver police with his videotape of what happened and information on how to track down Bantley, which police did, summoning her to the District 3 station. After several hours he said the same officer who greeted him with hostility and aggression handcuffed him and told him he was being arrested for harassment and criminal mischief.

"I knew I was in the right and not guilty of what they were saying. I knew I was a victim," Bellizzi said. "And I don't often feel I am a victim."

Bellizzi was transported by ambulance to Denver Health Medical Center for treatment and then on to the Denver Jail. He was released 24 hours later. The following day Bellizzi's lawyer, Jennifer Henslee, said she spoke to a sergeant from the Denver Police Department who "apologized for the treatment Mr. Bellizzi received, stated Mr. Bellizzi should never have been charged with a crime."

Henslee has sent a four-page letter to Denver Police Chief Gerry Whitman outlining what happened arguing that Bellizzi spent a night in jail "for no justifiable reason whatsoever." She complained of police conduct and wrote, "Given the facts of this incident, the overwhelming amount of evidence establishing at the very least probable cause that Mrs. Bantley committed several felony crimes, it is unbelievable that she has not been charged. The fact that your officers treated Mr. Bellizzi unfairly with hostility and disrespect is outrageous."

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C.A. Upholds Restraining Order Against Attorney

2010-09-21T10:12:00.001-06:00

The Court of Appeal has upheld the imposition of an order enjoining Beverly Hills sole practitioner Martin B. Reiner from harassing Los Angeles attorney Susan Kaplan, who was his opposing counsel on a workers’ compensation matter last year.

Div. Three of this district’s Court of Appeal on Thursday rejected as “specious” Reiner’s claim that his conduct was constitutionally protected and chastised the attorney for engaging in behavior that “far exceeded the scope of civility.”

Kaplan, who did not return a call seeking comment, claimed that Reiner and a process server had come to the Graiwer & Kaplan office last September to serve her and her husband with subpoenas after gaining access to the private interior office area by pushing past a secretary as she exited a secured back door.

“Clearly, that laying in wait to commit the crime of trespass in a secured area shows he is capable of criminal activity and is willing to engage in criminal activity in order to intimidate me and others,” Kaplan alleged in her complaint.

She further asserted, under penalty of perjury, that a worker’s compensation judge had granted
a motion for protective order filed by Kaplan’s firm because of “unprofessional behavior during discovery matters,” and that a special master had been appointed to attend discovery to ensure Reiner controlled his behavior.

At the hearing on the motion, Kaplan said Reiner was “threatening” and had “invade[d] my space by getting right up in my face.”

Kaplan described Reiner as “unstable,” and “always agitated, almost as if he is under the influence of something.” He “uses profanity and makes all kinds of wild accusations and threatens our attorneys by stating that he is going to file complaints against them for assault,”

Kaplan said, adding that she was “convinced he will not stop this type of conduct unless he is prohibited from doing so.”

Reiner, however, on Friday reiterated his assertion, reflected in the opinion, that Kaplan’s version of events was “utterly fabricated.”

“Kaplan and her firm concocted false allegations against me…in an effort to try to throw a monkey wrench” in an ongoing workers’ compensation case in which his client is raising a claim of insurance fraud by Kaplan and her firm as an affirmative defense, Reiner claimed.

“There is an animus that exists and drives the present matter,” he insisted.
Reiner had also denied the factual assertions in Kaplan’s complaint at trial, where he represented himself, before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David S. Cunningham III.

According to Reiner’s version of events, Kaplan had noticed a deposition at her offices, and an employee had held the rear door to the offices open for Reiner and the process server to enter. He stated that he had been in Kaplan’s office less than 60 seconds, and that “there was no violence, nor threat of violence, nor profanity, nor confrontation.”

After the hearing, Cunningham granted the restraining order prohibiting Reiner from being within 100 yards of Kaplan, her home, and her vehicle, but did not check off the box that would prohibit Reiner from being within 100 yards of Kaplan’s job or workplace. The order remains in effect until Oct. 8, 2012.

Writing for the appellate court, Justice Richard D. Aldrich noted that some of the alleged instances of harassment occurred in a courthouse during pending litigation, but he explained this was insufficient to protect Reiner’s conduct.

The justice opined that an attorney’s free speech rights are circumscribed during judicial proceedings by his obligation to maintain respect for the court, emphasizing that Reiner’s conduct—following Kaplan around the courthouse, yelling, using profanities, and threatening opposing counsel—was “[b]y no stretch of the imagination…courteous or even civil.”
Aldrich also brushed aside Reiner’s contention that the trial court proceedings had not been fair since he was denied the opportunity to testify.

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Brown to Serve Subpoena on Vernon in Broadened Probe of City Officials' High Salaries

2010-09-16T11:02:00.002-06:00

The state attorney general's office announced Wednesday it will serve a subpoena on the city of Vernon, as part of an expanded probe of city salaries and expenses.

The subpoena will seek compensation records for Vernon employees and city officials, state Attorney General Jerry brown said in a statement.

A former Vernon city administrator who now serves as a legal consultant has topped the $1-million mark for each of the last four years, records show.

Eric T. Fresch was paid nearly $1.65 million in salary and hourly billings in 2008, when he held the dual jobs of city administrator and deputy city attorney, according to documents obtained by The Times through the California Public Records Act.

Fresch, described by city officials as an experienced finance attorney, was paid nearly $1.2 million last year, records show. Through July 31 of this year, he has earned about $643,000 as "outside legal counsel."

Other highly compensated employees include Donal O'Callaghan, who was paid nearly $785,000 last year as city administrator and director of Light & Power, overseeing Vernon's city-owned utility. He now earns $384,000 a year overseeing capital projects for the utility after stepping down July 20 as city administrator.

Former City Atty. Jeffrey A. Harrison earned $800,000 last year, and City Treasurer/Finance Director Roirdan Burnett made $570,000, records show. The year before, Harrison was paid $1.04 million. Although Vernon and Bell share a border in southeastern Los Angeles County, they are very different cities. Bell is a working-class, largely immigrant city with 38,000 residents. Vernon has fewer than 100 residents and is largely a business and industrial hub.

Top administrators in Vernon also racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in city-paid expenses on first-class flights, luxury hotels like the Ritz-Carlton and limousine service, according to a records review by The Times.

The records, which cover 2005-2010, detail lavish travel expenses billed to the city by its top executives, including then-city administrators Fresch and Donal O'Callaghan.

Some of the trips occurred as recently as this year, when the city laid off employees and canceled the life and health insurance benefits of city workers' spouses and children because of budget problems.

In one short trip to New York in February 2007, O'Callaghan, Fresch and a financial advisor flew first class to New York for a combined cost of more than $12,700.

O'Callaghan and the financial advisor, Craig Underwood, each stayed one night at the Ritz-Carlton, paying a nightly rate of about $800. Fresch, who stayed four nights, spent more than $7,600 at the Ritz-Carlton.

The bill included services from Paris Limo totaling $2,251 for four separate days. The city also reimbursed Fresch for $485 he spent dining at the Four Seasons New York.

The records show Fresch routinely commuted from his home in the San Francisco Bay Area to L.A. first class for more than $931 per round trip. In a few instances, he spent more than $1,100 for the relatively short air commute. He also incurred a bill of $350 at the United Red Carpet Airport Club, according to one city invoice.

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'Ground Zero Imam' Evades Being Served with Complaint -- Later is Legally Served for Nuisance, Emotional Distress, Assault

2010-09-15T12:04:00.002-06:00

NEW YORK, Sept. 15 /Standard Newswire/ -- Larry Klayman, founder of Judicial Watch and Freedom Watch, announced yesterday that the "Ground Zero Imam" and his mosque, the Cordoba House/Park51 Project, were served with the class action complaint filed by First Responder Vincent Forras. The complaint alleges that the building of the planned mosque would be a legal nuisance and that the entire project, to be built in the immediate vicinity of Ground Zero, is a blatant attempt to inflict emotional distress on the inhabitants of New York City; in effect a form of psychological terrorism.

Both the Imam and the mosque have ties to terrorist interests, and a large donor to the Imam's enterprises gave handsomely to the Holy Land Foundation, a convicted terrorist front group. In addition, during an interview on CNN's "Larry King Live" the Imam refused to say where the money was coming from to build the mosque at Ground Zero. There is other considerable evidence connecting the "Ground Zero Imam" and his mosque to persons and entities associated with terrorism.

When Freedom Watch, plaintiffs' counsel, sought to have the complaint served personally upon the defendants, including the Imam, servers were prevented from giving it to them. In this regard, plaintiffs sought to serve the Imam after his speech yesterday at the Council for Foreign Relations in New York City.

Service of process was however made under alternative legal means.

Larry Klayman issued the following statement to the Imam:

"In this country, it is important to obey the law. If the Imam is innocent of the charges, he should have willingly accepted service of the complaint. However, instead he chose to 'run' from the process server. The Imam can try to run but we will not allow him to hide. Justice will be done under the American legal system, not Sharia law. The case is now on its way to achieving justice for the plaintiffs and all of the people of the City of New York."

The class action suit has been brought at the behest of Declaration Alliance, with Freedom Watch, in the Supreme Court of New York in Manhattan, on behalf of Lead Plaintiff Vincent Forras, a courageous First Responder severely injured during his efforts to save innocent lives during September 11, 2001.

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Armed Process Server Threatens Teen

2010-09-14T10:02:00.004-06:00

BREA — An argument between a process server and a 17-year old boy is being investigated after the process server is alleged to have pointed a gun at the juvenile, police said.

Process servers typically deliver legal documents to individuals involved in court cases, Sgt. Bill Smyser said.

