By ANTHONY BOTTAN
, causing thousands of New Yorkers to unknowingly default on payments without having to chance to respond or defend themselves.
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo filed the charges against American Legal Process, located at 381 Sunrise Highway, and its president, William Singler.
According to the Attorney General's statement, ALP engaged in "sewer service," where process servers take advantage of people facing lawsuits by failing to properly alert them and denying them a chance to respond. The people being sued didn't find out they were facing debt charges until their bank accounts were frozen or their wages were garnished. "The laws of this state are supposed to ensure that each and every New Yorker has their day in court," Cuomo said. "If proven to be true, the schemes detailed in the cases filed today undermined the legal rights of thousands of citizens corrupting our judgments."
According to court papers, between January 2007 and October 2008, ALP claimed to have served 98,000 summons and complaints throughout the state to those alleged to have owed debt. The majority of those summons were done through "nail and mail," meaning the summons were posted on the door of the home or workplace of the person being sued and the summons was mailed to them. The Attorney General's investigation revealed that thousands of legal documents were not properly served - or even served at all.
ALP allegedly attempted to cover up the scheme by falsifying documents, swearing that proper legal notification had been served. According to the criminal complaint, Singler organized and orchestrated ALP's alleged fraudulent scheme. He was personally responsible for notarizing thousands of legal documents submitted to New York Courts in which his process servers swore individuals had been served, when they had not.
ALP and Singler are both charged with second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument, three counts of first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, and second-degree scheme to defraud. Singler was also charged with being a Notary Public committing fraud in office.
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