Public Employee Press

Union fights "sewer service" as city implements new law

DC 37 weighed in on behalf of members and all consumers who have been victimized by unscrupulous debt collection agencies Dec. 10 as union attorney Robert Martin pressed the Dept. of Consumer Affairs to improve its proposed rules for process servers.

The rules would implement Local Law 7 of 2010, pathbreaking legislation enacted to help people targeted by dishonest debt collectors using crooked tactics such as "sewer service" of court papers. In this fraud, servers claim defendants were properly served but actually throw out the papers or make no real effort to contact debtors who have changed their address.

As a result, thousands of New Yorkers default on debts they didn't know they owed, suffering judgments without a chance to defend themselves and ending up with their wages garnished and their bank accounts frozen.

Local Law 7 requires process servers to pass an exam, post a bond, make the process more transparent by keeping records accessible to DCA and use an automatic GPS device to record their presence at the service location.

Martin, associate director of DC 37's Municipal Employees Legal Services, pointed out that as DC 37's legal benefit, MELS has broad experience representing union members in consumer, debt and landlord-tenant issues. He said the new law "recognizes the crisis" in debt collection and "points to the day when our citizens will always receive fair notice under the law when they are sued."

Martin commended DCA for drafting "comprehensive and detailed" rules, but offered a series of recommendations to make them clearer and "more straightforward."

"The crooked tactics have been used to scam many city workers," said Lawrence Kenchen, associate director of the DC 37 Political Action and Legislation Dept., who arranged for Martin to testify at the DCA hearing. "This union will always stand up for our members' rights as workers, tenants and consumers."