When will this bill be enforced?

The New York City Process Servers  Licensing Bill has not even been signed by the Mayor yet.  After it is signed, it will not be enforced for at least six months.  During that time the DCA will have to set up proper guide lines for all process servers to follow.  NYSPPSA plans on being a big part of that process and will be informing our members of the progress along the way.  The Bill also gives the DCA an extension on the initial 6 months for parts of the bill like the GPS.

My company sends out service to NYC all the time but I am located outside of the city boundaries, do I still need to get an Agency License?

If your company uses independent licensed contractors to serve in the city, than according to the new law you WILL have to apply for an agency license.  If you forward your work to a licensed agency you will NOT need to be a licensed agency.   This was changed at the last minute prior to the change any company that forwarded work to an agency or process server would have to be licensed.  Now you have a choice.  You could get an agency license or forward the work to a licensed agency.

I am getting phone calls from software companies telling me I need to sign up  for a GPS system now to be prepared, should I?

Since the GPS process of this bill has not been set by the DCA it would be premature to sign up for a system.   There has not been a system that has been approved and the DCA, and they have informed us that they want the system to be cost effective.  NYSPPSA will be working hard on evaluating all new systems and will be informing our members on the pros and cons.  We ask our members to wait to hear from us prior to purchasing or signing up for a GPS system.  Again we have time, so let’s use this time to get it right.

Should I apply for a bond today in order to be prepared for tomorrow?

Again, the DCA has not set up the requirements for the bond, as of yet, and we have been informed that the bonding companies will not be able to bond process servers until those requirements are set.  NYSPPSA will be contacting Bonding agents to try and get the best deal for our members.  So as the committee decides the proper requirements we will be working with the bond companies.

After I get the bond, should I drop my E & O insurance?

In the case of a law suit, it is important to understand that a bond of any amount does not protect the process server nor an agency.  What a bond does is simply guarantee payment of a judgment.  The bonding company will pay the recipient of that judgment and then go after you to pay them back.  E & O insurance will not only pay if a judgment is issued against you but will also defend you in that law suit as well. So E & O insurance does have value, the final decision is up to you but NYSPPSA wants to make sure that you know the difference.

Is it true that I can now be found liable to the recipient if found guilty of improper service?

It is stated in the new bill that a process server and its corresponding agency can be sued directly by the recipient if notification was done improperly. Many of us believed that you were susceptible to a law suit prior to this bill, the only difference is now it is writing.  You will only be held liable for punitive damages if it is proven that you willfully lied about service.  Meaning you threw the service away and lied about on an affidavit. For this reason, the City council made the bonding mandatory to ensure payment if you have a judgment against you.

The NYSPPSA Proposed Substitute Bill

Read the New Bill

Support the NYSPPSA

Posted by Stephanie Mitchell, a Pensacola Process Server, Reprinted with permission by Larry Yellon, President of the NYSPPSA (Reprinted with Permission)

The newly passed bill requires all process servers serving process in New York City adhere to the following:

• Obtain a license from the Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA)  and pass an examination on the New York Rules of Civil Procedure;
• Log all service attempts when serving papers with an electronic system (such as a GPS system);
• Maintain records and electronic service logs for a period of seven years;
• Independent process servers must obtain a $10,000 surety bond;
• Process serving companies must obtain a $100,000 surety bond with the city to guarantee compliance with the regulations;
• Provide a statement of employee rights and employer responsibilities to every process server under their employ; and
• Maintain signed documents that employees understand these rights and responsibilities.

The new NYC legislation (Int 0006-2010, Version A) reads as follows:

A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to process servers.

Be it enacted by the Council as follows:

Section 1.  Section 20-403 of the administrative code of the city of New York is amended to read as follows:

a. Process server license. It shall be unlawful for any person to do business as, be employed as or perform the services of a process server without a license therefor.

b. Process serving agency license. It shall be unlawful for any process serving agency to assign or distribute process to individual process servers for actual service in the city of New York without a license therefore.

