At least two or three times a month, I’ll get a call or email that starts off like this:
“Hi, Aaron. I need to serve two defendants in Mexico– an entity and an individual. Can you help us out?”
First question out of my mouth (after saying “you betcha”): Is it a trucking case?
[Another “Big Tony” lesson here, for those of you who are familiar with him from prior posts. This has really become a more prevalent thing lately, and I have to address it.]
With pretty high frequency, we’ll determine on the eve of sending a Hague Service Request that our client (almost invariably plaintiff’s counsel) has
[Yes, this story is relevant to litigation. I promise.]
Between us, Peggy and I have four nephews– three by biology and another by circumstance of life. All four of them are on the verge of adulthood, and all four played a lot of Minecraft when they were on the verge of adolescence. I mean a
All of our clients are lawyers, so we don’t hear this quip often. But when we do, it sets my teeth on edge just a bit, because the guy* on the other end of the line is either being extraordinarily rude, or– more likely– he just doesn’t have a solid grasp of what we do
No, really. It’s gamesmanship, it’s wrong, and it’s prejudicing your client. Think Charlie Brown and Lucy and that blasted football.
If defense counsel were going to accept service on their client’s behalf, they’d have done it already, so quit screwing around and recognize that time’s a-wastin’. Quit letting them pull the ball
Three years ago I posted “Modify State Court Summons Deadlines. Just do it.” to equip my clients (all lawyers) with the necessary ammunition for an argument with their clerks of court when summonses are to be served abroad. Essentially, I laid out the logic that, if a summons contains language that makes it
(Author’s note: this isn’t just a problem in California– others dig their heels in, too, particularly in Ohio and Maryland. It’s a state court issue, from coast to coast, but Los Angeles has been the problem child of late.)
For the most part, the work I’ve done in this little niche over the past twelve
Seriously. Unless you absolutely have to serve them with process (ie: the summons), leave discovery demands out.
Lots of plaintiffs’ lawyers gasp when I say that. They look at me like I have three heads.
I certainly understand why they react that
From time to time, I’ll have a client ask about the most appropriate way to advise the court that a Hague Service Request has been submitted to a foreign Central Authority, in the interest of avoiding a benchslap due to long wait times. My stock answer: don’t.
Don’t do it because you’re just
[This rant is designed to guide my clients in getting the right paperwork generated for service by diplomatic channels. If I’ve sent you a link to this, that means you have to press the issue with your clerk of court– not because I want to create more work for the court staff, but the opposite.
