In a single day last week, Week Ten of America’s Covid-19 quarantine, I fielded essentially the same oddly segmented inquiry from three different lawyers across the country.  A rather disconcerting inquiry, to say the least.

“Hey, Aaron.  I’ve got an overseas defendant to serve.  I’ve talked to some process servers who tell me that you can’t personally serve anybody overseas right now, so I should just serve by mail.”

When I interject to tell them that, no, that’s a bad idea…

“But they say the Water Splash decision makes it okay.  That’s right, isn’t it?”

Oh, where to begin?  No, no, and no.

Continue Reading No, Water Splash isn’t a gift to litigators.

American Cemetery, Normandy.  (Photo by the author.)

My inbox is oddly flooded this morning.  Not with the usual client inquiries (it’s a holiday, after all), but with the normal spate of promotional emails and law firm newsletters I’ve come to expect on most statutory days off.  Sure, we’ve commercialized the heck out of every holiday, but that’s happened for centuries.  For retailers and restaurants to market their wares and fares on such days becomes much less bothersome as I get older.  What is more bothersome every year is the habit of wishing the recipient a “happy” Memorial Day in the subject header.

Continue Reading A solemn– not “happy”– occasion.

“The Sword of Damocles”, Richard Westall (English, 1765-1836)

Every once in a while, a colleague will call me with a story similar to this one:

“A client just walked into my office three days ago with what looks to be a rock-solid case.  We can establish duty, breach, causation, and damages* without a whole lot of difficulty, but the defendants are in Beijing and Toronto.  The statute of limitation runs next week, so we’ve GOT to get them served before then or we’re out of luck.”

Relax, I say.  Continue Reading Time to file versus time to serve

No, not that kind of wave.                                               (Alvesgaspar via Wikimedia Commons)

Civil defendants in federal court are obliged to waive service.  All of them, with the notable exception of various governments.  I give you Rule 4(d)(1):

An individual, corporation, or association that is subject to service under Rule 4(e), (f), or (h) has a duty to avoid unnecessary expenses of serving the summons.*

(Emphasis added.)  Seems pretty simple to me.  Continue Reading Rule 4(d) waivers and fee shifting

A sailor unloads the mail, Yokosuka, Japan, 2006. (U.S. Navy photo.)

In order for the Hague Service Convention (HSC) to govern the legal formalities of notifying defendants of claims against them, you’ve got to know where the defendant can be found.  An address is critical to service anywhere, on any defendant, but it can be particularly challenging when it comes to serving U.S. servicemembers stationed abroad– as well as when it comes to serving their dependents* or civilian support staff stationed with them.  It’s especially daunting when those folks live on a U.S. military installation in Germany or Italy or Japan or… any number of other far-flung locales.  Continue Reading Hague addresses: APO and FPO don’t qualify.

Charles Evans Whittaker Federal Courthouse, Kansas City, Missouri. Voidxor, via Wikimedia Commons.

A couple of years ago, I posited in “Removal and the Timing of Hague Service Convention Requests, Real World” that not only must service be effected properly, but the contents of the service packet had to be proper as well.  I discussed a case in which State Farm* sued a Korean defendant– among others– in state court, but one of the defendants removed the case to federal court before State Farm’s counsel initiated Hague procedures in Seoul.  The state summons was served instead of the appropriate federal summons, so the defense had a beautiful 12(b) motion to dismiss.  Ultimately, the case wasn’t kicked, but it could have been.  Continue Reading Civ Pro for 4L’s: Removal and Service of the Correct Summons

Two white whales are the subject of my Captain Ahab diatribes in this space.  One concerns an issue of cross-border civil procedure, while the other concerns a rather goofy* interpretation of what the rest of the world views as plain language.  I address here the latter of the two:  the concept of a child’s habitual residence.  Remember those words, friends, because the U.S. Supreme Court held unanimously today that the term habitual residence should be analyzed under a totality-of-the-circumstances test.

In Monasky v. Taglieri, the Court held that a child’s habitual residence depends on the totality of the circumstances specific to the case, not on “categorical requirements.”  Continue Reading Hague Convention Habitual Residence

We aren’t building rockets here.  But we are building a ship of sorts, and a leaky vessel means the cargo may not make it to its destination.  Serving process in Malta is subject to the strictures of the Hague Service Convention, regardless of which U.S. or Canadian venue is hearing the matter.  This chain of islands, a former British colony off the southern coast of Sicily, isn’t just the site of a boat race in Season 1 of The Crown.  It is also home to stunning scenery, bright sunshine, and a wonderful blend of English, Italian, and North African cultures.  Malta is a relatively new member of both the European Union and the Hague Service Convention– and service of documents is fairly straightforward.  Continue Reading How to Serve Process in Malta (updated 2026)