The argument took place 8:30 p.m. Saturday in the Hollydale Mobile Home Park on Carbon Canyon Road, when the agent was serving papers at a residence there, Smyser.

The process server, who was not a law enforcement official, pointed a handgun at the juvenile and then left. The juvenile called police, Symser said.

Police don't yet know why the agent was serving papers at the location.

"Nobody is in custody at this point," Smyser said. "They are working on it and trying to put the pieces together... I don't know if the papers were ever served or whether he was trying to serve the owner."

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'Subpoena GMA to clarify Saliao testimony'

2010-09-09T10:33:00.002-06:00

MANILA, Philippines - The “smoking gun” testimony of a witness before the Quezon City Regional Trial Court on Wednesday further strengthened calls to subpoena President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to clarify her relationship with the Ampatuan family.

In an interview with radio DZMM, lawyer Harry Roque, Jr. said the families of the victims would want to be clarified of Arroyo’s links to the Maguindanao massacre case.

Lakmudin Saliao, a former trusted aide of the Ampatuan family, revealed that former Maguindanao Governor Andal Ampatuan, Jr. only agreed to surrender his son and namesake to authorities after getting assurances he will be put “under the care” of the then president.

The landmark trial began on Wednesday (September 8), with the prosecution team presenting Saliao as its first witness.

Saliao directly linked Andal Jr. to the planning and execution of the killings last November 23, 2009.

Roque, a private prosecutor representing the families of several of the victims, said: “Bakit sasabihin ng mga Ampatuan ang ganitong mga bagay na seryosong-seryoso? Lumalabas na presidente pa ang gumawa ng paraan para mabaluktot ang mga batas at criminal case procedures.”

(Why would the Ampatuans say something serious as that? It appears that the president herself was willing to bend the laws.)

He said the families have already asked Branch 221 Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes during the pre-trial to subpoena the former president as a “hostile witness.”

Immunity

Roque, however, fears that Arroyo may invoke her immunity to escape responsibility.

In case the court does call for Arroyo, a legal issue may arise, he said.

As the Pampanga 2nd District Representative, Arroyo has parliamentary immunity from arrest, he explained.

“Legal issue ito e, nakaupo na siya sa Kongreso,” Roque said.

He said it would be best however if she testifies in order to debunk rumors that she did have a different relationship with the Ampatuans, albeit suspect.

Saliao testimony strong

He dismissed the defense team’s accusations that Saliao’s testimony was “well-rehearsed.”

He said Saliao would not testify, under oath, if his story is a mere lie.

“Kahit gaano ka ka-loyal, mahirap sikmurain yung nangyari,” he said.

Roque said there are other witnesses who would corroborate Saliao’s statements.

Meanwhile, the lawyer asked public prosecutors to file a petition before the Supreme Court to make Solis-Reyes’ court a special court in order to hasten the procedures.

This way, Solis Reyes will only focus on this one particular case, he said.

It is expected that the trial will take years.

Both the prosecution and defense want to present some 500 witnesses, combined.

Saliao will again take the witness stand on September 15. He will also be cross-examined by the defense team.

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Douglas Bruce Not In Contempt But Must Testify

2010-09-08T11:59:00.002-06:00

DENVER (AP) ― A judge ruled Tuesday that anti-tax activist Douglas Bruce won't be held in contempt of court for not testifying in a lawsuit about tax-cutting ballot measures, but he will have to answer questions about them.

Denver District Judge Brian Whitney rejected the Colorado attorney general's request to hold Bruce in contempt after state officials tried and repeatedly failed to serve him with a subpoena.

Government lawyers argued that the author of Colorado's Taxpayer's Bill of Rights illegally avoided answering questions about three proposals on the November ballot. Bruce has said he has nothing to do with those measures and was out of state when state officials tried to subpoena him.

Bruce wrote a 1992 constitutional amendment that limits government spending and taxing in Colorado.

Although he wasn't found in contempt of court, Bruce was ordered to appear for a deposition within three weeks to answer questions about his involvement with the initiatives: Amendments 60 and 61 and Proposition 101.

The Denver Post reports that Bruce's attorney, David Lane, said his client will likely fight any attempt to make him testify about his stances on the measures. Lane said inquiring about those activities would violate Bruce's First Amendment right to associate politically with whom he pleases.

"Douglas Bruce is not obligated to set forth any of his political beliefs," Lane said after the court hearing. "His life doesn't become an open book."

The secretary of state's office wanted Bruce to testify earlier this year in an administrative case looking into who is financing the three ballot measures. The initiatives would limit the ability of local and state governments to borrow and spend money.

A Colorado administrative court ruled in June that Bruce helped get the proposals on the ballot and that three other people involved should have disclosed their contributions. Those three people were fined $2,000 each for not reporting their contributions but Bruce wasn't.

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UNC DT Marvin Austin Hit With Subpoena

2010-09-07T10:11:00.002-06:00

As UNC football recovers from a thrilling but disappointing debut against LSU and prepares for the upcoming showdown with Georgia Tech, defensive tackle Marvin Austin continues to come under scrutiny for his contact with agents.

Investigators from the office of N.C. Secretary of State Elaine Marshall subpoenaed Austin last week as part of their investigation into the sports agents around the program and potential violations of state laws governing agents. Marshall’s office has not commented other than to say that the investigation is ongoing.

Austin was indefinitely suspended from the UNC football team last week for an unspecified violation of team rules. In a press release from the football program, head coach Butch Davis said that Austin had “neglected his responsibilities to the team.”

The press release stressed that the suspension was not linked to the NCAA investigations into the football program.

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Process Server Undone by Bing Security's Pick and Roll

2010-09-03T10:40:00.003-06:00

They say close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.

And it certainly doesn't matter when you are trying to serve Mayor Dave Bing with a lawsuit.

Christian Pomroy, the owner of At Your Service Document Delivery, told the City Hall Insider that, after two months of trying to serve Bing a lawsuit from a jilted Bing Group supplier he got close enough today to touch Bing. It happened outside the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center on the Randolph side where city officials park.

"I told him, 'Mayor Bing, I am a big fan,' and then I shook his hand," said Pomroy, who then told Bing his name and asked if he could take the lawsuit.

"No, not at this time," Bing replied, according to Pomroy, before security shooed him away in a nifty moving screen that would have made Bing's Piston teammates proud.

Pomroy has tried multiple times at City Hall and the Bing Group's former offices to serve the lawsuit from Parts Finishing Group in Auburn Hills, which sued July 13 alleging nearly $37,000 in unpaid bills.

"I should have just dropped it on him," Pomroy said of the missed opportunity.

But that may have been unwise. Bing's security officers are sure to have a short fuse after one of their vehicles this week was found up on four blocks minus the tires.

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FTC Subpoenas 48 Food Companies Regarding Marketing to Kids

2010-09-01T12:15:00.002-06:00

NEW YORK -- The Federal Trade Commission is once again handing out subpoenas to companies who market food to children and teens.

Three years after initially delivering what is technically known as "orders to file special report" to 44 marketers, the FTC last week began sending subpoenas to 48 companies in order to prepare a follow-up to its 120-page report issued in 2008, "Marketing Food to Children and Adolescents: A Review of Industry Expenditures, Activities and Self-Regulation."

"This is a follow-up to measure the effects that self-regulation has had over the last three years," said Carol Jennings, spokeswoman for the FTC's Division of Advertising Practices/Bureau of Consumer Protection. "We are supportive of industry voluntary efforts to limit their marketing to kids and this will see whether more is needed."

Ms. Jennings said the findings will be made available to the public.

A handful of marketers that received subpoenas in 2007 were left off the 2010 list, presumably because they have limited their marketing to children. Twelve companies on this year's list are new, but 36 companies are once again receiving subpoenas -- including Yum Brands, which was called out by FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz in a December 2009 speech in which he said, "Many companies that market heavily to children and teens have yet to join or make a commitment. Why, for instance, hasn't Yum Brands, with its KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut chains, stepped up? Or Chuck E. Cheese and IHOP? Or the marketers of Air Heads and Baby Bottle Pops?"

Calls to Yum Brands were not returned. A spokeswoman for CEC Entertainment Inc., parent company of Chuck E. Cheese, said she could not comment without having seen the subpoena.

Some have speculated that the new round of subpoenas was a prelude to Congressional hearings and possible legislation, but Ms. Jennings refuted that.

"We are not proposing any regulation," she said.

Anthony DiResta, an attorney specializing in advertising, marketing and media at the Washington, D.C.-based firm Manatt Phelps & Phillip, agreed with Ms. Jennings and said he did not see legislation in the future.

"Given the current political climate and the way the polls are suggesting Congress may change after November, I don't see it happening," he said. "In order for Congress to hold hearings or empower the FTC to do anything close to rule-making, that would require a very, very progressive and activist legislative effort. I just don't think right now that's in the winds."

But Mr. DiResta, a former director of the FTC's Southeast Regional Office, did say that marketing food products to children very much remains on the FTC's radar.

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Judge Squashes Cuccinelli Subpoena of U-Va. Records

2010-08-31T10:24:00.003-06:00

An Albemarle County Circuit Court judge has set aside a subpoena issued by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to the University of Virginia seeking documents related to the work of climate scientist and former university professor Michael Mann.

Judge Paul M. Peatross Jr. ruled that Cuccinelli can investigate whether fraud has occurred in university grants, as the attorney general had contended, but ruled that Cuccinelli's subpoena failed to state a "reason to believe" that Mann had committed fraud.

