Serving Process in Brazil: Nascent Use of the Hague Convention on the Service Abroad of Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters

On June 1, 2019, Brazil joined the Hague Service Convention for serving legal documents. However, Brazil has made some reservations that may make the process more complicated. It can still save time and resources, but there are some risks involved. If you’re involved in a lawsuit that involves Brazil, it’s important to have a lawyer help you navigate the process. The Hague Service Convention (HSC) is a treaty that helps with serving legal documents in other countries. It has 85 member countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia, and Japan. It only covers civil and commercial matters, not criminal cases, and only works if the target’s address is known. The main way of serving documents is through a central authority designated by each member country. There are also other methods allowed, like using diplomatic or consular agents, or serving documents through the mail. It can still be difficult to serve documents internationally, but the HSC helps make it possible. Serving legal papers in Brazil can be really hard. Brazil doesn’t allow foreign diplomats or process servers to serve legal documents, so you have to use their Central Authority. But even that can be tricky, and it’s uncommon for defendants to agree to be served. And even if you do everything right, there’s still a risk that the Brazilian courts might not accept the service and you could end up in a long and expensive legal battle. The Hague Service Convention (HSC) is a way for people in different countries to serve legal documents on each other. Brazil has recently joined the HSC, but it’s still uncertain how well it will work there. To use the HSC in Brazil, a U.S.-based person should get approval from a court for their lawyer to submit the request. This will help to avoid any problems with getting the documents served. Overall, transnational litigation, especially in Brazil, can be challenging, but with the right legal help, it can be done. This article talks about how to serve legal papers in Brazil. It says that the only option at the time was to use letters rogatory. It also mentions a treaty called the HSC that helps with serving legal papers in other countries. It explains that the HSC is a self-executing treaty, meaning it’s like a law in the U.S. It also talks about how to track down someone in Brazil for legal service and the rules for serving legal papers in arbitration cases. The Hague Service Convention (HSC) is an international agreement that helps with serving legal documents between countries. Brazil and the U.S. have designated their Ministry of Justice and Department of Justice as their central authorities for this. When making a request for service abroad, it needs to include a summary of the documents, the actual documents, a request form, and translations if needed. There’s no need for special certification for the documents. It’s important to have experienced legal help, especially when dealing with international cases. The law about how to serve legal papers to people in other countries is complicated. Some countries allow serving legal papers by mail, but others don’t. The Hague Service Convention has rules about this, but different countries interpret the rules differently. Brazil, for example, now allows service by mail, while the United States has rules that make it easier for people to waive being served in person. It’s important to understand the rules of the specific country where you need to serve legal papers. If you need to serve legal papers to someone in Brazil, you can’t just use the normal rules for serving papers. You have to follow special international rules and might need to translate the documents. In Brazil, there’s not one word for “service” like we have in English, so the official translation for a request for service includes multiple words. It can be pretty tricky to figure all this out! When the Brazilian Central Authority (BCA) gets a request from either the Hague Service Convention (HSC) or the International Legal Assistance Convention (ISAC), they follow the same procedure. The BCA calls a request from the HSC a “Carta Rogatória” and gives it a case number that starts with “CR.” It seems like the HSC is not very well developed in Brazil yet. If the BCA doesn’t think a request is done right, they have to tell the person who sent it. The BCA takes about 30 days to send the request to the Superior Court of Justice. You can see more about the process on the Superior Court of Justice website. In Brazil, there are many steps in the legal process, including decisions from the Superior Court of Justice. The Public Defender’s Office represents justice and can object to certain things in the legal process. If the Superior Court of Justice gives permission, it means the person can enforce their rights in Brazil. Foreign judgments in Brazil have to go through a process to be recognized and enforced. Sometimes, proof of service may not matter, especially if the target is actually an insurance company covering someone else. If someone wants to sue a company in another country, they have to follow certain rules for delivering legal papers to the company. If the company doesn’t respond, there are other ways to deliver the papers. But if the case goes to court in that country, it’s important to make sure the delivery rules were followed correctly. Otherwise, there could be problems enforcing a judgment. The Brazilian Code of Civil Procedure used to only allow serving legal documents by personal service, registered mail, or publication. Now, it also allows service through the mail to individuals. If someone in the US needs to serve legal documents to someone in Brazil and doesn’t have their address, they have to use letters rogatory for service, which involves a Brazilian judicial official using publication in a local newspaper. The US and Brazil have a treaty that allows attorneys in the US to perform legal functions in the state where they are licensed. American courts interpret treaties like a contract between countries, and they consider the conditions and circumstances at the time the treaty was made. They look at the specific words of the treaty and also the history of how it was negotiated and what the countries involved thought it meant. U.S. courts have a lot of freedom in interpreting treaties as long as they don’t change the treaty by adding or changing things. The US Department of State has reported that Brazil has not been following the rules of the Hague Convention on International Child Abduction. Brazil’s Supreme Court also delays final judgments until all appeals are finished. In Brazil, the losing party in a legal case has to pay all the costs and fees, which can make it difficult for someone from another country to file a lawsuit there. If someone from the US wants to sue in Brazil, they would need to follow the rules of the Hague Convention and get permission from the Brazilian Central Authority. This can be done through a formal request to the court, along with evidence and a declaration. The US Constitution says that treaties, like the Hague Convention, are the supreme law of the land and courts have to follow them. Courts can issue orders to reduce risk for someone involved in a legal case, and they have the power to do so under the law. A lawyer who specializes in Brazilian law has had success getting these kinds of orders in U.S. courts and has testified in court about his expertise in Brazilian law. Thank you to Dr. Milton Lucídio Leão Barcellos for proofreading this article. This information comes from the International Law Section.

Source: https://www.floridabar.org/the-florida-bar-journal/serving-process-in-brazil-nascent-use-of-the-hague-convention-on-the-service-abroad-of-documents-in-civil-or-commercial-matters/