Every once in a while, long after a Hague Service Request has been submitted to a foreign Central Authority, the foreign defendant will agree to waive service. That is always good news, because it means everybody is more likely to play well in the sandbox. When it happens, my clients will email me and say
No exaggeration here– be afraid. Be very afraid.
… you simply cannot listen to overseas counsel unless they understand the nuances of the Hague Service Convention as it as it applies in North America.
Continue Reading Be wary of foreign counsel in Hague Service Requests
Say what you will about law professors– the best ones always hammer on the most important mantras that soon-to-be lawyers must internalize even before the bar exam.
But the biggest one:
Continue Reading Always take screenshots of address sources. Always, always, always.
Every once in a while, the Venn Diagram of Treaties overlaps a bit. In my line of work, it’s usually the interplay of various Hague Conventions– noting that there is no such thing as “The” Hague Convention— which pertain mostly to private international law. Lots of civil stuff in play with these, the most frequently used examples:
There is also no such thing as “The” Montréal Convention– there are more than just one– but in common parlance in the litigation world, there’s little doubt which is in play.
Continue Reading The Montréal Convention and Hague Service
No. No, no no… NO.
Stop believing key word results without thinking things through. Just stop it.
If you Google “Process Server Germany” a whole bunch of hits come back that would lead you to believe that you can simply hire a guy in Frankfurt or Munich or Berlin to walk up to a defendant
How this concept turned into a series, I don’t know, but today we offer yet another description of the need to amend the standard language in a summons.
See my priors:
This time, we’re talking about good old
Among the most frequent questions we field: “Hey, Aaron, what what would you charge me to serve a defendant in (pick a country)?” or some variant thereof.
It’s usually a tough question to answer any other way but “I can’t say just yet.”
Unfortunately, asking what it would cost to serve somebody in XYZ is a bit like asking your local Toyota dealership how much a car costs– there are far too many variables in the equation for us to simply throw out a price tag. Some examples:Continue Reading How much does it cost to serve a defendant in (insert country name here)?
Some days, you wake up to songbirds cheerily tweeting outside your window. Other days, you wake up to news that makes you want to pull your hair out.
Today is the latter.Continue Reading How you refer to Hong Kong matters to Beijing.
We’ve noticed an uptick recently in product liability claims and patent infringement suits against foreign automakers– in particular the German luxury car manufacturer Mercedes-Benz and its U.S. subsidiary. The question that arises daily around here, and the question that drives everything we do, is this: how do we get these guys served?Continue Reading How to Serve Mercedes-Benz
(Author’s note: go back and watch Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Treat yourself. No, not the Johnny Depp version– the one starring the late, great Gene Wilder.)
A few years ago, I posted The Hague Certificate– all the proof you need, a fairly straightforward missive that outlined the normal instrument that proves up Hague service (Article 5 service, that is), and the solid precedent set down by Northrup King v. Compania Productora Semillas, 51 F. 3d 1383, 1390 (8th Cir., 1995). In short, if you have a defendant served pursuant to Article 5 and the foreign Central Authority issues a Certificate to that effect, you’re solid.* The court doesn’t get to parse through the record to make sure it was done in accordance with the foreign country’s procedural rules.
The Certificate is your Willy Wonka Golden Ticket. Now, in isolation, the Certificate doesn’t tell the court everything it needs to know, so some context is needed, but some Central Authorities go a bit overboard with their context. Some others demonstrate that their bureaucrats are simply creating extra paperwork to justify their own jobs.
A word of caution: don’t file all that extra stuff with your Certificate.
Continue Reading Don’t file the extra stuff that comes with your Hague Certificate.
