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
Certified copies? Nope. Not needed.
Governing law: WHAT gets served, and HOW it gets served.
The most common question I get, aside from “how much is this going to cost?” and “how long will this take?” is this:
“What does the Hague Service Convention require me to serve?”
The quick answer: nothing.
No, really. The Convention doesn’t require service of anything in particular– it’s a roadmap, rather than a
Hague Service means different things in different places.
“They tell me I have to serve through The Hague.”
I hear that phrase at least three or four times a month, and while I forego the
Motion to Extend? Don’t do it.
Another quirk comes across my desk now and again that seems, on the surface, to be fairly prophylactic. Realizing that the Hague Request I filed in China months ago will take a while longer to come back, my client petitions the court to extend the Rule 4(m) service
Only serve what is REQUIRED.
[UPDATE, December 17, 2020… a follow-up/parallel post, Serve EVERYTHING that’s required.]
This practice gives me a chance to work with some great
You may know before I do.
Here’s the progression of events when we file a request for service under Article 5 of the Hague Service Convention:
- Have the documents translated into the language required by the destination country (or as necessary under the defendant’s right to due process).
- Fill out the Request (the vaunted Form USM-94 in U.S. practice).
- Send
Statutory agents for foreign defendants? Hague Service could still be cheaper.
A slew of cases have come across my desk lately, involving plaintiff attorneys who have ostensibly already served foreign* defendants via statutory agents in the forum state. After plaintiff’s counsel spends several thousand dollars to defeat a motion to
How to Serve Process in the Philippines beginning October 1, 2020
I say all the time that we’re not building rockets here. But we are building a ship of sorts, and a leaky ship means lost cargo, and perhaps the inability to reach port. Serving process in the Republic of the
Keeping Translation Costs Down, Part Three
Last month, I posted that, yes, foreign authorities actually read translated documents— and if
How to Serve Process in Austria (beginning September 12, 2020)
I say all the time that we aren’t building rockets here. But we are building a ship of sorts, and if the vessel is leaky, we won’t make it to port and the captain will be