The ruling is a major blow for Cuccinelli, a global warming skeptic who had maintained that he was investigating whether Mann committed fraud in seeking government money for research that showed that the earth has experienced a rapid, recent warming. Mann, now at Penn State University, worked at U-Va. until 2005.

According to Peatross, the Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act, under which the civil investigative demand was issued, requires that the attorney general include an "objective basis" to believe that fraud has been committed. Peatross indicates that the attorney general must state the reason so that it can be reviewed by a court, which Cuccinelli failed to do.

Peatross set the subpoena aside without prejudice, meaning Cuccinelli could give the subpoena another try by rewriting the civil demand to better explain the conduct he wishes to investigate. But the judge seemed skeptical of Cuccinelli's underlying claim about Mann, noting that Cuccinelli's deputy maintained in a court hearing that the nature of Mann's fraud was described in subsequent court papers in the case.

"The Court has read with care those pages and understands the controversy regarding Dr. Mann's work on the issue of global warming. However, it is not clear what he did was misleading, false or fraudulent in obtaining funds from the Commonwealth of Virginia," Peatross wrote.

Additionally, the judge said Cuccinelli could only ask about one of five grants issued to Mann that the attorney general has been seeking to investigate. That's because the other four involved the use of federal, not state, funds.

In a statement, Cuccinelli said he will take the judge's ruling into account and rewrite the civil investigative demand. Spokesman Brian Gottstein said Cuccinelli is also examining the ruling to decide whether to appeal.

"While this was not an outright ruling in our favor, I am pleased that the judge has agreed with my office on several key legal points and has given us a framework for issuing a new civil investigative demand to get the information necessary to continue our investigation into whether or not fraud has been committed against the commonwealth," he said.

Mann, meanwhile, said he was pleased with the judge's ruling.

"I'm very pleased that the judge has ruled in our favor," he said in a statement. "It is a victory not just for me and the university, but for all scientists who live in fear that they may be subject to a politically-motivated witch hunt when their research findings prove inconvenient to powerful vested interests.

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Employee of Process-Serving Company Indicted

2010-08-26T10:31:00.002-06:00

In a rare action, the office manager of an embattled process serving company was indicted Wednesday on a felony charge of filing a false notary public application with the Nevada secretary of state's office.

The charge is part of a nine-count indictment against Vilisia Coleman in the growing scandal tied to her unlicensed company, On Scene Mediations, which is accused of filing false affidavits of service in Las Vegas Justice Court.

Secretary of State Ross Miller said his notary administrator, Laura Ethridge, has never seen anyone prosecuted criminally for filing a false application during her 21 years overseeing the notary process.

"The fact that we were able to bring forward charges is significant," said Miller whose office has assisted Las Vegas police with their investigation of On Scene Mediations. "I believe that this type of notary fraud is relatively common, but undetected. We largely lack the resources to effectively enforce these statutes."

Miller said his office can seek to revoke Coleman's notary appointment, but won't take action until the criminal case concludes.

The eight other charges against the 46-year-old Coleman, which include perjury and filing false court documents, are the same as those in a criminal complaint filed against her earlier this month. That complaint will be dismissed, and Coleman, who is free on bond, will be arraigned in District Court on the new charges on Sept. 1.

The notary charge follows an Aug. 11 Las Vegas Review-Journal story that questioned whether Coleman lied about her criminal past when she filled out her application with the secretary of state. When asked whether she had ever been convicted of a crime of moral turpitude, she checked the "No" box, officials told the newspaper.

But records show that she was sentenced to three years of probation for felony cocaine possession in 2006 and was ordered to undergo drug treatment.

She also has a gross misdemeanor conviction for attempted grand larceny at a Walmart in 2001. In that case, she was charged with violating her two-year probation in 2003 and ordered to spend eight months behind bars at the Clark County Detention Center.

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Virtual Service of Process

2010-08-25T11:59:00.003-06:00

YouTube is going to the Guggenheim, and Twitter and Facebook could be the future avenues for service of process.

Service of process has traditionally been a person to person exchange, a hand delivery of legal documents. Doctors do not make house calls, but lawyers do via sheriffs’ deputies or authorized process servers.

It is not always the easiest job to deliver lawsuits, especially if folks do not want to receive them, even when it is in a person’s best interest to be well-informed. Singapore’s top court is considering use of social media to get the job done. Facebook and Twitter are already serving legal documents in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.

Just as YouTube is trying to grow up into a sophisticated age of arts and culture, social networking sites could become legal avenues of service, finding folks where footwork is less effective.

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Court Server Leaves Gun in Viera Walmart

2010-08-24T10:15:00.003-06:00

After falling ill, a 65-year-old Brevard County court process server left his loaded 9-mm handgun at the sink of a Walmart restroom in Viera on Monday, but the sidearm was secured about a half-hour later without injury to anyone.

According to a report by the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office, Ronald Kostin of Viera, an independent process server, felt sick around 9 a.m. Monday and went into the men’s restroom of the Walmart Supercenter at 8500 N. Wickham Road.

Under a concealed-weapons permit, Kostin carries a silver-and-black Makarov 9-mm, a Hungarian-made weapon most notably used in the former Soviet Union’s military. On Monday, it contained a clip with eight rounds.

“He placed his handgun on the sink in the handicap stall of the men’s restroom,” the case report said. “After he felt better, Mr. Kostin left in a hurry to go serve someone at Kennedy Space Center. He accidentally forgot the gun.”

Kostin drove northward to KSC, where he remembered the weapon and called the Walmart and the sheriff’s office. A manager went into the bathroom and secured the gun more than a half-hour after it was misplaced.

No customers came into contact with the firearm, according to the sheriff’s office.

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Oksana's Lawyers Set To Subpoena Mel Gibson's Ex-Wife

2010-08-19T09:52:00.002-06:00

Oksana Grigorieva's lawyers want to question Mel Gibson's ex-wife Robyn about her claims the Braveheart star was not violent during their marriage, RadarOnline.com has exclusively learned.
Team Oksana is poised to sensationally subpoena Robyn Moore Gibson to appear before a deposition; Robyn, of course, is the same woman who the actor left for the Russian musician after 28 years of marriage.

As RadarOnline.com was first to report, Oksana has told law enforcement that Mel once admitted hurling a television at his former wife.

The actor's ex-girlfriend also said she personally witnessed him hitting his youngest son, Tommy.

The legal move adds yet another twist in the bitter battle between the Mel and Oksana and could result in Robyn being forced into the witness stand to be questioned.

Oksana's legal advisors want to probe Robyn about the sworn affidavit she submitted to the court stating Mel was not ever abusive to her or his children.

"Mel never engaged in any physical abuse of any kind toward me before, during, or after our marriage," Robyn reportedly told the judge overseeing the case.

Robyn's support of Mel raised eyebrows within Oksana's camp who want to question her motivation for doing so, said a source familiar with the case.

She filed for divorce from the Oscar-winning Braveheart star last year, citing irreconcilable differences.

The decision triggered one of Hollywood's most expensive divorces, because the pair reportedly had no pre-nup and she was able to secure half of the star's $850 million fortune.

Robyn, 54, is the mother of Mel's seven children - six of whom are adults.

Specifically Oksana's lawyers want to investigate what supposedly happened during one allegedly brutal confrontation throughout their marriage.

"Mel was telling several times how he threw a TV into her (Robyn) once when they were arguing," a source has claimed.

"Thank god he missed and the TV fell out a second story window."

Oksana also alleges that Mel hit Tommy in the head while at a hockey game at Los Angele's Staples Center two-and-a-half-years ago.

"Oksana told authorities about Mel's 'angry outbursts' toward his own family and friends," said a source familiar with the Mel Gibson investigation.

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Sheriff Won't Serve Himself Summons

2010-08-18T11:15:00.002-06:00

A hearing regarding the validity of Gov. Bob Riley’s appointment for sheriff of Greene County had to be delayed on Tuesday because the man whose qualifications were being questioned didn’t appear.

The plaintiffs contend the reason he was never served a summons to appear was because he didn’t serve himself.

The sheriff’s attorney, however, contends that he never needed to appear in the first place.

George Cook was appointed sheriff of Greene County by the governor on June 18. Three days later, two county residents — current coroner and former interim Sheriff Ronald K. Smith and former County Commissioner Garria Spencer — filed court action to determine whether Riley’s selection complied with state law.

They contend that Riley’s choice was improper because Cook was a Tuscaloosa County resident working as an enforcement agent for the Alabama Beverage Control Board and not a registered Greene County voter at the time of the appointment. That same day, an entire courtroom full of people turned out to agree with them during an organized protest the appointment at the Greene County Courthouse.

Prince Darius Chestnut, who is representing the plaintiffs but also serves as the Greene County Commission’s legal counsel, accused Cook and his legal team on Tuesday of trying to stall the case until at least January 2011, when Cook’s interim role as sheriff ends, and the county’s newly elected sheriff — most likely Jonathan “Joe” Benison, who won the Democratic primary and faces no Republican opposition in the November general election — will take over.

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Johnson and Johnson Discloses More Subpoenas Over Consumer Recalls

2010-08-16T09:58:00.001-06:00

TRENTON, N.J. — Johnson and Johnson disclosed Wednesday that the health products giant has now received multiple subpoenas from federal prosecutors related to repeated recalls of Tylenol and other consumer health products.

The grand jury subpoenas request "documents broadly relating to" both the recent recalls of products made by McNeil Consumer Healthcare and inspections of two of the unit's factories.

One of the plants, in the Philadelphia suburb of Fort Washington, Pa., has been shut down since April due to multiple problems and is expected to remain shut until at least next summer.

