Much of what we do in our practice involves stacks of documents ranging from mere pamphlet size to cartons most effectively moved with a hand truck. We recently fired off a single Hague Service Convention Request that weighed 87 pounds. Seriously– seventeen reams of paper and a whole bunch of copy toner, all because our
Nearly every jurisdiction in the Hague Service Convention requires translation into its own language,* and we procure translations on our clients’ behalf every single day. From time to time, a client will ask if we’ll use his firm’s preferred translator, or he’ll mention that his clients want to handle the translation because they can get
Yep. The time has come to reap the savings offered by technology, but it’s still critical to have competent, professional human linguists involved after the robot generates its product. And that means in many circumstances that those savings just aren’t as dramatic as we might hope.
The internet guys have been telling us since the
The hits just keep on coming, y’all. I recently fielded a call from a lawyer in Notkansascity who needed help serving a defendant in Hong Kong. Or at least, he said, he needed help getting his summons and complaint translated into Mandarin– it seems his process server was already taking care of “that Hague thing.”
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.
