Supreme Court Rules 2000

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

The application must be accompanied by 3 copies of each of the following documents:a draft request for service abroad, which must be in accordance with Part 1 of the prescribed form; the document to be served; a summary of the document to be served, which must be in accordance with the prescribed form; if, under Article 5 of the Hague Convention, 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, the official language or one of the official languages of that country, a translation into that language of both 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 practitioner on the record for the applicant in the proceedings to which the local judicial document relates or, if there is no practitioner on the record for the applicant in the proceedings, by the applicant – to be personally liable for all costs that are incurred – by the employment of a person to serve the documents to be served, being a person who is qualified to do so under the law of the Hague Convention country in which the documents are to be served; or by the use of any particular method of service that has been requested by the applicant for the service of the documents to be served; and to pay the amount of those costs to the Registrar within 28 days after receipt from the Registrar of a notice specifying the amount of those costs under rule 970F(3); and to give such security for those costs as 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 proceedings to which the local judicial document relates expires before service is effected) the applicant wants service to be attempted after the expiry of that time; and must be addressed to the Central Authority, or to an additional authority, for the Hague Convention country in which the person is 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.

Any translation required under subrule (2)(d) must bear a certificate (in both 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 and address and his or her qualifications for making the translation.