Our business, navigating the minefield of the Hague Service Convention, has seen a pretty big uptick lately, particularly in the personal injury and IP fields. As litigators sue an ever-growing number of offshore defendants, they’re increasingly reliant on firms like ours to get those defendants served. What we provide those litigators is pretty straightforward and
A harsh reality in the service of process world: once a Hague Service Request gets to a foreign Central Authority, it’s pretty well locked up– especially once it’s been underway for several weeks or months. No amendments can be made, no documents can be added, and no revisions can be made to the defendant’s address.
At least once a month, one of my clients will say “we have a translator that we work with– they take care of us pretty well.” That sets my teeth on edge, because extraordinarily ugly things can result, especially if the translator is merely the lowest bidder but lacks specific legal expertise.
On occasion, the
Everything.
That’s it.
No, really.
Translate everything. I’m serious.Continue Reading What does the Hague Service Convention require me to translate?
I don’t have an FAQ page on this blog, but if I did, the very first question out of the gate would be “How do I cut that translation cost down from $50,000 to a more manageable figure?”
It really is a shock to a litigator’s system– especially that of a patent litigator– when they’re told that the documents they have to serve in Germany or China or Mexico will cost them five (or six!) figures to translate. Those countries’ declarations to Article 5(3) of the Hague Service Convention require translation. Period. And most other countries require it too, with no exception or variance as to what gets translated and what doesn’t. It means everything. Continue Reading The time to save money on translation is *before* filing.
<— Unless this thing flies or used to fly over the jurisdiction where you’re serving, odds are pretty high that you’ll have to translate in order to satisfy the requirements of that jurisdiction under the Hague Service Convention. In most places, there’s no getting around it, even if your defendant was born in Chicago and taught Shakespeare for thirty years before settling in the Kobe Prefecture or a quaint village just outside Palermo. If you intend to serve him, foreign authorities will require a translation.
Continue Reading Beware the lowest translation bidder– especially those who price by the page.
Mid-conversation with a client last week, I’d passed the point of exasperation.
Good grief, Dave, we’ve been through this before. Why didn’t you call me BEFORE you filed this thing?!
Continue Reading Trigger time might be too late.
Another Frequently Asked Question on board this little Faering that is my law firm:
“Does my translation have to be certified?”
By frequently, I mean at least once a week for several years. Most recently, it came in the form of a comment on my old post, Yes, counsel, you do have to translate that thing, but it’s often a question in the mind of the lawyers and their staffs who call or email me. Their Googling has led them to believe it’s a looming issue, and if they don’t have the proper certification, their Hague Service Convention request is doomed.
The short answer: no. But with a trio of caveats.
Continue Reading “Certified” translations… not a real thing. At least, not a real *legal* thing.
A new quandary popped up for me recently, one that I hope is just a matter of a stressed-out government employee* who’s been dealing with a lot over the past two years. Last month, a client called me because he needed to serve a defendant in Sweden. No problem, said I, as long as you have a valid address, we should be good to go. He engaged me, and we were just about ready to rock & roll with the Hague Request, but before I pulled the trigger on the translation, I said I needed an issued summons. No dice, said he. He had been told by the court clerk that he had to submit the translated version of the complaint before a summons would be issued.
Continue Reading Sorry, court clerks—you don’t have the authority to review translations.
[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 translation providers. I go back to them regularly because they not only provide quality work, but they’re also ethical in dealing with clients, and that means the world to me. Not all providers are that way, but my people are rock solid. As such, my people don’t mind when I say to a caller, “hey, you can keep your translation costs down by only serving what is required by venue rules.” That matters to my clients (all lawyers & law firms) who need to serve abroad.
Continue Reading Only serve what is REQUIRED.
