New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced criminal charges today against Long Island-based American Legal Process (“ALP”) and its CEO and President William Singler for a fraudulent business scheme in which the company allegedly failed to provide proper legal notification to thousands of New Yorkers facing debt-related lawsuits, causing them unknowingly to default and have costly judgments entered against them without the chance to respond or defend themselves.

According to the court papers filed today, ALP, as a legal process server, was hired by high-volume debt collection law firms in New York to serve legal papers, usually a summons and complaint, notifying individuals that they are being sued and must answer the complaint.

ALP, however, allegedly engaged in “sewer service,” which is basically where the process server does not make any legitimate attempt to notify the consumer of the lawsuit. As a result, thousands of judgments were allegedly obtained against unsuspecting New Yorkers, many of whom first learned they were being sued when they found their bank accounts frozen or their wages garnished.

In addition, Cuomo announced his intent to sue one of ALP’s largest customers, the collections law firm of Forster & Garbus, for violations of New York State’s consumer protection laws. According to Cuomo, Forster & Garbus used ALP to serve over 28,000 summons and complaints across the state, but failed to supervise the company and relied on legal papers from ALP that it knew or should have known were false.

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New Jersey Debt Collectors Pressler & Pressler, LLP are under attack for their collection practices. A New Jersey consumer, Scott Mills, has exposed some of their tactics and publicizes their practices on his blog. His list of complaints against them is lengthy.

Well, it turns out Pressler & Pressler fought back and filed a claim against Scott Mills for libel. However, on Friday the judge dismissed the preliminary injunction motion in a victory for Mr. Mills.

To add insult to injury for Pressler, Scott’s website and his story were picked up by a Huffington Post blogger who wrote this article on Scott and his case.

Seems like a bad week for Pressler & Pressler. However, at least they’re not collecting on dead people! For more on their practices, see the video below: