In a rapidly changing and interconnected world, legal problems without passports proliferate and increasingly challenge New York attorneys, who find themselves embroiled in cases requiring the resolution of conflicts that extend beyond borders. Having to serve process of a New York lawsuit on defendants located outside of the country, for example, can be fraught with difficulties. This article provides guidance on serving process of a New York lawsuit through postal channels in accordance with Hague Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil and Commercial Matters (the Convention), Nov. 15, 1965, 20 U.S.T. 361, T.I.A.S. No. 6638.
The United States and many other leading international economies are signatories to the Convention, a multinational treaty “intended to provide a simpler way to serve process abroad, to assure that defendants sued in foreign jurisdictions would receive actual and timely notice of suit, and to facilitate proof of service abroad.” New York State Thruway Auth. v. Fenech, 94 A.D.3d 17 (3d Dep’t 2012). Where service of process is made in a foreign country that is a signatory of the Convention, compliance with the procedures of the Convention is mandatory. Morgenthau v. Avion Res. Ltd., 11 N.Y.3d 383, 390 (2008).
