HankT
State Researcher
imported post
I don't know why people want to hassle process servers. But they do. Perhaps it is because they are sometimes rather pushy. Had a process server (with a passenger)whip into my driveway recently earlyon a Saturday morning while I was working on my car. Heparked crossways and jumped out (car still lurching) with his ID dangling from his neck and asked me for Sharon Kotalkski, whoused torent the house before I did. I told him she didn't live there anymore and didn't know where she did live. The guy didthe interrupt theanswer/what-are you sure? routine on me and I repeated the answers. Then he sayed, "Well, that's too bad, cause you're served" and dropped the paper on the driveway.
I laughed at him and told him to get the F* out of my driveway. He didn't seem to like that, but he did leave. Luckily, I was not OCing at the time. In fact, I had no weapon at all but my trusty oil dipstick in my hand. I guess he knew I meant bidness.
Seriously, I am sure he was armed. But it really didn't matter. I can't stop the guy from leaving his little paper. He'll figure it out eventually. I am ambivalent about servers having guns. I, like Yellon says below, don't think they really need them. But the real variable is how pushy they are. And how pushy the person being served is.
Process server association official sees no need to carry gun
By TERENCE CORCORAN
THE JOURNAL NEWS
June 22, 2007
A longtime process server and vice president of the New York State Professional Process Servers Association said yesterday that, in general, process servers don't need to be armed and should avoid confrontations.
"If there is any type of confrontation, my advice is to always leave the scene," said Larry Yellon, who operates Intercounty Judicial Services on Long Island and is chairman of the state association's educational committee.
"I had a process server go to a residence and the person he was looking for wasn't there. But a boyfriend or acquaintance was there and became hostile. The server left and told me that he's not going back there. I understood. The best advice is to leave. With some situations, you don't have a choice, but that's very infrequent."
Process server Dennis Illuminate said he feared for his life Wednesday when he shot and wounded a man who he said had attacked him as he was serving divorce papers at the man's Putnam Valley home.
State police are continuing to investigate the shooting, although they already said it appeared to be a "classic" case of self-defense.
Yellon said process servers should always be wary when serving divorce papers.
"It's a much more vitriolic situation than it would be in a collections or commercial case, and the process server needs to understand this," he said.
Yellon stressed that he was not criticizing Illuminate.
"If the police are calling it self-defense, then the process server likely had no options than to draw his gun," he said.
But Yellon, a retired probation officer, estimated that 99 percent of process servers in New York worked unarmed.
"There's no basis or purpose that I can see for carrying a weapon," he said. "It can only lead to a greater confrontation."
In one notorious case, an unarmed Westchester County sheriff's deputy, Kieran Grant, was killed in November 1979 when he went to serve eviction papers on a Hastings-on-Hudson man. Grant, who took off a half-day to play golf, had left his weapon home.
The tenant, Jose Cuellar Gonzales, who shot Grant six times, remains in state prison.
http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070622/NEWS01/706220356/1018/NEWS02
I don't know why people want to hassle process servers. But they do. Perhaps it is because they are sometimes rather pushy. Had a process server (with a passenger)whip into my driveway recently earlyon a Saturday morning while I was working on my car. Heparked crossways and jumped out (car still lurching) with his ID dangling from his neck and asked me for Sharon Kotalkski, whoused torent the house before I did. I told him she didn't live there anymore and didn't know where she did live. The guy didthe interrupt theanswer/what-are you sure? routine on me and I repeated the answers. Then he sayed, "Well, that's too bad, cause you're served" and dropped the paper on the driveway.
I laughed at him and told him to get the F* out of my driveway. He didn't seem to like that, but he did leave. Luckily, I was not OCing at the time. In fact, I had no weapon at all but my trusty oil dipstick in my hand. I guess he knew I meant bidness.
Seriously, I am sure he was armed. But it really didn't matter. I can't stop the guy from leaving his little paper. He'll figure it out eventually. I am ambivalent about servers having guns. I, like Yellon says below, don't think they really need them. But the real variable is how pushy they are. And how pushy the person being served is.
Process server association official sees no need to carry gun
By TERENCE CORCORAN
THE JOURNAL NEWS
June 22, 2007
A longtime process server and vice president of the New York State Professional Process Servers Association said yesterday that, in general, process servers don't need to be armed and should avoid confrontations.
"If there is any type of confrontation, my advice is to always leave the scene," said Larry Yellon, who operates Intercounty Judicial Services on Long Island and is chairman of the state association's educational committee.
"I had a process server go to a residence and the person he was looking for wasn't there. But a boyfriend or acquaintance was there and became hostile. The server left and told me that he's not going back there. I understood. The best advice is to leave. With some situations, you don't have a choice, but that's very infrequent."
Process server Dennis Illuminate said he feared for his life Wednesday when he shot and wounded a man who he said had attacked him as he was serving divorce papers at the man's Putnam Valley home.
State police are continuing to investigate the shooting, although they already said it appeared to be a "classic" case of self-defense.
Yellon said process servers should always be wary when serving divorce papers.
"It's a much more vitriolic situation than it would be in a collections or commercial case, and the process server needs to understand this," he said.
Yellon stressed that he was not criticizing Illuminate.
"If the police are calling it self-defense, then the process server likely had no options than to draw his gun," he said.
But Yellon, a retired probation officer, estimated that 99 percent of process servers in New York worked unarmed.
"There's no basis or purpose that I can see for carrying a weapon," he said. "It can only lead to a greater confrontation."
In one notorious case, an unarmed Westchester County sheriff's deputy, Kieran Grant, was killed in November 1979 when he went to serve eviction papers on a Hastings-on-Hudson man. Grant, who took off a half-day to play golf, had left his weapon home.
The tenant, Jose Cuellar Gonzales, who shot Grant six times, remains in state prison.
http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070622/NEWS01/706220356/1018/NEWS02