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 of that question pretty regularly, most often from colleagues within just a few miles of me.*
For starters… no, the Hague Service Convention says nothing of the sort.** Continue Reading Certified copies? Nope. Not needed.
The most common question I get, aside from “how much is this going to cost?” and “how long will this take?” is this:
Continue Reading Governing law: WHAT gets served, and HOW it gets served.
Last month, in Only serve what is REQUIRED, I suggested insisted that service costs can go through the roof if plaintiff’s counsel seeks to serve documents that aren’t strictly mandated by local rule.*
Routine practice dictates that, along with the Summons and Complaint, additional documents must be served as well. ECF Rules, civil cover sheet, the particular judge’s individual rules of practice, etc… those ancillary docs that have nothing specifically to do with the case at bar, but which are served as a matter of course, usually to deflect any hint of a 12(b)(4) motion. Unfortunately, those documents can sometimes double or even triple the cost to translate everything going to Germany or Japan or Mexico. Thousands of dollars spent on “well, we’ve always done it that way.”
My response: no. Just… no. If it’s not required, leave it out.
But the flip side is also true:
MAKE SURE YOU SERVE EVERYTHING THAT LOCAL RULES REQUIRE.
“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 inclination to offer that Hague requests don’t actually get sent to Holland (unless they’re being served there), I do have to clarify a couple of thoughts on the matter very early in every conversation. Above all, if a defendant is to be served in a fellow Hague Service Convention jurisdiction, the service has to comply with the Convention– simple as that. And if anybody tells you otherwise, introduce them to the Honorable Sandra Day O’Connor and Article VI of the U.S. Constitution.
More specifically, tell them to read Volkswagenwerk Aktiengesellschaft v. Schlunk, 486 U.S. 694 (1988). It’s a humdinger. Continue Reading Hague Service means different things in different places.
[Author’s Note: this applies to federal practice!]
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 deadline by another 90 days. This is pretty pro forma stuff, so the judge says sure, that’s okay. Another 90 days go by and the court wants to know just what in the hell is going on here, counsel… why haven’t you gotten this served yet? Didn’t I grant you an extension already? Continue Reading Motion to Extend? Don’t do it.
[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.
In a single day at the end of last month, no fewer than four of my clients pinged me to say “hey, I just got off the phone with opposing counsel telling me their client was served. Can you confirm that?” [Short answer: no.] Continue Reading You may know before we do.
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 quash, most of them conclude that it might have just been cheaper in the first place to serve the defendant in the foreign jurisdiction instead of via the statutory agent. Continue Reading Statutory agents for foreign defendants? Hague Service could still be cheaper.
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. As of October 1, 2020, serving process in the Republic of the Philippines is subject to the strictures of the Hague Service Convention, regardless of which U.S. or Canadian venue is hearing the matter. Continue Reading How to Serve Process in the Philippines (updated 2025)
At least once a week, my office fields the question “what else do I need to serve under Hague?”– or some variation on that theme.
It’s a highly pertinent question because most litigators aren’t familiar with the Hague Service Convention and its various requirements; if they were, I wouldn’t have such a beautiful niche practice, so I truly cannot complain. The question has a simple answer, but one that leads to complexities driven by geography. Continue Reading Keeping Translation Costs Down, Part Three