The other, in Lancaster, Pa., is operated by a joint venture called Johnson & Johnson/Merck Consumer Pharmaceuticals Co. Food and Drug Administration inspectors noted many severe problems after spending a dozen days there, from not following rules for manufacturing quality to poor record-keeping.

Johnson & Johnson mentioned the grand jury subpoenas, filed by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia, in its quarterly financial filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The disclosure follows one made by a company official on July 20, when J&J reported its second-quarter results, that it had received a single subpoena related to the recalls. J&J gave no details about that subpoena at the time, but said that the recalls and plant closure would cost the company $600 million this year alone.

The maker of Band-Aids, birth control and biotech drugs said it is cooperating with the U.S. Attorney's Office in responding to the subpoenas.

"The company and its subsidiaries are vigorously contesting the allegations asserted against them and otherwise pursuing defenses to maximize the prospect of success," J&J said in the quarterly filing.

Those allegations also include demands for documents from "multiple State Attorneys General Offices relating to the same issues," according to the SEC filing. The filing also noted that multiple lawsuits seeking class-action status have been filed against the company related to the recalls. The company gave no further details.

Company officials declined further comment.

Patricia Hartman, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney in Philadelphia, said she could neither confirm nor deny any investigation.

New Brunswick, N.J.-based J&J has been under scrutiny by Congress, FDA officials and others for eight recalls since September covering tens of millions of bottles of pain reliever Tylenol and other popular nonprescription medicines. That includes some liquid medicines for children.

The series of recalls covered products made at the Fort Washington plant and another in Las Piedras, Puerto Rico. They have involved problems ranging from contamination with bacteria and a nauseating smell on containers to possible problems with the wrong amount of active ingredient and liquid medicines that may contain tiny metal shavings.

In May, an FDA official told Congress the agency had turned the case over to its Office of Criminal Investigations. No one has been charged.

The Fort Washington factory makes nonprescription pain relievers, allergy medicine, sleeping pills and heartburn tablets. The recalled products include liquid Tylenol for infants and children, Tylenol arthritis caplets, Motrin, Benadryl, Rolaids, St. Joseph's aspirin and Simply Sleep.

The manager of the Fort Washington plant has since been fired, 300 of the 400 workers there will lose their jobs shortly and the fiasco led Johnson & Johnson to sharply reduce its 2010 profit forecast.

Then a July 21 FDA report on inspections at the Lancaster, Pa., factory in the past month indicates a pattern of ignoring rules for manufacturing and quality, failure to investigate problems that could affect the composition of products, carelessness in cleaning and maintaining equipment, and shoddy record-keeping. In some cases, medicine batches made during equipment failures were not checked for quality. That factory makes nonprescription heartburn medicines Mylanta and Pepcid, plus Imodium for diarrhea.

In trading Wednesday, shares fell down 93 cents, or 1.6 percent, to $58.50, as the broader markets also declined.

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Probe to Focus on how Felon Became Notary, Process Server

2010-08-11T09:50:00.002-06:00

Vilisia Coleman is a felon, but that didn't stop the second suspect arrested in a growing Clark County court scandal from becoming a state-approved notary public and unlicensed process server.

State regulators are investigating how Coleman slipped under the radar.

Coleman, 46, who police say was a process server and office manager for On Scene Mediations, the unlicensed company at the center of the scandal, was sentenced to three years of probation for felony cocaine possession in 2006 and ordered to undergo drug treatment, records show.

She also has a gross misdemeanor conviction for attempted grand larceny at a local Walmart in 2001, records show.

In that case, she was charged with violating her two-year probation in 2003 and ordered to spend eight months behind bars at the Clark County Detention Center.

Coleman, back in custody Tuesday, is now charged in what authorities call a sweeping scheme to file false court affidavits that allowed payday loan and debt collection companies to get default judgments in Las Vegas Justice Court.

Also charged is Maurice Carroll, 41, a former Las Vegas police officer who owns On Scene Mediations. He is free on $35,000 bond.

Because of her criminal history, Coleman by law cannot receive a notary appointment from the state or be a licensed process server.

But Secretary of State Ross Miller said Coleman obtained a notary appointment from his office in June 2009. When she applied to become a notary, she filled out a form that asked if she had ever been convicted of a crime of moral turpitude. She checked the "No" box, said Miller, who has ordered an investigation.

He would not discuss his investigation further but said state agents have spoken with Las Vegas police, who are spearheading the criminal investigation.

Miller said that in November 2009, several months after Coleman received her notary appointment, she reported to Las Vegas police that her notary stamp had been stolen. He said Coleman got a new stamp from his office in January, and the old stamp never surfaced.

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White House Gate Crashers Served With Court Papers

2010-08-09T09:42:00.002-06:00

'Real Housewives of DC' star Michaele Salahi and her husband were presented with court papers from PR firm Brotman-Winter-Fried Communications during their own private party Thursday at EFN nightclub, The Washington Post reports.

The company alleges the White House gate crashers owe more than $15,000 in unpaid fees from a 2008 polo event. "It was an affidavit for debtors interrogatory," Steve Winter, president of BWF, said (via RadarOnline.)

"It means they'll have to appear in court to discuss their financial means -- how they are capable of paying off the debt."According to one BWF employee, when Michaele's husband was handed the documents and dropped them on the floor.

When the process server tried to deliver them again, Tareq dropped the papers a second time and called security.Last week, Salahi accused Whoopi Goldberg of manhandling her during 'The View.'

Goldberg confronted the D.C. housewife backstage, using obscene language to drive home her disgust."I think I started crying," Salahi said on NBC's 'Today' on Thursday, "because now I have someone that I don't even know, I'm a guest of their show, and they're berating me" with expletives.

When Wednesday's broadcast was over, Goldberg said, "I was told that she thought I hit her. So I went up to her and I told her that she KNEW I didn't hit her. And yeah, you know how I said it: choice words."During the ruckus, Salahi's husband began filming the scene with his cell phone.

"Needless to say, I really went off, then. And there was even more, choicer words. I mean, they were so choice you could have cut'em with a knife and eaten them," Goldberg added.

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Subpoena for Toyota Over Defects in Steering

2010-08-06T08:27:00.001-06:00

A federal grand jury in New York has subpoenaed Toyota Motor, seeking information on steering-related defects in its vehicles. The move could widen an investigation into the automaker’s handling of a recall in 2005.

In a short filing on Tuesday with the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Toyota said the subpoena, received by subsidiaries in the United States on June 29, had demanded documents about defects in steering relay rods in the company’s cars.

Toyota intended to “cooperate earnestly” with investigations, the filing said. Toyota had already received two subpoenas this year, one from a grand jury in February for documents related to sudden acceleration and braking and one from the Michigan attorney general in March for information on recalls.

It was not immediately clear what defects — or which models or production years — the latest subpoena concerned. Ririko Takeuchi, a spokeswoman for Toyota based in Tokyo, said the automaker was still clarifying details of the subpoena.

Earlier this year, American regulators said they were investigating a 2005 Toyota recall — for a steering-related problem in vehicles including 4Runners — in connection with a possible breach of rules for alerting the authorities about flaws.

The Transportation Department said in May that it was investigating the timing of the September 2005 recall for steering relay rod defects after an October 2004 recall in Japan for the same flaw. Under American law, carmakers have five days to report safety problems to regulators.

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Subpoenas Continue For Terri Horman's Friends

2010-08-04T10:33:00.003-06:00

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Another friend of Terri Horman has been subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury this week as the investigation into 7-year-old Kyron Horman's disappearance reached its 61st day.

Chelsea Aleshire, who identified herself as a close friend to Terri Horman, said she will appear in court Thursday. Aleshire spoke to Terri Horman on the day Kyron disappeared from Skyline School, but at the time they spoke, Aleshire was not aware that Kyron was missing, she said.

She has not spoken to Terri Horman since then, she said.

Aleshire is at least the second of Terri Horman's friends to have been subpoenaed. Eight days ago, DeDe Spicher appeared before the grand jury. Sources have said Spicher did not answer any questions. Kyron's birth parents, Kaine Horman and Desiree Young, have suggested she's not cooperating with the investigators.

Jim McIntyre, a former prosecutor and criminal defense attorney who is not involved in the case, said the grand jury is a tool for investigators to question people under oath.

"In Oregon, you can talk to police officers all day long and as long as you're not providing them with false information about date of birth, you can lie. And it's not a crime," McIntyre said. "But put somebody in front of a grand jury and put them under oath, then if they start to lie, there starts to be some serious consequences."

In Multnomah County, McIntyre said grand juries are comprised of seven people selected from the jury pool. They listen to witness testimony and can issue an indictment if at least five of the seven agree.The grand jury proceedings are secret, and details about the subject of discussion are unknown.

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Arrest Warrant Issued for Process Server

2010-08-02T10:04:00.003-06:00

LAS VEGAS -- An arrest warrant has been issued for a process server accused of falsifying paperwork in dozens of cases and potentially hundreds more, in what police called a scheme to defraud the courts.

Former Las Vegas Metro police officer Maurice Carroll is wanted by police for 35 counts of perjury, false filing of paperwork and obtaining money under false pretenses. Metro says he said he served people with legal papers, but didn't.

Carroll runs On Scene Mediations out of a North Las Vegas home. The criminal complaint said he admitted to officers he lied on affidavits and falsified work. That has caused problems in an unknown number of cases at the Regional Justice Center and potentially in District Court.

Defendants lost cases because they had not been notified could try to overturn judgments.

One of those already going through that trouble is Alan Wood. He's racked up $20,000 fighting what amounted to be a $700 charge for a medical bill. All it seems because of improper paperwork.