§2. Section 20-404 of the administrative code of the city of New York is amended to read as follows:

a. A process server is a person engaged in the business of serving or one who purports to serve or one who serves personally or by substituted service upon any person, corporation, governmental or political subdivision or agency, a summons, subpoena, notice, citation or other process, directing an appearance or response to a legal action, legal proceeding or administrative proceedings.

b. A process serving agency is any person, firm, partnership, association or corporation, other than an attorney or law firm located in this state, or city marshal, who maintains an office, bureau or agency, the purpose of which is to assign or distribute process to individual process servers for actual service in the city of New York.

c. For the purposes of this subchapter the service of five or more process in any one year shall be deemed to constitute doing business as a process server.

§3. Section 20-406 of the administrative code of the city of New York is amended by adding a new subdivision c to read as follows:

c. Each such applicant for a process server license or renewal thereof shall be required to pass an examination satisfactorily. Such examination shall be under the supervision of the commissioner and shall test the knowledge of the applicant concerning proper service of process within the city of New York and familiarity with relevant laws and rules.

§4. Subchapter 23 of chapter 2 of title 20 of the administrative code of the city of New York is amended by adding new sections, 20-406.1, 20-406.2, 20-406.3 and 20-406.4 to read as follows:

20-406.1 Bond required.

a. As a condition of the issuance of a process server license, each applicant for such license or a renewal thereof shall furnish to the commissioner a surety bond executed by the applicant in the sum of ten thousand dollars, payable to the city of New York, and a surety approved by the commissioner. Such bond shall be conditioned upon the applicant’s compliance with the provisions of this subchapter and any rules promulgated thereunder, and upon the further condition that the applicant will pay (i) to the city any fine, penalty or other obligation the city imposes relating to a violation of this subchapter and any rules promulgated thereunder, and (ii) to a plaintiff any final judgment recovered in an action arising out of  the violation of any of the provisions of this subchapter within thirty days of its imposition. If an applicant is unable to obtain a surety bond as required by this section, and upon the provision of proof satisfactory to the commissioner of such inability, the  individual applicant may, in lieu of furnishing such bond, deposit an amount of no less than one thousand dollars in a fund to be established by the commissioner to pay (i) to the city any fine, penalty or other obligation the city imposes relating to a violation of this subchapter and any rules promulgated thereunder, and (ii) to a plaintiff any final judgment recovered in an action arising out of  the violation of any of the provisions of this subchapter within thirty days of its imposition.

b. A process server licensed under this subchapter who engages in the business of serving process exclusively as an employee of a process serving agency licensed under this subchapter shall not be required to furnish a surety bond.

c. As a condition of the issuance of a process serving agency license, each applicant for such license or a renewal thereof shall furnish to the commissioner a surety bond in the sum of one hundred thousand dollars executed by the applicant payable to the city of New York, and a surety approved by the commissioner. Such bond shall be conditioned upon the applicant’s compliance with the provisions of this subchapter and any rules promulgated thereunder, and upon the further condition that the applicant will pay (i) to the city any fine, penalty or other obligation the city imposes relating to a violation of this subchapter and any rules promulgated thereunder, and (ii) to a plaintiff any final judgment recovered in an action arising out of  the violation of any of the provisions of this subchapter within thirty days of its imposition.

§20-406.2 Responsibilities of process serving agencies.

Every process serving agency licensed under this subchapter shall:

a. Comply with all applicable state and federal laws;

b. Be legally responsible for any failure to act in accordance with the laws and rules governing service of process by each process server to whom it has distributed, assigned or delivered process for service;

c. Provide to each process server employed by such agency a written statement indicating the rights of such employee and the obligations of the process serving agency under city, state and federal law. Such statement of rights and obligations shall include, but not be limited to, a general description of employee rights and employer obligations pursuant to laws regarding minimum wage, overtime and hours of work, record keeping, social security payments, unemployment insurance coverage, disability insurance coverage and workers’ compensation;

d. Keep on file in its principal place of business for a period of three (3) years a statement for each employee, signed by such employee, indicating that the employee read and understood the statement of rights and obligations such employee received pursuant to subdivision (c) of this section.

