NYSPPSA President Larry Yellon on New York Process Server Laws
- November 29, 2011
- by ServeNow Staff
- Associations
Larry Yellon is the President of the New York State Professional Process Server Association (NYSPPSA) and the National Association of Professional Process Servers (NAPPS). He is the owner of Intercounty Judicial Services and is a 32 year veteran of the process serving industry. Having served as NYSPPSA President for over 2 years, Yellon has been intimately involved in the regulation changes New York process servers have faced.
It’s been a long year for New York process servers as new regulations have changed the way they will do business next year. The New York State Professional Process Server Association (NYSPPSA) was instrumental in fighting difficult legislation changes. As the terms have changed and new regulations have taken effect, ServeNow reached out to NYSPPSA President Larry Yellon for more details.
The latest regulation, which went into effect on November 12th, requires those who serve in New York to comply with tracking rules through the use of Global Positioning Systems (GPS), but there have been problems getting a signal in some areas. Yellon, who is also the President of the National Association of Professional Process Servers (NAPPS), says the jury is still out on whether GPS will be receptive in Manhattan.
“We’ve already had a few reports that the iPhone has not had good signals,” he said, “and the city has allowed us to work around that. That’s one of the issues NYSPPSA and NAPPS fought for: a right to continue to serve whether [GPS] works or not.” The next major change comes in February when licenses will be up for renewal and both individual process servers and agencies will have to meet separate bond requirements. The new regulations are causing ripples in the community, but the original rules, which Yellon describes as “impossible to comply with,” were open-ended and objectionable. NYSPPSA took litigation to the Supreme Court of New York, which resulted in the rules being changed to what the association had proposed last December. “That was a victory,” Yellon says, “It was a very successful litigation."But the new rules have still caused major changes to process serving industry in New York and has received a fair amount of complaints about adjusting to the laws.
Yellon reminds that compliance is all about breaking old habits and gaining new ones and points out that having the regulations remain what they were five years ago isn't realistic. “People, in general, are opposed to change,” he says, “And in this profession specifically the change is drastic compared to what [the laws were] for many years.” And Yellon does believe that “With diligence, people will be able to [comply], and have been so far.”
But Yellon is quick to acknowledge the negative effects on the industry. “I see an impact already,” Yellon says, “and not only in process servers but agencies.” The changes, which have brought new costs and a larger overhead, have resulted in many choosing to leave the profession.
In a time of major change Yellon stresses the importance of joining associations. “It’s now critical and crucial, if ever there was a time, to join associations,” he says. “Any process server who is [serving process] today should join NYSPPSA and NAPPS.” Yellon explains that communication is translated directly through members, and with new events and changes occurring on a daily basis, non-members aren't getting that information.
With a major fight behind them, Yellon says that the NYSPPSA will now shift their focus to other major issues, including process server safety. “We’d like to get the assault and trespass laws changed in New York mimicking the legislation that passed in Illinois,” he says. The Illinois law, which will take effect in January, makes it a felony to assault a process server and is the first of its kind. Illinois also decided to make process servers exempt from trespassing, and Yellon hopes to get both laws passed in his state.
As far as whether or not Yellon is happy with the outcome of the litigation, and the end of a long battle, he sums it up in a few words. “I’m satisfied that we did the best we could do, under the circumstances, to advocate rules that are acceptable and possible to comply with. I’m not happy, but I’m satisfied. ”
For more information about these changes, visit ServeNow's New York Rules of Civil Procedure section of our website.