Serving foreign legal documents in Australia

Serving documents in Australia under the Hague Service Convention

The Hague Service Convention is an international agreement that makes it easier to formally transmit a legal document in a civil or commercial case from one country for service in another country.

Civil or commercial cases are generally considered to include legal disputes involving individuals, families and companies. In Australia, civil proceedings are often any cases that are not criminal. In some types of cases where the distinction is less clear, consider seeking legal advice.

The Convention provides several different ways to send or serve documents in Australia. Each method has its own legal requirements. Carefully consider which option best suits your situation. You must comply with Australian law and any declarations Australia has made under the Convention.

If you want to send documents to Australia for service under the Convention, first check that your country is a party to the Hague Service Convention. For a list of participating countries, visit the Service Section of the Hague Conference on Private International Law website.

If you are in a country that is party to the Hague Service Convention and you want to have legal documents served in Australia, check the rules in your own country for how to send a request under the Convention.

Main channel

One option for sending documents under the Convention is the main channel prescribed by Articles 3-6 of the Convention. This allows an authorised person or authority in one country to send documents to the official designated authority in another country. That authority then arranges for the documents to be served.

We are one of the officially designated authorities for Australia, acting as what is called the ‘Central Authority’ for the Hague Service Convention. This means we receive and processes requests from overseas authorities to serve documents in Australia.

If a request meets the requirements of the Convention and Australian law, we will typically forward the documents to the relevant Australian authority. After their own review, the authority will then attempt to serve the documents on the addressee.

There are several requirements you must follow when sending a request for service through the main channel. These are outlined below.

Model Form

If you want to use the main channel under the Hague Service Convention, your request must include a completed copy of the Model Form attached to the Convention. The mandatory Model Form is available on the Service Section of the Hague Conference on Private International Law website.

A Model Form must:

• name the ‘forwarding authority’ as the sending authority that is authorised under the law of the country where the documents come from
• include the stamp or signature of that authority
• provide the full Australian address of the person who needs to be served
• state the method of service you are requesting under paragraph 5(a), (b) or (c) of the Convention – regular service under Australian law, a specified particular method of service, or voluntary service
• state whether the documents are judicial (directly related to court proceedings) or extrajudicial (other non-Court documents)
• list all the documents that need to be served.

We strongly encourage applicants to provide an email address for correspondence. If your request does not meet the requirements of the Convention or Australian law, Australian authorities will try to contact the requesting authority by email to fix the issue. If no email address is provided, you may not receive important correspondence, and the documents might not be able to be served.

Address

Under the Convention, the address of the person to be served must be known and provided in the request. Australian court rules also require legal documents to be served by personal service in many cases. This means an enforcement officer, such as a sheriff, must be able to physically hand the documents to the person. For these reasons, your request must include a complete address where the person can be physically located - usually their home.

Australian authorities generally cannot serve foreign legal documents at the following types of addresses:

• Email addresses
• Post office boxes or mail collection services – because the person does not physically live at a PO Box or mail-collection location, documents cannot be served there.
• Apartment buildings or home complexes without a unit number – if the person lives in an apartment or similar complex, both the unit number and the building’s street number are required for service.
• Work addresses – it may be possible to serve someone at their workplace, but only if the enforcement authorities can easily identify and access the person. The person must normally be present at the address during business hours. Large office buildings or commercial premises may not be suitable for service.

Australian authorities cannot generally assist with finding the address of a person to be served in civil or commercial cases.
If you need to find someone in Australia, you may use publicly available information. Some law firms and private companies also offer investigative services to help locate a person for legal purposes. This process is sometimes known as ‘skip-tracing’.
We cannot help with obtaining these services or provide information about services providers or the costs involved.

Translations

Under both the Convention and Australian court rules, legal documents that are to be served in Australia must be either prepared in English or accompanied by an English translation. This applies even if the person being served understands the original language of the documents.

Every document, including attachments or exhibits, must be in English or translated into English.

If the documents are requested to be served by voluntary service under paragraph 5(c) of the Convention, translations of the underlying documents are not required. However, the Convention Model Form must still be completed in English. Please note that voluntary service means the person being served can choose to refuse to accept the documents.

Translated documents must also include a statement, declaration or certificate of translation signed by the translator. This statement, declaration or certificate must be in English and include:

• a confirmation that the translations are accurate
• the translator’s full name and address
• the translator’s qualifications for making the translations.

This statement, declaration or certificate does not need to follow a specific format as long as it includes these details. We have a template for translation certificates available for download.

Preparing documents to be sent

If sending documents in hard copy, please ensure:

• documents are printed on standard A4 paper (21 x 29.7cm)
• you include 2 copies of the Model Form and documents to be served
• you use only paperclips, foldback clips, or bulldog clips for document packages (staples or formal binding with ribbons or seals may need to be detached for processing by the Australian authorities).

If sending documents by email, please ensure:

• the documents to be served are provided together in a single PDF file (if possible, subject to any file size restrictions)
• the mandatory Hague Service Convention Model Form is provided as a separate PDF file
• the documents are not password protected or embedded

or

• you are sending the documents from a court or other government authority by secure email or document-sharing site.

Sending a request for service

Send requests for the service of documents under the main channel to:

Private International and International Copyright Law Section
Attorney-General’s Department
3-5 National Circuit
BARTON ACT 2600
AUSTRALIA
pil@ag.gov.au

In addition to sending the documents to us, if you know the Australian state or territory in which the person to be served is located, you can also send requests directly to the registry of the Supreme Court of that state or territory.

It can sometimes be faster to send a document to be served under the Hague Service Convention directly to the state or territory in which the addressee is located.

Find a list of addresses for individual state and territory courts on the Service Section of the Hague Conference on Private International Law website.