§20-406.3 Records, Audits.

a. Every process server and process serving agency licensed under this subchapter shall retain records in compliance with section 89-cc of the New York state general business law for no less than seven (7) years of each process served.  Such records shall be retained in electronic form.  Tampering with any such electronic records shall be prohibited.

b. A process server licensed under this subchapter who engages in the business of serving process exclusively as an employee of a process serving agency licensed under this subchapter shall not be subject to  the provisions of subdivision (a) of this section, but shall be required to comply with all other applicable laws.

c. The commissioner may conduct audits of the information required to be kept pursuant to subdivision (a) of this section in order to monitor compliance with this subchapter.

§20-406.4  Educational materials.

The commissioner shall develop educational materials to be provided to all process servers and process serving agencies licensed under this subchapter.  Such materials shall at a minimum identify the laws and regulations pertaining to service of process in the city of New York.

§5. Section 20-409 of the administrative code of the city of New York is amended by adding a new subdivision c to read as follows:

c. Upon application for renewal of a license issued pursuant to this subchapter, applicants subject to subdivision (a) of section 20-406.3 of this subchapter shall certify in writing compliance with the record keeping provisions of such section.

§6. Subchapter 23 of chapter 2 of title 20 of the administrative code of the city of New York is amended by adding new sections 20-409.1 and 20-409.2 to read as follows:

§20-409.1 Violations and penalties.

Any person who, after notice and hearing shall be found guilty of violating any provision of this subchapter, shall be punished in accordance with the provisions of chapter one of this title and shall be subject to a penalty of not less than seven hundred dollars nor more than one thousand dollars for each violation.

§20-409.2 Civil Cause of Action.

Any person injured by the failure of a process server to act in accordance with the laws and rules governing service of process in New York state, including this subchapter and regulations promulgated thereunder, shall have a cause of action against such process server and process serving agency, which distributed or assigned process for service, in any court of competent jurisdiction for any or all of the following relief:

a. compensatory and punitive damages, provided that punitive damages shall only be awarded in the case of willful failure to serve process;

b. injunctive and declaratory relief;

c. attorneys’ fees and costs; and

d. such other relief as a court may deem appropriate.

§20-409.3 Reporting.

Twenty-four months after the local law that added this section becomes effective, the commissioner shall submit a report to the speaker of the council regarding the effectiveness of these provisions on effectuating proper service and improving oversight over the process service industry. Such report shall include, among other things, the results of audits the commissioner has completed of process servers and process serving agencies, including information regarding their compliance with the provisions of this subchapter.

§ 7. Subchapter 23 of chapter 2 of title 20 of the administrative code of the city of New York is amended by adding a new section 20-410 to read as follows:

§ 20-410  Electronic record of service.

A process server licensed pursuant to this subchapter shall carry at all times during the commission of his or her licensed activities and operate at the time process is served or attempted an electronic device that uses a global positioning system, wi-fi device or other such technology as the Commissioner by rule shall prescribe to electronically establish and record the time, date, and location of service or attempted service.  All records created by such electronic device shall be maintained in an electronic database by the process server, or if such process server is acting exclusively as an employee of a process service agency, by the process service agency, for seven (7) years from the date such record is created.

§8. This local law shall take effect one hundred eighty days after enactment provided, however that the commissioner of consumer affairs shall take all actions necessary for its implementation, including the promulgation of rules, prior to such effective date and except that section 20-410 shall take effect sixty days after the adoption of rules promulgated pursuant to such section.

This article is posted courtesy IRBseach, LLC.

IRBsearch offers The Most information, The Best data sources, and The Fastest delivery for locating people, businesses, and their assets. With one click you can search billions of records in just a fraction of a second.

