By far– and I’m talking miles here– the single most frequent question to hit my inbox: “hey, Aaron, any update yet?” Most of the time, the answer is no.
In many cases, the question comes from a lawyer who needs to calm an anxious litigant who just doesn’t understand that (1) things don’t work
[Author’s notes: (1) Although this post focuses mainly on entity defendants, we encounter the same problem with individual defendants. Individuals are simply harder to ascertain and locate, just like on this side of the Pacific. And (2) an update a year following publication of this post: not only does the research suggested here help to
Terrible news to wake up to this morning– a massive container ship, some three football fields long, crashed into a pier of the Francis Scott Key Bridge spanning the Patapsco River and serving Baltimore Harbor. Around 1:30am, the central span collapsed, causing, at this writing, at least a half dozen vehicles to plunge into the
Latest trend in litigation nationwide: tire manufacturers, worldwide, sued in the United States for price fixing. These suits are huge, wrangling some of the world’s best known manufacturers from Italy to Germany to Finland to Japan… but the fact that they’re brought under the Sherman Act has no connection to the method by which
A habit I got into a few years ago: yank the second page of the standard federal Summons in a Civil Action (Form AO440) before sending it overseas for service. That’s the Proof of Service page– a simple set of check boxes and blanks that are completed by a process server when it’s served in Philly, Boston, or Baltimore.
Why do I pull it? Simple. It’s not the proper form to prove service abroad, whether pursuant to Article 5 of the Hague Service Convention or not.
Continue Reading If it’s going abroad, pull the second page of the AO440.
[Update, December, 2025… the 2d Circuit agrees, as covered by my friend and fellow transnational legal tour guide, Ted Folkman. To be sure, the conflict only arises in what I call “5-O countries”, but even where Article 10(a) postal channels are available, e-service is still a bad idea in most cases. ]
At
(Author’s Note: the Hague Service Convention entered into force for Singapore on December 1, 2023, but this post was held for publication in honor of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who passed on that day at the age of 93. It just seemed fitting, as she authored the seminal case in HSC jurisprudence.)
Until this
Once or twice a month, a client will call or email me expressing incredulous frustration that it takes Swiss or French or German authorities two or three months to return a proof of service following a Hague Service Convention request. Or even worse, that it takes Mexican or Chinese or Indian authorities a year or
Read that to yourself again, but this time, do it in the accent of General Alexei Anatoly Gogol.*
Send your request in duplicate to the Central Authority.
No, this is not a command from a Soviet spy chief. It’s just what we need to do when submitting a Request for service pursuant to Article 5 of the Hague Service Convention, instruction taken quite literally from Article 3. The term Central Authority merely refers to the agency (or agencies) designated by member countries to receive those requests. It shouldn’t conjure images of some nefarious Cold War-era black ops outfit behind the Iron Curtain, like the Stasi or KGB. In just about all countries, the designated Central Authority is a regular government agency, usually a court or counterpart to the U.S. Departments of State or Justice.
Continue Reading What is a Central Authority?
Everything.
That’s it.
No, really.
Translate everything. I’m serious.
Continue Reading What does the Hague Service Convention require me to translate?