Court Procedures Rules 2006

A person may apply to the registrar, as a forwarding authority, for a request for service of a local judicial document in a Hague Convention country.

The application must be accompanied by 3 copies of the following documents:

a draft request for service abroad;

Note See approved form 6.21, part 1 (Request for service abroad of judicial documents) AF2009-149.

the document to be served;

a summary of the document to be served;

Note See approved form 6.22 (Summary of document to be served) AF2019-61.

if, under the Hague Convention, article 5, the central authority or any additional authority of the country to which the request is addressed requires the document to be served to be written in, or translated into, 1 or more official languages of the country, a translation into the languages of the document to be served and the summary of the document to be served.

The application must contain a written undertaking to the court, signed by the legal practitioner on the record for the applicant (or if there is no legal practitioner on the record, the applicant) in the proceeding to which the local judicial document relates—

to be personally liable for all costs that are incurred—

by employing a person to serve the documents to be served, who is qualified to do so under the law of the Hague Convention country in which the documents are to be served; or

by using any particular method of service that has been requested by the applicant for serving the documents to be served; and

to pay the amount of the costs mentioned in paragraph (a) to the registrar within 28 days after the day the applicant receives a notice from the registrar stating the amount of the costs under rule 6555; and

to give any security for the costs mentioned in paragraph (a) that the registrar may require.

The draft request for service abroad—

must be completed (except for signature) by the applicant; and

must state whether, if the time fixed for entering an appearance in the proceeding to which the local judicial document relates expires before the document is served, the applicant wants service to be attempted after the expiry of the time; and

must be addressed to the central authority, or to an additional authority, for the Hague Convention country in which the documents are to be served; and

may state that the applicant requires a certificate of service that is completed by an additional authority to be countersigned by the central authority.

A translation required under subrule (2) (d) must bear a certificate (in English and the language used in the translation) signed by the translator stating—

that the translation is an accurate translation of the documents to be served; and

the translator’s full name, address and qualifications for making the translation.