I am pleased to announce the contest winner is John Virgili, a video surveillance specialist based in Sarasota, Florida. The new private investigator continuing education surveillance course coming soon to PIeducation.com will be titled “SURVEILLANCE: Obtaining Evidence that Stands up in Court”. Thank you, John, for your submission… we hope you enjoy your $200 gift certificate to the IRBstore.com!

We want to thank the below individuals for your course title submissions, too; it was a very difficult decision. Thank you for participating and helping spread the word about PIeducation.com:

• C.R. “Bob” Brown
• Rick Nelson
• Darrell Webber
• Linda McCarley-Schiro
• William Pope
• Debra Ferrara
• Kevin Thompson
• Billy Engle
• Marsha Kerrigan
• David Pelligrinelli
• “Denise”
• Bill Golodner
• Mitch Davis

If I missed someone on this list a BIG, HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who entered!  If you haven’t already, you can stay updated with the latest news, announcements and contests like this by subscribing to Pursuit Magazine (for free) on our home page and also becoming our fan on FACEBOOK.

Warmest Regards,

Stephanie Mitchell

Manager of Continuing Education and eLearning, CompassPoint Investigations
Managing Editor, Pursuit Magazine

This article is posted courtesy IRBseach, LLC.

IRBsearch offers The Most information, The Best data sources, and The Fastest delivery for locating people, businesses, and their assets. With one click you can search billions of records in just a fraction of a second.

Well… Happy Birthday to us!

But where has the time gone? No, really… where has it gone?

Pursuit was initially an informal “e-zine” (an electronic magazine circulated via email) created just two years ago in an effort to offer outstanding information to PIEducation.com clients and staying in touch with them in between their license renewal periods.  By word of mouth, a little advertising and subscribers passing their copies on to friends and coworkers, we added a few hundred more subscribers and it became necessary for us to get serious. We gave Pursuit Magazine a more polished look. As a result, our readership expanded to a few thousand investigators from around the world.

As interest in the information we were putting out in our bi-monthly newsletter grew, we saw not only the need to push a continuous stream of timely information out to our readership, but the need to create a comprehensive, community-driven industry portal where private security, legal and investigations professionals could come to learn, share their opinions, exchange ideas and network all in one place.  Pursuit Magazine became the first online private investigator magazine developed specifically for the PI, Process Server, Bail Enforcement Agent (Bounty Hunter), Repossession and Security Professionals.

In July of 2009, CompassPoint Investigations formed a strategic partnership with IRBsearch when I was asked to join the company as the Director of Brand Management and eMedia, bringing with me PIEducation.com, the market leader in continuing education for private investigators, too. While I left the employ of IRBsearch in June of 2010, I have immensely enjoyed working with the wonderful people at IRB and look forward to our continued strategic partnership.  It was an honor to have worked with the best information broker in the business, the business I often idolized as a 17 year private investigation agency owner and the database information I most often relied upon pursuing my own success; I look forward to continuing to being innovative with my own products and services and having IRBsearch as a close ally in those initiatives.

Today, Pursuit Magazine brings our readers more original content than any other investigative industry publication or portal in existence.  Professional articles written by experienced industry authors, video tutorials, podcasts, opinion polls, social networking and hundreds of articles in the archives mean that the investigative professional has a real opportunity to immerse themselves in a variety of opportunities for education and improve in his or her trade-craft.

Our Private Investigator Jobs board just launched several weeks ago and we have already attracted both Job Seekers and Employers in equal numbers.  The investigation career segment of our portal is proving to be an extremely valuable addition to the community and we are getting really incredible reviews as new jobs are imported every day from many different sources across the World Wide Web.

We are getting traffic from all over the world now as our online PI magazine is indexed and available in 7 languages including Portuguese, French, Italian, Spanish, German, English and  Russian- making us the only TRUE international magazine for professional investigators.  We are welcoming several thousand unique visitors everyday now to our website and have in excess of 8,000 subscribers to our email and RSS feeds.

And… Pursuit Magazine does this all for FREE.