The fallout even reached his work. "My payroll department called me one day and said, 'Hey, you know, we just got a judgment and a garnishment against you,' and I said, 'That's impossible. I've never been to court,'" he said.

These mistakes can continue until keen-eyed workers at the court sort through the hundreds of old and pending cases trying to see if Carroll's firm had anything to do with them.

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Process Server was Cited by State Investigators

2010-07-30T11:31:00.005-06:00

State investigators in 2003 cited former Las Vegas police officer Maurice Carroll for operating as a process server without a license, but he did not appear on their radar again until a couple of months ago, when justices of the peace complained about his activities.

Las Vegas police are now investigating allegations that Carroll's latest process serving company, On Scene Mediations, submitted false affidavits in justice courts around the valley, potentially disrupting the lives and finances of thousands of civil case defendants.

On Scene Mediations is alleged to have filed affidavits swearing that it served defendants with copies of lawsuits, but in many cases the lawsuits were not served, police said. That resulted in judgments of default against some defendants because they failed to respond to the lawsuits in a timely manner.

The company's clients include widely known payday loan and debt collecting firms.

Police suspect that Carroll, 42, who left the police department in 2000 after roughly 10 years on the job, has been an unlicensed process server since 2003, but they said they have yet to substantiate their suspicions.

Mechele Ray, executive director of the Nevada Private Investigators License Board, said agency investigators issued Carroll a $2,500 citation in late 2003 after receiving a complaint that he wasn't licensed. The citation, approved by board members in March 2004, ordered Carroll to stop doing business, she said.

But Ray acknowledged that the agency has no record of any other action against Carroll until the Las Vegas justices of the peace complained about him in May.

The board now has an ongoing investigation of Carroll, she said.

Court officials said they don't know the scope of the problems On Scene Mediations created for Southern Nevada's courts, but police estimated thousands of cases could be affected. Records show that Carroll's company, which was run out of his North Las Vegas home, was doing about $50,000 in business a month, police said.

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Living by the Goldman Rule

2010-07-28T10:32:00.002-06:00

What profiteth the man who loses honor while reaping gold? Plenty!

As in that new Gulfstream fast enough to outrun the process server. And the house in Montecito, Calif., with walls high enough you can’t hear the howling do-gooder mob outside.

Sure, we want the respect of the world — as long as it doesn’t mean giving up bonuses as big as the gross national product of a Baltic republic for nothing more than showing up to collect the check. Such are the elements of the philosophy we call the Goldman rule. And if you want to keep collecting those bonuses, you ought to practice it every day.

Do unto yourself as you would have others do unto you: That’s the gist. Or, in simple Goldman terms, look out for ol’ No. 1. Treat everybody exactly the way you suspect they would treat you if the tables were turned. For example, no backstabbing — unless you sense somebody’s about to backstab you, which allows you to wield the dagger first, because, come on people, how can you follow the Goldman rule if you’re dead?

By the way, you don’t really have to lose respect while reaping gold. You do just like the U.S. does in Afghanistan and buy it. Goldman guy walks into a room: palpable contempt. Goldman guy walks into a room and starts throwing around Rolex Oysters: palpable respect!

Thus, you can feel free to grab that obscene year-end bonus for yourself while blocking everybody else. Think about it: A great virtue of the Goldman rule is that you can. It’s actually humane. If you were in their tax bracket, you’d want to be spared all the tax problems, the estate-planning headaches and the media carping over huge windfalls that followed, resulting in public humiliation for your loved ones.

If you have loved ones. And if you do, you’re obviously spending too much time out of the office, betraying Goldman rule small-type disclaimer Q-556-9A: “If you can’t do the time, don’t expect Goldman to cover up the crime.”

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Town Upset with Process Server

2010-07-26T09:49:00.003-06:00

FRONT ROYAL -- Town officials are upset with the way defendants in a $30 million lawsuit were served their notices during a Town Council work session.

"I don't know how else to describe it, [the process server] was slapping the copies [of the lawsuit] down on the table, just plopping the copies of the lawsuit to the named defendants and to me, which was of course to serve the town," Town Attorney Thomas R. Robinett said of the Monday session.

"I think he did, if not disrupt, he certainly interrupted an ongoing meeting of the council," Robinett said. "In other words, all they had done was vote to close the meeting and therefore to clear the room. Their meeting was ongoing and continuing at the time he decided it was time to serve process, and various folks started snapping pictures and running video cameras and whatever."

The town and three councilmen are defendants in the $30 million defamation suit that is related to an allegation involving whether Town Manager J. Michael Graham was offered what could be construed as a bribe during the bidding process for the construction of a solar energy farm.

On Thursday, David W. Silek, of the Manassas law firm of Ours & Silek, filed the lawsuit in Warren County Circuit Court on behalf of SolAVerde LLC, Donald F. Poe and Gregory A. Horton.

In addition to the town, the defendants in the lawsuit are Vice Mayor Chris W. Holloway and Councilmen Carson C. Lauder Jr. and Thomas H. Sayre.

Silek says Horton and Poe are partners in SolAVerde. Horton is the owner of Arctic Air Refrigeration Inc. in Front Royal, and Poe operates a local construction business, Silek says, adding there could possibly be other defendants added to the lawsuit.

Silek had informed The Northern Virginia Daily prior to Monday's meeting that he was going to have the defendants served at that time.

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Use of Private Process Servers Is Up; Concern Is, Too

2010-07-23T09:44:00.002-06:00

When Frank Knight fell behind on his house payments in 2008 and the mortgage lender began a foreclosure case, a process server said he handed Mr. Knight the court papers at his bungalow on Chicago’s Northwest Side.

But public records show that at the time the server said Mr. Knight was being served, Mr. Knight was at a job site on the West Side, more than seven miles from his brick home in the Jefferson Park neighborhood.

“He lied on his affidavit,” Mr. Knight said this week. “I just feel like they were trying to foreclose upon me and my family as fast as possible. Why? So the bank could get their hands on this property, so they could turn it around.”

The man responsible for hand-delivering the foreclosure papers to Mr. Knight’s home is a special process server, an employee of a private detective agency. In the summer of 2007, with the housing bubble bursting and the number of foreclosure cases soaring, a Cook County judge issued an order making it easier for mortgage-foreclosure lawyers to hire special process servers to do what otherwise would be carried out by Cook County sheriff’s deputies, according to records reviewed by the Chicago News Cooperative and the Better Government Association.

The process server in Mr. Knight’s case was Timothy McWard, who said he did not recall the case. But Mr. McWard said he has served more than 20,000 legal documents in the past five years and the papers are “always given to somebody,” he said. “They will say whatever they can to save their house.”

A lawsuit filed last week in federal court in Chicago is challenging the practice, saying it is a violation of state and federal law for the judge to allow freer use of special process servers. The lawyer for David L. Washington, the foreclosed property owner who is the plaintiff in the suit, said he hoped to convert the case into a class-action suit that would void tens of thousands of foreclosure cases handled by special process servers in recent years.

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Town Upset with Process Server

2010-07-22T08:25:00.002-06:00

FRONT ROYAL -- Town officials are upset with the way defendants in a $30 million lawsuit were served their notices during a Town Council work session.
"I don't know how else to describe it, [the process server] was slapping the copies [of the lawsuit] down on the table, just plopping the copies of the lawsuit to the named defendants and to me, which was of course to serve the town," Town Attorney Thomas R. Robinett said of the Monday session.
"I think he did, if not disrupt, he certainly interrupted an ongoing meeting of the council," Robinett said. "In other words, all they had done was vote to close the meeting and therefore to clear the room. Their meeting was ongoing and continuing at the time he decided it was time to serve process, and various folks started snapping pictures and running video cameras and whatever."
The town and three councilmen are defendants in the $30 million defamation suit that is related to an allegation involving whether Town Manager J. Michael Graham was offered what could be construed as a bribe during the bidding process for the construction of a solar energy farm.
On Thursday, David W. Silek, of the Manassas law firm of Ours & Silek, filed the lawsuit in Warren County Circuit Court on behalf of SolAVerde LLC, Donald F. Poe and Gregory A. Horton.
In addition to the town, the defendants in the lawsuit are Vice Mayor Chris W. Holloway and Councilmen Carson C. Lauder Jr. and Thomas H. Sayre.
Silek says Horton and Poe are partners in SolAVerde. Horton is the owner of Arctic Air Refrigeration Inc. in Front Royal, and Poe operates a local construction business, Silek says, adding there could possibly be other defendants added to the lawsuit.
Silek had informed The Northern Virginia Daily prior to Monday's meeting that he was going to have the defendants served at that time.

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Grand jury subpoenas Lance Armstrong sponsor Trek in cycling drug probe

2010-07-19T10:13:00.002-06:00

A federal grand jury investigating possible doping conspiracies in cycling has issued a subpoena for documents to the Trek Bicycle Corporation, the Wisconsin-based bike manufacturer that sponsored Lance Armstrong's cycling teams since 1998, according to a person with knowledge of the investigation.

The grand jury's investigation coincides with the recent confession of performance-enhancing drug use by Armstrong's former teammate Floyd Landis, who alleged that Armstrong, other top riders, and team leaders were complicit in doping practices on the U.S. Postal Service cycling team in 2002, 2003 and 2004.

Federal grand juries, which convene in secrecy, have the power to issue subpoenas for documents, witness testimony, or both. According to a Daily News source close to the case, testimony subpoenas have not yet been issued.

Bill Mashek, a spokesman for Trek, said the company would not comment on an ongoing federal investigation, and sent the Daily News a statement from the company.

"Trek will not comment on whether or not it has been contacted by federal investigators; however, if contacted, the company would fully cooperate in an investigation," the statement said.

