At long last, the 1965 Hague Service Convention has entered into force in El Salvador. As of today, October 1, 2024, service there is subject to the strictures of the Convention, regardless of which U.S. or Canadian venue is hearing the matter.

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

  • The roadmap to the overall process—the recipe to our Secret Sauce.
  • The structure of the Convention itself is discussed in this four-part series.
  • And an absolutely critical note: the Hague Service Convention does not pertain to subpoenas.  Repeat after me—you can’t just SERVE a subpoena abroad. You’ll need a Hague Evidence Convention Request to ask a Salvadoran court to compel production– dramatically different from serving a summons or notice.

Here’s how service is done in El Salvador…

In my estimation, there’s really only one practical avenue to service: Article 5.

Article 5 Service

  • Translate the documents. A Spanish translation is mandated by El Salvador’s declaration to Article 5(3). Don’t omit it, simple as that– even if your defendant grew up in North Dakota and graduated from Yale.
  • 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 Central Authority.
  • Sit tight. It may take a while—likely several months, perhaps even a year, from submission to return of proof.  The judge is just going to have to accept that fact, because there is no realistic alternative.

Article 10 alternative methods

  • Article 10(a) may or may not be available– we don’t know because no position on the option has been indicated.  But even if mail is legally valid, it’s still a bad idea.
  • Article 10(b) & 10(c) amount to nothing, because if the Salvadoran authorities haven’t declared whether they’re opposed or not, they also haven’t declared who is a “competent person.”

Seriously—that’s all there is to it in El Salvador, but don’t get excited.  Sure, the method is straightforward and simple, but actually making it happen could be anything but easy.  Most countries take a while to set out a workable procedure when the join the Convention, so we may not know how El Salvador does things for quite some time.  

Bonus practice tip #1: if the idea is strategically sound, ask the defendant to waive service.  Note that I didn’t say accept— I said waive.  There’s a very important difference.

Bonus practice tip #2: if you’re defense counsel, always question the validity of service effected on your overseas client.  The plaintiff may not have done it correctly