We remain an active and connected element of the investigation community.  Our Pursuit Magazine Facebook Fan Page continues to grow every day without a great deal of effort and we are appreciative of everyone who is becoming actively involved in contributing to the community.  The fan page initially served as one of the ways we let our subscribers know when we posted new articles, but it has grown into a great deal more than that at this point.  Ideas are being discussed more fully, people are offering suggestions on how to continually improve our message and best of all, the encouragement we receive daily, makes it a worthwhile project.  Pursuit Magazine readers, authors and editors regularly interact with one another through additional social networks as well: the IRBexchange, Twitter, MySpace and several others.

We’re not done innovating and expanding our services to professional investigators! We have several new features coming to Pursuit Magazine early this year…

I’d tell you about them now, but I’d hate to ruin the surprise.

Stay tuned!

A huge thanks to our readers, authors and to Stephanie Mitchell, the Managing Editor, without whom Pursuit Magazine would not have made it this far, grown this much or show so much promise for the future.

This article is posted courtesy IRBseach, LLC.

IRBsearch offers The Most information, The Best data sources, and The Fastest delivery for locating people, businesses, and their assets. With one click you can search billions of records in just a fraction of a second.

Which leads me to announce our first contest!

We will award a $200 IRBstore.com gift certificate (http://IRBstore.com) to the investigator who submits what we feel is the best title for our new online Surveillance course.  We will also choose a runner-up winner and award him or her a free PIeducation.com course, an $89.95 value.

You can post your suggested titles in the comments section below or email them to me at info@pursuitmag.com. Be sure to leave your contact information too. Entries must be submitted to us before 5:00pm (CST) on Wednesday, January, 27 2010 in order to be eligible. On Thursday, January 28, 2009, we will announce the winner here on Pursuit Magazine and notify the winners by email.

If we end up using the winning title for the course, we will acknowledge the winner in the courses’ “acknowledgments and bibliography” section too.

Enter as many suggestions as you want but please do use Google to check whether the title is sufficiently original.   Remember, all entries must be submitted to us before 5:00pm (CST) on Wednesday, January, 27 2010.

Have fun, thank you and good luck!

Warmest Regards,
Stephanie Mitchell

Manager of Continuing Education and eLearning
http://www.pieducation.com

Managing Editor, Pursuit Magazine
http://www.pursuitmag.com

Surveillance Course Outline

INTRODUCTION TO SURVEILLANCE
The Surveillance Objective

PREPARING FOR THE SURVEILLANCE ASSIGNMENT
Pre-surveillance Investigations
Getting the Right Information from the Client
Choosing a Surveillance Vehicle
Necessary Surveillance Equipment and Gear

CONDUCTING SURVEILLANCE
Visual Surveillance
Mobile Surveillance
Tailing Methods and Tactics
Positioning and Setting Up
Rural Surveillance
Blending
Night Surveillance
Making Positive Identification of your Subject
Your Own Powers of Observation
Managing Confrontation
Being Approached by Law Enforcement
Courtesy Surveillance Notification
Pretexting
Pretext Scenarios and Examples
Counter Surveillance Indicators
Surveillance Tricks of the Trade
Summer Surveillance Considerations
Winter Surveillance Issues
Managing Emotional and Physical Stress
Improving Your Surveillance Product

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTS
Investigative Notes
An Investigator’s Guide to Writing Well
The Surveillance Report
Writing Excellent Surveillance Reports
Emerging Internet Tools for Pre-Surveillance Checks and Surveillance Reports
Using Internet Mapping & Imaging in your Surveillance Report
Submitting the Final Report: Security, Compatibility and Portability

COLLECTING THE EVIDENCE & PREPARING FOR COURT
Laying a Foundation for Trial
What is allowed on Surveillance Video?
Editing Surveillance Video for Court
Editing Digital Photography for Court
Tips for the Surveillance Investigator Testifying in Court

