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15 December 2011 / Patrick Wheeler
Issue: 7494 / Categories: Features , Legal services , EU , Profession
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Due process

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Patrick Wheeler explains how to ensure effective service at home & abroad

You vaguely remember him. The keen US lawyer whose card you have lost (but who has kept yours) and who has now e-mailed you to ask how to serve his US district court claim as quickly as possible on an English resident.

Section V of CPR Pt 6 sets out the procedure that can be used where any document in connection with civil or commercial proceedings in a foreign court or tribunal is to be served in England or Wales (CPR 6.48 to 6.52). These rules do not apply in circumstances where the EU Service Regulation applies (CPR 6.48), but the proceedings in question were issued in a US District Court, so the EU Service Regulation does not apply.

The Hague Convention

The CPR makes clear that reference must also be had to the relevant Civil Procedure Convention. In this case it will be the 1965 Hague Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial

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