Earlier this month The Wall Street Journal quoted Landis saying Armstrong's team sold high-end racing bikes to finance an sophisticated doping program that included blood transfusions and performance-enhancing drug use. Armstrong has strenuously denied all allegations that he doped on his way to Tour de France victories. His attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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Melissa Etheridge Was Expecting a Call From the Kids, Got Served Instead

2010-07-16T12:04:00.002-06:00

A process server didn't come to Melissa Etheridge's window, but his arrival at the door of her hotel room wasn't particularly welcome, either.

"In a ploy to have me served, and mistakenly believing that by serving me I would have to dismiss my Petition, [Tammy Lynn Michaels] used our children as pawns," Etheridge states in a declaration released Thursday in which she describes how she was presented with her ex's petition for sole custody of their 3-year-old twins.

The Grammy and Oscar winner says Michaels told her the kids were going to meet Etheridge at her hotel. "Finally, I received a text message...stating, 'My plans changed, sorry,'" the singer recounts.

View the documents.

Etheridge offered up this custody-battle fodder as part of a filing objecting to Michaels' request for more spousal support, plus $4,300 in monthly child-support payments so that the former Popular actress—who says she has no income at this time—can afford childcare while she's out working.

Among the monthly expenses Michaels lists in her latest court filing are $6,000 for rent, $1,500 for groceries, $800 for eating out and $50 for laundry and cleaning. Plus, she's used to spending $5,000 a month on clothes.

Etheridge makes between $600,000 and $750,000 a month, Michaels claims—more than enough to fork over more dough.

But Etheridge, who stated in her petition to dissolve their domestic partnership that she wants to share custody of daughter Johnnie Rose and son Miller, isn't biting.

Her lawyer told a judge Monday that his client has been giving Michaels $2,000 a month and paying all of her household expenses.

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Scottsdale Asking Judge for Alternative Measure to Serve Alleged Speeders, Red-Light Runners

2010-07-14T10:14:00.003-06:00

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- The city of Scottsdale is looking at giving process servers some additional power when it comes to serving residents with red-light-running or speeding tickets.

In a move designed to crack down on people who ignore those tickets, the city is asking a judge for permission to run an alternative measure to serve alleged offenders.

Right now a process server has to make actual physical contact with a person in order to serve him or her with a summons.

If the judge approves the city's request, process servers who have made three attempts to serve a summons will be allowed to leave a court date at the driver's home address without any signatures. The alleged offender would be required to appear in court on that date and proceedings would then move forward from there.

Missing that court date would result in a suspended driver license.

Attorneys Christopher Corso and John Rhude of the Peoria law firm Corso & Rhude are challenging Scottsdale's proposed serving process, saying "it will set a dangerous precedent."

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Served Legal Papers

2010-07-12T09:41:00.003-06:00

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg apparently received a side dish of legal papers with his lunch while at a media lunch event on Saturday in Idaho.

According to an article in the NY Post, he was sitting with COO Sheryl Sandberg when someone approached their table, asked for Zuckerberg's signature and stated, "You've been served."

What the lawsuit is about is not clear. The NY Post indicates that a Facebook spokeswoman had "no immediate details" about the lawsuit.

Zack Whittaker, who writes the iGeneration blog on ZDNet posted some updated information on the situation on Sunday.

I spoke to ZDNet blogger Denise Howell, a qualified lawyer in regards to this to try and get a better perspective of this issue ... Howell said, "Long story short, the law specifies ‘personal service’ for things like a summons and complaint or a subpoena ... Service by ambush like this is something more the province of collection actions against deadbeats, not captains of industry in Sun Valley. Seems like there’s some kind of embarrassment-related agenda at work here perhaps.”

Hard to say what the alleged lawsuit is about but the facts behind it are likely to surface over the next few days. After all, there's nothing faster than the social media grapevine.

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Wisconsin Department of Justice Settles Grievance with Agent Accused of Harrasing Process Server

2010-07-09T09:47:00.002-06:00

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - A state Justice Department agent accused of harassing a process server has settled a grievance with the agency.

Special Agent Gilbert Magolan was suspended for 30 work days in March. Magolan appealed the violation.

Magolan on Tuesday agreed to drop his appeal. DOJ in return reduced his suspension to 30 calendar days and agreed to reimburse him for eight days of lost wages.

According to agency documents, a process server complained Magolan was harassing him after he tried to serve Magolan with a lawsuit over a dentist bill. Magolan improperly used a DOJ fax machine to send a complaint about the server to state licensing officials and improperly persuaded a police officer to find the server's address through the National Crime Information Center.

A spokeswoman for the Wisconsin Professional Employees Council, the union that represents DOJ agents, didn't immediately return messages.

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Lindsay Lohan Had "F*** U" On Fingernail In Court

2010-07-07T10:07:00.003-06:00

Los Angeles, CA, United States (AHN) - So was all the crying and begging and pleading just part of the show? Lindsay Lohan was spotted with a "f*** u" written on her middle fingernail the entire time she was in court Tuesday.

Just before she was sentenced to 90 days in jail, Lohan, 24, made the impassioned plea to Judge Martha Revel to go easy on her, saying that she has done everything that the court expected of her.

However, WWTDD.com has discovered that the sometime actress had "f*** u" written on her left hand middle fingernail, which was pointed toward Revel for most of the day. It begs the question whether her whole "I am not taking this as a joke" speech was sincere.

There's more trouble for Lohan, who allegedly received a punch from a waitress when she was celebrating her 24th birthday during the weekend. According to TMZ, she was served with legal papers in a civil lawsuit while she was in the courtroom elevator.

Lohan was on her way to the courtroom when a process server working for Tough As Nails attempted to hand her the legal documents. The process server said she "freaked out" and told people around her to get the guy out of the elevator. She would not take the papers so the process server dropped them on the elevator floor by her feet.

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War Crimes Court Orders Naomi Campbell to Testify

2010-07-06T10:33:00.004-06:00

(CNN) -- A war crimes tribunal served a subpoena on supermodel Naomi Campbell Thursday, ordering her to testify in the trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor.

The court ordered her to appear July 29 to testify or "show good cause why" she cannot.

If she fails to comply she could face a prison term of up to seven years, a fine of about $500, or both, the subpoena says.

Campbell's lawyer, Gideon Benaim, had no immediate response, his secretary said.

Prosecutors asked the court in May to order the supermodel to testify about allegations she got a "blood diamond" from Taylor, and requested permission to reopen their case against him.

The court granted both requests this week.

Read the subpoena -- PDF

Taylor faces war crimes charges over a brutal conflict in Sierra Leone which was fueled by rough diamonds, also known as blood diamonds or conflict diamonds.

The prosecution -- which rested in February of last year -- asked to reopen their case specifically in order to call Campbell, as well as actress Mia Farrow and a witness named Carole Taylor, court papers show.

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Anti-tax advocate served with subpoena

2010-07-02T09:28:00.002-06:00

DENVER — Colorado Attorney General John Suthers finally got his man.

Suthers' spokesman Mike Saccone said Tuesday that process servers located anti-tax activist Douglas Bruce and served him with a citation for contempt of court after trying more than 30 times to serve him with a subpoena.

Denver District Court Judge Brian Whitney ruled there is evidence that Bruce flouted the law. He ordered Bruce to show up July 26 for a hearing.

Bruce said he was never properly served.

"I did nothing wrong, that's the upshot, because I was never served. The judge has already found me guilty, he's already made up his mind. This is America, and Douglas Bruce has rights to due process of law," Bruce said.

Bruce was in court Tuesday fighting a subpoena ordering him to appear before a grand jury in an unrelated case, but Saccone said he didn't know when or where process servers found Bruce.

Kathleen Walsh, spokesman for the district attorney's office, said Bruce was ordered to show up Wednesday to testify before the grand jury. She said the grand jury proceedings are secret and she refused to disclose why Bruce was called to testify.

The judge denied a motion by Bruce to quash the two subpoenas for the grand jury after Bruce contended they weren't valid because one was unsigned and the other didn't provide sufficient notice.

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Goldman More Open Since Subpoena, F.C.I.C. Says

2010-06-30T11:18:00.003-06:00

Goldman Sachs has changed its tune, becoming more responsive to information requests from the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission since being subpoenaed, the heads of the F.C.I.C. said Tuesday, according to a report from Bloomberg News.

The investment bank has also made its chief, Lloyd C. Blankfein, available for an interview, Phil Angelides, the chairman of the F.C.I.C., and the deputy chairman, Bill Thomas, said during a conference call with reporters.

Last month, the commission investigating the causes of the financial crisis subpoenaed Goldman Sachs and accused the investment bank of trying to delay and disrupt its inquiry.

“Goldman Sachs has not, in our view, been cooperative with our requests for information, or forthcoming with respect to documents, information or interviews,” Mr. Angelides said at the time.

However on Tuesday, Mr. Thomas said: “I have no question that we will get it in a timely matter now.”

As for the bank’s chief, Mr. Angelides said that Mr. Blankfein had been interviewed “at length” recently by commission staff.

In June, the commission harshly rebuked Goldman Sachs for what its said were delay tactics.

“They may have more to cover up than either we thought or than they told us,” Mr. Thomas said at the time.

Mr. Angelides and Mr. Thomas accused Goldman of inundating the panel with data — about five terabytes, equivalent to several billion printed pages — and dragging its feet on answering detailed questions about derivatives, securitization and other business activities.

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GOP Pounces After Democratic Candidate’s Subpoena In Blagojevich Trial

2010-06-28T10:07:00.002-06:00

Chicago, IL, United States (AHN) – Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias has been subpoenaed by lawyers of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich to testify during the former governor’s corruption trial.