Costs for service

There may be costs to have documents served in Australia. Usually, the state or Territory authority responsible for service will send an invoice with instructions on how to pay.

If your documents are being served in New South Wales, Tasmania or the Australian Capital Territory, you must make payment before the certificate indicating the outcome of service will be returned. The local authorities will send an invoice for service fees, usually by email, once they receive and process your documents. It is strongly recommended to include an up-to-date email address on the Model Form and check your emails for the invoice and payment instructions. Once you have made payment, send proof of payment to the relevant authority as soon as possible to avoid delays.

If your documents are being served in another State or Territory, reimbursement of fees may be requested after service has been attempted. The local authorities will include an invoice for service fees and instructions for payment with the certificate and return document package.

Timeframe to execute requests

The time to serve documents under the Hague Service Convention in Australia can vary depending on the state or territory where the documents are to be served. It can sometimes take up to 2 or 3 months to serve documents.

If at any point during the process the service of documents is no longer needed, please email us or inform the relevant Australian state or territory authority as soon as possible.

If your request is urgent, consider using a private process server who is authorised to serve documents in Australia. In some cases, private process servers can be faster than government authorities.

For more information about using private process servers, see below.

Requesting an update on the progress of service

For an update on the progress of a request for service that was sent to us, email us.

We strongly recommend sending update requests by email. We may not be able to respond to status updates requested by post if no email address is provided.

Before contacting us, please check whether you have received any correspondence from the state or territory where the documents are being served. Delays are often caused by unpaid service fees. If you have received an invoice from a state or territory authority, follow the payment instructions on the invoice and send proof of payment directly to the relevant authority.

Postal channels

Australia has made a declaration under Article 10(a) of the Convention, that it does not object to service by postal channels, where it is permitted in the jurisdiction in which the process is to be served.

This does not mean that documents can be served on people in Australia by post in all circumstances. It simply means that if Australian law permits documents to be served by post in a particular situation, then you can also use the Hague Service Convention to serve documents by mail in the same situation.

Examples where service by mail are permitted are:

• where the person to be served is a corporation, the corporation can be served by sending the documents by registered mail to its registered address
• where there is a valid written agreement in place between the parties, which provides that the party to be served may be served by post (except for service on parties located in Tasmania)
• where a relevant Australian court has granted leave for the person to be served by post within its jurisdiction.

In most situations under Australian law, if the person to be served is a natural person, and no other circumstance applies, then documents must be served in person. In these cases, service by post is not allowed under the Convention.

If service by post is allowed, the documents must be sent by registered mail so that receipt can be confirmed, in accordance with Australia’s declaration under the Convention.

Private process servers

Under Articles 10(b) and 10(c) of the Convention, foreign parties can use private process servers to serve legal documents. In Australia, private process servers can be used where the person serving the documents is authorised to serve documents under the law of the state or territory where the person being served is located. This includes lawyers and people who hold a licence to serve documents in the state or territory where the service will take place.

Using a private process server can sometimes be faster than going through government authorities. We cannot provide contact details or pricing for private process servers.

Private process servers must still follow the laws of the Australian state or territory where the documents are being served.

Serving documents from Thailand or Korea in Australia

Australia has specific treaties in place with the Kingdom of Thailand and the Republic of Korea that deal with the service of legal documents.

If you need to serve court documents from Thailand or Korea in Australia, consult the court in which your matter is being heard for details on how to apply for your documents to be sent for service to Australia. Typically, the court will require:

• the documents to be served
• a translation of the documents into English, as well as a translation certificate confirming the translator’s qualifications and the accuracy of the translation
• duplicates of the documents to be served
• an undertaking to pay fees associated with the service of the documents (if required by the court rules).

Serving documents from New Zealand in Australia

Australia and New Zealand have an international agreement to streamline the process for managing and resolving civil and criminal cases, where elements of the legal proceedings span both countries. This is sometimes called the ‘Trans-Tasman Proceedings Regime’ and is implemented in Australian under the Trans-Tasman Proceedings Act 2010 (Cth). New Zealand has many almost identical provisions included in its equivalent piece of legislation and in related laws.

Under the Trans-Tasman Proceedings Regime, legal documents that originate in an Australian or New Zealand court can be served in the other country in the same manner as a local document. If you are based in Australia or New Zealand and need to serve a legal document in the other country, consult the court in which your matter is being heard for further instructions.

Serving documents in Australia other than by international agreement

If you are from a country which is not a party to a treaty with Australia, you may still be able to have your document transmitted to Australia for service through diplomatic or official channels. You should check with your local court or the government agency responsible for foreign affairs for more information on how this process works in your country.

Foreign missions in Australia may transmit documents for service in Australia to the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, under the cover of a Third-Party Note. Requests should be sent to:

Litigation Support Unit
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
RG Casey Building
John McEwen Crescent
BARTON ACT 2600
AUSTRALIA
litigationsupportunit@dfat.gov.au

Documents sent to Australia through diplomatic or official channels must be translated into English. They must also include a statement, declaration or certificate in English confirming that the translation is accurate and showing the translator’s name, address and qualifications. Please also provide 2 copies of the documents to be served.

The timeframes and costs associated with serving documents in Australia can vary depending on the state or territory where the documents are to be served.

If at any point during the process the service of documents is no longer needed, please email the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade or inform the relevant Australian state or territory authority as soon as possible.

Find out more about using private process servers.

Serving documents on a foreign State

If you need to serve legal documents on a foreign state or state organ, particular rules apply.

You should never attempt to serve documents yourself on a foreign embassy or consulate. Attempting to serve legal documents on an embassy or consulate may infringe diplomatic or consular inviolability.

In some situations, you might be able to transmit a request for service through a treaty such as the Hague Service Convention. In other situations, you may need to request service through diplomatic channels. Find out more on our Foreign State immunity page.