Serving Process Abroad: Can You Do It by Email?
In their International Litigation column, Lawrence W. Newman and David Zaslowsky discuss the issues that must be considered when determining whether a defendant located outside the United States may be served by email, such as the applicability and wording of Article 10 of the Hague Convention and the specific facts of the case.
November 20, 2015 at 04:22 PM
11 minute read
When a defendant is located outside the United States, may she be served by email? This column looks at various issues that must be considered in order to answer that question.
The touchstone for service of process abroad is the Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters (the Hague Convention).1 The Convention itself, Article 1, provides that it “shall apply in all cases, in civil or commercial matters, where there is occasion to transmit a judicial or extrajudicial document for service abroad.” Consistent therewith, the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Volkswagenwek Aktiengesellschaft v. Schlunkheld that “[b]y virtue of the Supremacy Clause, … the [Hague] Convention pre-empts inconsistent methods of service prescribed by state law in all cases to which it applies.”2 State courts, such as those in New York, have echoed the supremacy notion, holding:
Where there exists a treaty requiring a specific form of service of process such as the Hague Service Convention, that treaty, of course, is the supreme law of the land and its service requirements are mandatory.
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
Trending Stories
- 1BD Settles Thousands of Bard Hernia Mesh Lawsuits
- 2First Lawsuit Filed Alleging Contraceptive Depo-Provera Caused Brain Tumor
- 3The Law Firm Disrupted: For Big Law Names, Shorter is Sweeter
- 4The Growing Tension—And Opportunity—in Big Law Nonequity Tiers
- 5The 'Biden Effect' on Senior Attorneys: Should I Stay or Should I Go?
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250