NEW TECHNOLOGY AND SURVEILLANCE METHODS
Wireless and Remote Image Transmission Technology
GPS Tracking Devices
Surveillance over the Internet
Video over IP
Computer Monitoring

THE LEGAL ASPECTS OF SURVEILLANCE
Laws and Traffic Violations
Criminal Trespass
Use of Criminal Instrument
Interception of Communications
Use of Pen Register or Trap and Trace Device
Access to Stored Communications
Installation of Tracking Device
Disorderly Conduct
Obstructing Highway or Other Passageway
False Alarm or Report
Harassment
Stalking
Theft
Roping and Entrapment
Surveillance Case Law

Common Surveillance Terminology

This article is posted courtesy IRBseach, LLC.

IRBsearch offers The Most information, The Best data sources, and The Fastest delivery for locating people, businesses, and their assets. With one click you can search billions of records in just a fraction of a second.

But what about our businesses? What new hopes and new goals will you set for our professional lives?

Please leave us a comment below and tell us a few of your business resolutions for 2010, you’ll be surprised by how powerful just putting your goals in writing can be!

When you find yourself losing your way as the year wears on, come back here and read what you wrote and gather inspiration from your own thoughts and the hopes and goals of others…

This article is posted courtesy IRBseach, LLC.

IRBsearch offers The Most information, The Best data sources, and The Fastest delivery for locating people, businesses, and their assets. With one click you can search billions of records in just a fraction of a second.

Christmas: The time when everyone gets “Santamental,” so I’d like to leave you with a few thoughts:

Question: What do you get when you cross a snowman with a vampire?
Answer: Frostbite.

Question: Why was Santa’s little helper depressed?
Answer: Because he had low elf esteem.

Question: What do you get when you cross an archer with a gift-wrapper?
Answer: Ribbon hood.

Question: What do you call people who are afraid of Santa Claus?
Answer: Claustrophobic.

Question: What do snowmen eat for breakfast?
Answer: Snowflakes.

Question: What do you call Santa’s Helpers?
Answer: Subordinate Clauses.

Question: Why is Christmas just like a day at the office ?
Aanswer: You do all the work and the fat guy with the suit gets all the credit.

I know…  I know…

I know that people say “It’s the thought that counts, not the gift”, but couldn’t people think a little bigger!

Whether you were naughty or nice this year, we hope that you get everything you want!

We wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas.  Thank you for allowing us into your lives, now THAT is a very special gift!

Warmest Regards,

L. Scott Harrell, Executive Editor
Stephanie Mitchell, Managing Editor

Pursuit Magazine

http://www.PursuitMag.com

The Journal of Professional Excellence for Investigators

Photography skills are an integral part of an investigator’s job. Discover how to take professional quality photographs and develop comprehensive scene documentation with your 35mm or digital camera through the in-depth principles of forensic photography as taught by veteran crime scene investigators. This course will introduce private investigators to the basic principles of forensic photography and will guide them through equipment selection and care, technically detailed camera operation, choosing the proper lighting, using the right lenses and settings and offer detailed analysis with direction on exactly how to photograph various types scenes.

PIEducation offers state approved continuing education (CE) via online courses to private investigators in Texas, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Oregon, New Mexico, Kentucky, Kansas, South Carolina and Iowa.  Our courses are also approved by the National Association of Legal Investigators for investigators requiring CEUs to maintain their Certified Legal Investigator (CLI) designation.

We are in the process of re certifying in Georgia and have applied to the North Carolina Private Protective Services Board to meet new continuing education requirements mandated by the state beginning January 1, 2010.

PIEducation.com makes continuing education both affordable and practical.  Students no longer need to bear the expense of traveling and spending time away from work! PIEducation.com courses have been designed by working investigators with many years of experience and a deep understanding of the issues that face the industry.

For more information, please visit our website at PIEducation.com

This article is posted courtesy IRBseach, LLC.

IRBsearch offers The Most information, The Best data sources, and The Fastest delivery for locating people, businesses, and their assets. With one click you can search billions of records in just a fraction of a second.