An interesting quandary pops up fairly regularly, and I find myself explaining the issue so frequently that it warrants a post.  [TL;DR… in the U.S., corporations and other entities created pursuant to statute have registered agents.  Elsewhere– and I mean just about everywhere else– the same types of entities only have registered addresses.  You don’t have to worry about whether you’ve designated the right individual officer because there isn’t one.] To the average lawyer in…

Two or three times a week, I’ll get an email or phone call from a civilian (ie: somebody wise enough to have avoided taking a bar exam) seeking help with a cross-border issue.  The majority are pro se spouses (or ex-spouses) who need help serving a divorce action or petition to modify custody or child support.  Quite often, it’s a business owner in conflict with an overseas supplier.  Occasionally, it’s an injured party seeking damages…

The single, most important piece of information in serving a defendant is his/her/its location.  Without the “where,” nothing else matters.  Domestic defendants, foreign defendants, U.S. citizens living abroad… everything boils down to location.  Now, in most places, just saying “I need to serve a defendant in Japan” is perfectly sufficient.  The Hague Service Convention applies.  There is but a single way to get the job done.  And there’s no question about whether translation…

Billy Joel released The Stranger album in 1977, just as I was starting the first grade.  It wasn’t until I was in high school that this album truly became one of my favorites, and it remains so decades later.  Not least because the varied tracks on it pop up in conversation so frequently. The best thing a potential client could ever say to me– aside from “shut up and take my money”– is “yeah, we…

Seriously.  It doesn’t exist. At least, not in the common law world.  Sure, in civil law jurisdictions it might, depending on your definition of informality, but in those places, “informal” is a term of art, and it relies entirely on the defendant’s willingness to play nice with others.  Let’s be honest here– if the defendant were going to play nice, then he’d just waive and service wouldn’t be necessary anyway, formalities be damned. The very…

[Details have been changed to protect the innocent.  Some variant of this story happens routinely— at least every couple of months.] A few weeks ago, I received a Hague Certificate following a request that I’d sent on a client’s behalf to a foreign Central Authority. Essentially, it said, hey, Aaron, thanks for playing– we served your defendant on February 30th, so go get ’em.  My client filed it in fairly short order and all seemed…