How Do I Serve a Foreign Court Document?

Last revised September 01, 2022

The Hague Convention on the Services Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters (“the Hague Service Convention”), is a multilateral treaty signed in 1965 by members of the Hague Conference on Private International Law.  Its purpose is to simplify service of court process from one country to another by replacing diplomatic or consular procedures. 

Currently, there are 59 contracting states, including Canada.

See the reservations and declarations each country made on accession to the treaty in  the section on Selected International Conventions (p. IC-1) of the Martindale-Hubbell international law digest.

Under the Convention, each state is required to designate a "Central Authority" to accept incoming requests for service, and then arrange for service in a manner permitted within that state.   You can find a list on the HCCH website.

Each province and territory in Canada has a central authority – in BC, it is the Order in Council Office, Ministry of Justice.  The average time for service is 2-6 weeks.   

Once service is affected, the "Central Authority" sends a certificate of service to the "Judicial Officer' who made the request. Parties are required to use three standardized forms: (1) a request for service abroad, (2) a summary of the proceedings (similar to a summons), and (3) a certificate of service.

The Hague Service Convention does not prohibit a receiving country from permitting international service by other methods otherwise authorized by local law.  Countries which permit parties to use these "alternative means" of service make a separate designation in the documents they file with the Convention.

Prior to the Hague Service Convention, service was generally effected using letters rogatory, also commonly referred to as a letter of request, or a request for international judicial assistance. 

This involved transmission of the document from the originating court between the originating and recipient states’ departments of foreign affairs (or embassies), then to a court in the destination state, or some variation on this procedure.  This chain of transmission is still followed in some cases where on or both states concerned are not parties to either the Hague Service Convention or any other service treaty.

Both the Canada Evidence Act, RSC 1985, c. C-5, ss. 43 to 51 and the Evidence Act, RSBC 1996, c. 124, s. 53  govern requests for the enforcement of letters of request issued by a foreign court.

A letter rogatory can also be used to obtain evidence from a foreign jurisdiction.