International service of process made easy.

Hague Service Convention

The Convention of 15 November 1965 on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters (“Hague Service Convention”) provides channels of transmission of judicial and extrajudicial documents for service from one contracting state to the Convention to another contracting state. In the United States, the Convention applies to all civil or commercial matters where there is occasion to transmit a judicial or extrajudicial document for service abroad and where the address of the person to be served is known.

Incoming requests for service pursuant to the Hague Service Convention must be in English, transmitted in duplicate, accompanied by the Mandatory Form, and include a $95.00 USD fee or proof of payment.  The Mandatory Form is available here.

Outgoing requests for service pursuant to the Hague Service Convention may be transmitted directly from a person or entity within the United States competent to forward service requests (i.e., any court official, any attorney, or any other person or entity authorized by the rules of the court) to the foreign Central Authority and do not have to go through ABC Legal. See Hague Service Convention, art. 3.

For more information on the Hague Service Convention, please visit the Service Section on the Hague Conference on Private International Law’s website located here. Additional guidance is available through the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of International Judicial Assistance website here, specifically in the OIJA Guidance on Service Abroad in U.S. Litigation.