Seriously. It doesn’t exist.
At least, not in the common law world. Sure, in civil law jurisdictions it might, depending on your definition of informality, but in those places, “informal” is a term of art, and it relies entirely on the defendant’s willingness to play
[Details have been changed to protect the innocent. Some variant of this story happens routinely— at least every couple of months.]
A few weeks ago, I received a Hague Certificate following a request that I’d sent on a client’s behalf to a foreign Central
Y’all, if you know you’re going to be removed, just initiate the case in federal court to begin with. It’ll save everybody involved a whole bunch of time and headache.
A routine question from clients across the continent– especially those in my own state*: “Hey, Aaron, the clerk says I have to tell the court
A new
Client queries: “hey, Aaron, the clerk says the Hague Service Convention requires certified copies of the Summons and Complaint and something called an Apostille. Where do I get that?”
I get some variant
Last month, in Only serve what is REQUIRED, I suggested insisted that service costs can go through the roof if plaintiff’s counsel seeks to serve documents that aren’t strictly mandated by local rule.*
Routine practice dictates that, along with the Summons and Complaint, additional documents must be served as well. ECF Rules, civil cover
At least once a week, my office fields the question “what else do I need to serve under Hague?”– or some variation on that theme.
It’s a highly pertinent question because most litigators aren’t familiar with the Hague Service Convention and its various requirements; if they were, I
Way back in March, 2017, I posted a blurb about the limitations on serving offshore parent companies via their U.S. subsidiaries. In short, I argue, you can’t simply serve a U.S. subsidiary and call it effective on the foreign parent. You have to have a compelling reason to pierce the corporate veil.
This is basic
Hague Service Convention requests constitute 99% of my practice– that’s a literal statistic.* Easily half of them are sent to
