Robin's Ruminations

Before reading on here I recommend you read a posting by Jeff Karotkin.  When you've read that, along with the associated comments, then come back here for a different perspective.

In my opinion Jeff makes one of the strongest arguments I've heard for government regulation of the process serving industry.  He may not necessarily agree with this conclusion but to me it is obvious.  I've spent a fair number of years working to pass process server legislation in our state capital (Olympia, WA).  So long as there was not the least sign of opposition to our bills we were successful in shepherding them through the tangled mess that is politics.

BUT, any time any serious opposition surfaced, our bills went down in flames.  The reasons - well there are several.  However, the single biggest problem is the fact the legislators don't know who "we" are.  More than once I was asked if process servers are licensed - "No Mr. Senator, we're not."  Do we receive any training - "No Ms. Representative, we don't."  Do we have to answer to anyone - "Only our client Ms. Senator."  

The series of questions always contained some form this question - "Well then Mr. Mullins, just what do you have to do to be a process server in the State of Washington?"  Hmmm, let's see, how should I put this, perhaps just a simple "Not much" is a good answer.  But here is the real answer:
1.        Be over the age of 18.
2.        Be competent to be a witness.
3.        Be disinterested in the out come of the case.
4.        Pay $10.00 to my local county auditor and fill out a form that collect two or three pieces of information about me.
And that is it.  Period.

This is reminiscent of question and answer from the Federal Trade Commission as mentioned by Mr. Karotkin on his blog:
 
• Speaker - Why isn't the National Association of Professional Process Servers here?
• Speaker - I am not sure that such an organization even exists.

This is EXACTLY the problem I've bumped into in our state legislature.  They don't know who we are and we won't make any real headway on controversial issues until they do.  And they won't know who we are until we establish ourselves as professionals and that won't happen until we submit ourselves to some form of real oversight (regulation) by a government entity of some type.

We can talk amongst ourselves about being professionals but that won't make it so anymore than saying the Earth is flat makes that reality.  A number of people in our industry talk about "self regulation."  Will someone please show me an example of where self regulation of an industry has been effective over any reasonable length of time.  I don't think any such cases exist.  Why?  Because it doesn't work.  There has to be an outside force or motivator which has the power and authority to enforce a base level of ethical standards on an industry.

In my opinion, if we don't work with a governmental agency to regulate process servers then, at some point, the government is going to do it for us.  And when that happens we are likely to be on the outside looking in.  The situation in New York is a perfect example.

And the really sad thing about this situation is that we're doing it to ourselves.  Most of us are ethical in our business practices but there are more than enough examples of unethical (even illegal) behavior to overshadow the entire industry.

 A typical response to a call for government regulation, such as I am making now, is to say that "market forces" will weed out the bad eggs.  Well market forces have had more than enough time to weed them out and it hasn't worked because otherwise Mr. Karotkin wouldn't be saying, "The image of process servers in my opinion is at an all time low."  

I am very sorry to say that I agree with his assessment of the situation.