Giannoulias told the Chicago Tribune on Sunday that he introduced a union official to Valerie Jarrett, White House senior advisor and presidential assistant for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement.

Jarrett is believed to have been President Barack Obama’s choice for the Senate seat he vacated when he won the presidency. Blagojevich is accused of trying to sell his appointment to the seat, which Giannoulias is seeking in the November election against Rep. Mark Kirk.

Federal wiretaps played last week at the trial had Blagojevich’’s former chief of staff, John Harris, saying that Giannoulias had called him about the Senate appointment. Giannoulias told the Tribune he called to recommend Jarrett, a close friend of the Obamas, for the seat, but that he had not acted on the president’s behalf.

Republicans have been emphasizing Giannoulias’ ties to Blagojevich, who is a Democrat, in hopes of diverting attention away from Kirk’s “overstatements” about his military record. They point out that Giannoulias previously claimed Blagojevich’s staff had “reached out” to him about the vacant seat.

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Vacationing Ex-CEO Tierney Seeks to Dodge Subpoena

2010-06-25T10:47:00.003-06:00

Philadelphia Newspapers LLC is trying to get former Chief Executive Brian P. Tierney out of testifying at the company’s Chapter 11 plan-confirmation hearing, which began Thursday.

The company, which publishes the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News, said in bankruptcy-court papers that Tierney is not required to appear in part because the subpoena was not delivered to him but was instead delivered to his niece.

“The attempted service was made by handing a copy of the subpoena to Mr. Tierney’s niece who was at Mr. Tierney’s residence while he was in Europe, traveling with his family,” company attorneys said.

That attempt was a violation of court rules that require “personal service of subpoenas,” they said.

In addition, Tierney doesn’t plan to return to the U.S. until Monday evening, the day the three-day hearing is scheduled to conclude.

“Requiring Mr. Tierney to testify…would be unduly burdensome,” the company said.

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John Edwards Hiding From Process Server?

2010-06-23T10:17:00.005-06:00

John Edwards is a wanted man. Specifically, by the hapless legal courier who for the past few weeks has been trying to serve him with court papers to compel him to give a sworn deposition in the lawsuit his mistress, Rielle Hunter, filed against his former aide, Andrew Young.

"Let us know if you find him," chortles Young's attorney, Robert "Hoppy" Elliot. "Because we've been looking for him all over the place!"

Elliot and his team have company. Since surfacing in January, when he went to Haiti in the wake of the devastating earthquake, John Edwards has literally disappeared from the national scene. Over the past two months, he receded even further, becoming a ghost even around the Research Triangle of North Carolina, which he calls home. Few of the people who worked for him as a presidential candidate have heard from him, and not even his lawyers return reporters' repeated phone calls. (They also refuse to accept the deposition subpoena on behalf of their client.)

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Service of Process Through Email? Closer than we thought?

2010-06-22T11:01:00.000-06:00

Civil procedure rules require that plaintiffs notify defendants of the lawsuits filed against them; this is called “service of process.” Traditionally, service of process is done through personal service; this means, by delivering a copy of the lawsuit to the defendant’s residency or place of business. Given the increasing use of electronic communications nowadays and the proliferation of online businesses, could service of process be accomplished through e-mail? Various United States courts have already entertained this question, and some have denied the possibility that defendants be served through the use of e-mail, while others have allowed service by e-mail. This article provides examples of two district court decisions regarding service of process through e-mail.

The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure establish that individuals and corporations may be served “following state law for serving a summons . . . in the state where the district court is located." Fed. R. Civ. P. 4(e)(1), (h)(1)(A). Thus, state rules determine how plaintiffs serve on defendants. When personal service of process cannot be accomplished, plaintiffs usually resort to alternate means to serve defendants as allowed by state law. For instance, under Michigan law, when service of process cannot be made as provided by the civil procedure rules, “the court may allow service of process to be made in any other manner reasonably calculated to give defendant actual notice of the proceedings and an opportunity to be heard.” M.C.R. 2.105(I). This Michigan rule is common to most U.S. states.

Read more here.

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Jaycee Dugard's Biological Father to Petition Court to Avoid "Terror" of Process Server

2010-06-21T10:50:00.004-06:00

Jaycee Dugard's biological father Ken Slayton will hold a news conference with his lawyer Gloria Allred on Friday to respond to a recent highly-critical statement issued by Jaycee's family spokesperson, RadarOnline.com has learned exclusively.

EXCLUSIVE: Jaycee Duggard Hires Celebrity Lawyer Who's Rep'd Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton & O.J. Simpson

Jaycee has no wish to see Slayton according to a statement released by Nancy Seltzer on Wednesday. Seltzer, a long-time Hollywood publicist, represents the Dugard family and contended that Slayton is attempting to petition a court to establish paternity. She said the family wants to avoid the "terror" of a process server.

The Dugard family statement - titled "DNA Does Not A Family Make" - was highly critical of Slayton and asserted that he had shown "no interest" in Jaycee until now. "It is now Jaycee Dugard's turn to express her feelings and she has no interest," the statement read.

EXCLUSIVE: Jewelry Store Flooded With Donations For Jaycee Dugard

Now Slayton, with his high-powered attorney Allred by his side, will respond at 10:30 am PT Friday in Los Angeles. Slayton will address "the Dugard family press statement which affirmed that Mr. Slayton is Jaycee's father, but then attacked him with what he believes are misleading and untrue statements about him and his efforts to establish a relationship with his daughter," he says.

As RadarOnline.com has previously reported, Jaycee was kidnapped by Phil Garrido and held captive for 18 years. Garrido is the father of her two daughters. Jaycee and her daughters

have lived with her biological mother since being rescued last year.

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Louisiana Lawmakers to Subpoena Transocean Officals

2010-06-18T10:25:00.005-06:00

Louisiana senators are issuing a subpoena to Transocean Ltd. officials, trying to get them to appear at a Thursday hearing aimed at getting more details about the oil spill gushing in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Senate Natural Resources Committee decided Tuesday to send the subpoena after Transocean notified the committee that its officials won't be attending the legislative hearing because they'll be in Washington for a congressional hearing.

Sen. Nick Gautreaux, chairman of the committee, says BP and Halliburton will have officials at Thursday's hearing, even though they also will participate in the congressional hearing. Gautreaux says Transocean can do the same.

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Procecss Server Punched by a Cop - Case Dismissed

2010-06-09T10:25:00.000-06:00

The case against a Buffalo police officer accused of punching a process server last October was adjourned in contemplation of dismissal without conditions prior to a scheduled trial Thursday in Lancaster Town Court.

Ann Vanyo, 37, faced a violation harassment count in the alleged attack Oct. 20, when she was served court papers by Raymond Lewandowski. Lewandowski filed a police complaint against Vanyo, alleging she chased him and punched him after he served the papers on her in Lancaster.

Read more here.

Man Avoids Being Served Legal Papers 23 Times

2010-05-24T09:45:00.000-06:00

The Colorado Attorney General's office has made 23 attempts to serve Colorado Springs resident Douglas Bruce with a court order compelling him to testify at a deposition in connection with three campaign-finance complaints.

In a document filed Friday in Denver District Court, the Colorado Attorney General's office maintains that the in-person attempts, as well as notices sent to Bruce by regular mail, express mail, e-mails and newspaper articles, constitute proof of service.

Read more here.

NY City Tightens Screws on Debt Collectors

2010-05-20T10:03:00.000-06:00

In the past 45 days, New York City has adopted two new policies that stand to help residents counter unlawful debt collection practices. But advocates say very little is being done to penalize the debt collectors who for years have broken pre-existing laws.

The majority of the 300,000 New Yorkers sued annually for bad debt have their wages garnished and bank accounts emptied on fraudulent grounds, after their debt collectors don't take suitable steps to notify them they are being sued, said Johnson Tyler, an attorney for South Brooklyn Legal Services who helps low-income people fight illegal debt collection.

The Department of Consumer Affairs has received 2,667 debt collection complaints in the past three years, according to a fact sheet the department displayed at a press conference this week.
In some cases, the Bloomberg administration has helped debtors ensnared by bad collectors get restitution for their losses. In the past three years, DCA restored $4.2 million in wrongful debt, charging back on average $1,559 per violating company, according to the fact sheet.

The New York attorney general's office is seeking restitution for other debtors and DCA has forced some violating companies to pay fines or surrender their licenses. Between January 2008 and March 2010, at least 32 paid a median fine of $300, according to testimony given by Tyler. During that time, at least 11 had their licenses revoked.

Some advocates feel that civil penalties like those may not be enough.

"Sometimes a slap on the hands is not enough to make them reform their practices," Carolyn Coffey, co-author of a 2008 report analyzing debt collector's abuse of the court system. "If they have to pay a fine, sometimes they see that as the cost of doing business, a criminal charge, that's something different."

But few of the business owners who have for years flouted pre-existing laws have ever faced criminal charges and few ever will, advocates say.

Tyler said that he knows of only one person who's ever been convicted on related criminal charges – William Singler, the owner of Long Island-based American Legal Process. Singler pled guilty in January to a charge of "scheme to defraud" for failing to provide proper legal notice to thousands of New Yorkers facing primarily debt-related lawsuits.

The New York Attorney General's office, which prosecuted Sigler, is prosecuting another process server on similar grounds; and the office has already garnered criminal convictions against 10 bad collectors. But a spokesman said criminal charges are not their primary tools of enforcement.
DCA aggressively pursues criminal charges against fraudulent debt collectors, by referring the offending businesses to the district attorney's office, Commissioner Jonathan Mintz said during a press conference held Monday to announce the latest policy change. "It's up to the DA's office after that," Mintz said.

