My inbox frequently pings with an important query:
Continue Reading Finding foreign counsel
The Hague Child Abduction Convention applies first
An attorney called me last week from Chicago.* He said that his client’s five year-old son had been plucked out of Illinois by his father and taken to the father’s home country, Poland.**
The lawyer’s two questions: (1) how quickly can I get the father served
How to Best Serve Outside the Hague Service Convention
A client emailed me the other day, asking how to serve a foreign defendant. A pretty common occurrence that prompts either a “take a look at this blog” reply or a short &
Enforcement of U.S. Judgment in China– Don’t Pop Any Corks Just Yet
This past weekend (Labor Day), the wires were abuzz with excitement– in transnational litigation circles, anyway– about a Chinese court’s unprecedented enforcement of a U.S. judgment.
READ THAT SENTENCE AGAIN. Really. I’ll wait.
Yes, folks. A court in the People’s Republic of China
The Huissier de Justice– the civil law bailiff’s role in U.S. litigation
(As of 2022… French Huissiers are now called Commissaires de Justice…)
To most American lawyers, service pursuant to the Hague Service Convention means filling out an inscrutable Article 5 request form, putting a jumble of paperwork into decipherable order, and mailing it off into some
Arbitration– a bright idea for international dispute resolution
I’m not a fan of arbitration, as a general rule—especially in consumer contracts.* That said, arbitration is far superior to litigation in many situations, and for many reasons.
In tort, not a good idea. Certainly not an appropriate venue for a family law dispute. And consumer contracts? Just… no. Only the vendor benefits.* But
Hague Child Support and forthcoming help
My parents divorced around the time I finished high school.* The court ordered Dad to provide support to Mom for both me and my sister as long as we were full time students, even in college. I finished my bachelor’s degree about the same time my sister finished high school, and the old man decided
Service of Process in Hong Kong means Hong Kong, CHINA
[Originally published at vikinglaw.us]
Simple practice tip: if your defendant is located in Hong Kong, be sure to refer to the jurisdiction as Hong Kong, China or, alternatively, Hong Kong S.A.R. (shorthand for “Special Administrative Region”). Any request which refers to Hong Kong in isolation
Brexit, Service of Process, and Evidence Compulsion in the United Kingdom
[Originally published at vikinglaw.us]
My newsfeed has been jam-packed with Brexit stories since England & Wales voted to quit the European Union (for the record, Scotland and Northern Ireland voted overwhelmingly to remain—and this will have additional effects on the state of the UK). On the morning of the result, I gave a CLE