MAAPPS Provides Testimony Opposing Senate Bill 838

• February 24, 2014
• by Kimberly Faber
• Associations
• Legislation

On February 20th, MAAPPS (the Mid-Atlantic Association of Professional Process Servers) leaders were joined by members and non-members as they attended a Senate hearing regarding Senate Bill 838. The bill, which proposes the licensing of private process servers, requires licensees to meet surety bond and administrative requirements. It exempts employees of law firms and process servers who serve fewer than ten papers per year and would be regulated by the police department, with the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation only mentioned as a potential alternative.

The bill appears to be a follow up to Senate Bill 554, which was opposed by MAAPPS and ultimately tabled late last year.

Audio recording of the Maryland General Assembly session, which heard testimony from attendees showcases support and opposition of the bill. The compelling 50-minute testimony for SB 838 can be listened to on the MAAPPS website home page.

Excerpts from the recording:

95% of the folks who are in this business do their jobs, do it well, do it honestly, but when they don't, they cause extraordinarily serious harm to the people who are supposed to receive the important papers.

Chairman Brian Frosh

We are here today in strong support of SB 838 . . . We believe this is a win-win bill. We really believe that this bill benefits consumers, the legal profession, debt collectors, and process servers.

Marceline White of the Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition

Nobody wants there to be improper service of process, but I'm not sure how this bill does anything about [serving the wrong person]. People will get served the wrong person because you have folks out there that get bad information: they're using and MVA record and they do the best they can. How does this bill avoid the situation [where they got the wrong person based on bad information]?

Senator Bobby Zirkin

There is no emperical data because you can't get that kind of data. We can't go out and figure out who hasn't been properly served because many of these people don't know it. But what the FTC said in 2010 is that legislative bodies and courts should do everything possible to increase participation in consumer debt collection litigation. Consumers do better when they have notice and when they participate.

David Hoskins, Consumer

MAAPPS did meet with MCRC . . . We had one meeting and during that meeting we did not come to terms on our view points on how this bill should be done.

This business supports not only my family but my employees and process servers who live in Marlyand. I understand that there may be some rogue and unethical professional process servers, which is why we formed MAAPPS in the first place. . . This is not a bill that I think needs to go forth.

MAAPPS President Steve Harris

I do not believe that we, the professionals in this room, should be punished for these few bad apples. We want to improve the due process in the State of Maryland, that's a given, we want that, but not at the expense of losing our business because of them.

Linda Langville, MAAPPS Director

We're not opposed to some form of regulation in the form of registration or certification, and I think some registration process would get to [the state, a regulating agency, collecting information].

Aaron Greenfield

It does not suit me to license this industry. The department is not here in opposition of the regulation of the industry. The department is here based on the obstacles that we see in the implementation . . . We, too, would find some difficulties with the enforcement of all of these exemptions.

Captain Dalaine Brady, Maryland State Police

If you're falsifying affidavits under penalty of perjury, the proper means to deal with this should be through the courts and charge them criminally. If the state can't be bothered to prosecute, why put any type of licensing at all?

Robert Koffman, President of Marlyand Investigators and Security Association

The committee has not yet voted on SB 838. To donate to the MAAPPS legal fund, click here.

Senate Bill 838

If you are having trouble viewing the bill, click here.