South Harbor, Helsinki. Pöllö via Wikimedia Commons.
South Harbor, Helsinki. Pöllö via Wikimedia Commons.

I say all the time that we ain’t building rockets here.  But we are communicating.  And if your phone doesn’t work correctly, you have problems.  The sturdiest cellphone I ever owned was a decade ago– in the pre-smartphone days.  It was a Nokia 6610 candy bar– manufactured in China, I’m sure, but designed in Finland.  You could throw the thing off a five-story building onto solid concrete, walk downstairs, and call your mom.  The thing was a beast.  Had Nokia kept up with the smartphone revolution, I’d still be using their stuff today.*

I digress.

Serving process in Finland is subject to the strictures of the Hague Service Convention.  This holds true regardless of which U.S. or Canadian venue is hearing the matter.

You’ve got three ways to go:

  1. Tap us on the shoulder for bespoke attention—and probably some amusing commentary to boot (see the upper right if you’re on a desktop, or way down below if you’re on a phone/tablet),
  2. Cruise over to the Hague Envoy platform at USM94.com to automate the completion of your forms in perhaps twenty minutes or so, or
  3. If you’re feeling froggy & would like to handle the whole thing yourself, keep reading.  This lays out the framework you’ll need.

Some background is in order, if you’re so inclined, before we cut to the chase.

Here’s how it’s done in Finland:

Article 5 Service

  • Translate the documents… maybe.  Finland’s declaration to Article 5(3) does not require translation of service documents, but that doesn’t make things easy.  They also allow individual recipients to reject untranslated service, which can really throw a Mjölnir-sized monkey wrench into the works.  Companies that do business outside Finland, however, are deemed competent in English.
  • Fill out a USM-94. Be very careful about ensuring that it is complete and concise, and make sure that it is signed by a court official or an attorney.  If it is not, make sure that the person signing is commissioned by the court.
  • Send to the appropriate Central Authority, in Finland’s case the Ministry of Justice.
  • Sit tight. It may take a while—likely two or three months from submission to return of proof.

Article 10 alternative methods

  • Mail service is available, depending on where you are, but it’s a bad idea anyway. If you do select this route, pay particular attention to the venue court’s rules about how mail service is initiated—in federal cases, adhere strictly to FRCP 4(f)(2)(C)(ii).
  • Finland also allows direct access to “judicial officers or other competent persons” under Article 10(b), but they make no definitive statement in their declarations about who those people are.  Moreover, no authority is Finland is obliged to assist foreign litigants, so it may be a nonstarter.  And in any event, the Finnish Central Authority is pretty quick.

Seriously—that’s all there is to it in Finland.  Its declarations and Central Authority information can be found here.

And remember… if you’re defense counsel, always question the validity of service effected on your overseas client, because the plaintiff may not have done it correctly.  That actually happened once, with a defendant in Norway, and her lawyers were smart enough to fight the issue.  The Washington Court of Appeals erroneously thought going outside the Central Authority was okay, but their Supreme Court saw the matter differently.


The 6610, a beast if ever there was one. Really.
The 6610, a beast if ever there was one. Really.

* Worth noting is that Microsoft acquired Nokia a couple of years ago and the company still exists as MS’ Finnish subsidiary.  When you’re suing them, you still have to serve properly, and serving the U.S. parent company will be just as ineffective as serving a U.S. sub of a foreign parent.

And lest I be remiss, I have to link the silliest reference to Finland in the known universe: Monty Python’s homage to the wintry land.