Canada has since 1989 been a member of Hague Convention of 15 November 1965 on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial, a.k.a. the Hague Service Convention.

Recently (March, 2010), Australia acceded to the Convention and according to Article 28 the Convention will enter into force for Australia on November 1, 2010, in the absence of any objection from a member State of the Convention.

The Convention requires its member States to designate a “Central Authority” to accept incoming requests for service. In Canada, the Central Authority on the federal level is the Attorney General for Canada, and the Central Authority on the provincial level is the Attorney General, the Ministry of the Attorney General or the Minister of Justice, as the case may be.

In Ontario, service of foreign process under the Hague Convention would require that a completed Request for Service Abroad of Judicial or Extrajudicial Documents Form together with the prescribed number of originating process documents and prescribed fee to the Ministry of the Attorney General.

There are alternatives to the Hague Service Convention service of foreign process in Ontario.

David Alderson, LL.B, LL.M (Lond.)

Masha Loftus, M.A., J.D.

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