The Manhattan district attorney's office arraigned 52 people on scheme-to-defraud charges in 2009, but a spokesperson for the office said it's unclear how many of those arraigned were debt collectors. Additionally, DCA doesn't track the number of cases it refers to the DA's office.

"I haven't seen any major indictments coming down, or any press conferences," held about it by the district attorney, Coffey said. "I'm guessing that it's below their radar."

One reason so few process severs face criminal charges is that, under the old law, it was too time consuming and complicated to prove a pattern of fraud, advocates say. To prove that a process server consistently failed to serve, an investigator would need to utilize a special computer program or a team of other investigators to analyze thousands of pages of documents, including some documents that he or she couldn't access without a subpoena.

"I'm pretty convinced that you could have the whole freshman class at Pace Law School, Brooklyn Law School and NYU Law School trying to catch process servers in fraud and everyone would come out saying, 'Wow that was a frustrating experience,' " Tyler said.

There is no consensus that bad debt collectors should be criminally charged.

"I don't necessarily see that the best way to go about pursing these cases is in the criminal arena," said Janet Ray Kalson, chair of the civil court committee of the New York City Bar association. "I think it's better in the civil arena because the standard of proof" there is lower.

Read more here.

Process Servers Knock in the Early Morning

2010-05-18T14:08:00.000-06:00

Bam! Bam!! Bam!!! I jumped out of bed and rushed to my window wondering who in the world would be banging on my front door at 5:30 in the morning.

Standing at my door was a white man who looked like he could have been an undercover cop.

I shouted, "Can I help you?" from a window in the second-floor bedroom.

"Where are you?" he yelled back.

"Here, at the window," I said.

"What window? There are like 48 windows," he said.

"Who are you? What do you want," I asked, now getting concerned about the man's failure to identify himself.

Where's "Patricia Bassett," he hollered up at me.

"I don't know anybody named Patricia Bassett," I said. "No one with that name lives at this address.

"How long have you lived here?" he asked.

I asked him to identify himself. He again refused.

"Sir, you either tell me who you are or I'm calling the police," I said.

"You d____ a__!" he screamed and gave me the finger before sprinting down the stairs and jumping into a red pickup truck.

I called the Maywood Police Department. Officers had no knowledge of anyone scheduled to serve a warrant at my address.

Undercover cops or deputy sheriffs would have identified themselves as the police, I was told.

Maybe he was like Dog, the celebrity bounty hunter, I thought.

But Illinois is not friendly to bounty hunters. Under Illinois statutes, "no bail bondsman from any state may seize or transport unwillingly any person" found in the state who is in violation of a bail bond.

If the man wasn't the police and wasn't a bounty hunter, then he was likely a process server.

Unfortunately, there's no way to track down a renegade process server.

Process servers are basically unregulated.

"It's funny that you are calling about this now," said Steve Patterson, a spokesman for the Cook County Sheriff's Department.

Although everyone who serves legal paperwork is supposed to be a private detective licensed by the Illinois Department of Professional and Financial Regulation, most process servers are unlicensed, Patterson said.

Process servers are also required to register with the Cook County Sheriff's Department, but that doesn't happen either.

In fact, only one process server has registered with the sheriff's office, according to Patterson.

Read more here.

New bill benefits Georgia process servers by raising court fees

2010-05-13T14:30:00.002-06:00

House Bill 1055, signed May 13 by Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, will increase certain court fees immediately and potentially direct more business to private process servers. Bill items that will affect service of process in Georgia include:

Court filing fees for civil cases will immediately increase by $125 in Superior and State Courts. The base amount that the $125 will be added to varies by county, and the final amount will depend on various state-assessed and county-assessed costs.
The Sheriff's fee for serving summons and complaints will increase to $50, up from $25.
Service of dispositions will remain at $25.

Paul K. Tamaroff, President of the Georgia Association of Professional Process Servers (GAPPS), provided ServeNow.com with the following statement discussing why HB-1055 and another bill, HB-545, should be considered a victory for Georgia process servers:

GAPPS President Paul Tamaroff's Statement
HB-1055 in conjunction with HB-545 (which passed the Georgia Legislature and is awaiting the governor's signature), will have profound benefits for Georgia process servers.

HB-545 amends O.C.G.A. §9-11-4(c) and completely changes the process by which private process servers may be appointed to serve process. Presently, to serve a Georgia paper a process server must first be appointed by the court in which the paper is filed. There are two types of appointments; "permanent" and "special". Permanent appointments are usually for only one year and must be renewed annually. Of 159 counties, most of which have three different courts, Superior, State and Magistrate, only a few counties offer such permanent appointments. Thus, for the vast majority of courts in Georgia, a process server must get specially appointed by the court for each paper to be served. HB-545, effective July 1, 2010, while retaining the permanent and special appointments, provides for certification of process servers who complete a specified number of hours of continuing education, pass a test, and get a criminal background check. Once certified, such process servers will be able to serve all papers out of all the courts in the state without further appointment. The bill also requires owners/management companies of gated communities to allow these process servers on the property to perfect service.

The two bills should cause attorneys to utilize the services of private process servers. In addition to the usual benefits provided by private process servers, attorneys will no longer have to get a process server appointed (always a waste of time). Additionally, the raising of the sheriffs' fees will further encourage attorneys to use private process servers, especially those who keep their rates in line with the new sheriffs' fees.

HB-545 is unusual in that it teams the private process servers with the sheriffs. For the past six years the Georgia Sheriffs' Association has fought our attempts to amend the law. Now, the Georgia Ass'n of Professional Process Servers (GAPPS), will be working with the sheriffs' association in establishing and executing the continuing education program and the administering of the test. Certified process servers will be listed on the Sheriffs' Ass'n website. The county sheriffs will be the certifying authorities. The law requires certification of all process servers who qualify, absent good cause shown as to why a process server should not be certified. It is an excellent opportunity for private process servers to establish good working relationships with the sheriffs.

We will be meeting with the Sheriffs' Ass'n during the coming weeks to put the continuing education program together so that process servers may apply for certification as soon as the bill becomes effective on July 1.

"Hurt Locker" Lawsuit Target Pirates

2010-05-12T11:03:00.002-06:00

The war against movie piracy is getting downright explosive.

The producers of "The Hurt Locker" are preparing a massive lawsuit against tens of thousands of people who pirated the Oscar-winning drama online. The case could be filed as soon as Wednesday.

Voltage Pictures, the film's financier, has signed up with the U.S. Copyright Group, a Washington D.C.-based venture that has begun a litigation campaign targeting users of the BitTorrent peer-to-peer (P2P) service.

"The Hurt Locker" first leaked onto the web more than five months before its U.S. release last June, and was a hot item in P2P circles after it won six Oscars in March, including best picture and director. Despite the accolades, the film grossed only about $16 million in the U.S.

The U.S. Copyright Group has already filed lawsuits over about 10 other films, including German filmmaker Uwe Boll's "Far Cry," "Call of the Wild 3D" and "Uncross the Stars." Reports of those suits raised alarms in some circles, whereas others joked that the movie industry was merely suing those with poor taste.

"You can guess that relative to the films we've pursued already, the order of magnitude is much higher" with "Hurt Locker," said Thomas Dunlap, a lawyer at the firm.

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La Salle County Expects Six Figures From New Process Server Program

2010-05-05T13:45:00.000-06:00

A plan to assign one deputy strictly to process warrants as a means of increasing the county’s revenue stream appears ready for full board action.
Finance committee members on Tuesday approved of hiring a new correctional officer so that a sheriff’s deputy can dedicate his entire work week serving civil and criminal warrants. The county will fill the open deputy position with a correctional officer, and hire a new person to fill the resulting correctional officer vacancy.

Read more here and don't forget to check out and subscribe to our free monthly newsletter, The Serve Report, for news, upcoming events and much more!

Connecticut AG Subpoenas Craigslist Over Prostitution Ads

2010-05-03T12:54:00.002-06:00

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said Monday that he has issued a subpoena to craigslist Inc. seeking information on whether it's fulfilling its promise to crack down on ads for prostitution in its adult-services section.

In a statement Monday, Blumenthal said the ads have persisted despite a commitment in 2008 by the classified advertising website to crack down on those ads and he wants to know whether craigslist is profiting from those ads.

"The craigslist brothel business seems booming--belying its promise to fight prostitution," Blumenthal said. "We are asking craigslist for specific answers about steps to screen and stop sex-for-money offers--and whether the company is actually profiting from prostitution ads that it promised the states and public that it would try to block. We're seeking answers, so we can reach legal conclusions."

Blumenthal, in part, is seeking documents related to craigslist's manual review process for potentially objectionable ads, information on the ads that are eliminated or rejected and communications from law enforcement regarding ads and craigslist's response.

In November 2008, craigslist reached an agreement with Connecticut and 39 other states to crack down on prostitution ads, including requiring posters of adult-services ads to give a working phone number and pay a fee with a valid credit card. The website also agreed to provide information in response to law-enforcement subpoenas.

Read more here and don't forget to subscribe to our free monthly newsletter, The Serve Report, for news, upcoming events, and much more!

Georgia Process Server Bill Passes - HB 545

2010-05-03T10:55:00.003-06:00

Our friends in Georgia have notified us that HB 545 passed on April 29th. The new legislation provides for the following:

to provide for certification of persons authorized to serve process throughout the state if the server passes an exam and background check
to provide for service upon persons residing in gated and secured communities

This new law will go into effect on July 1, 2010.

View the complete law in pdf format here.