LAO and MAG develop resources for family law cases subject to the Hague Service Convention

Published: November 27, 2017

 

In June 2016, the Divisional Court released its decision in Wang v. Lin. The court held that the Hague Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil and Commercial Matters (Hague Service Convention) applies to family law cases. This means that, when a respondent lives in a country that is signatory to the Hague Service Convention, the applicant must serve him or her in accordance with the terms of the Hague Service Convention. Some signatory countries require respondents to be served with court documents through a central forwarding authority, while others permit alternative methods of service, such as service by mail.

Legal Aid Ontario and the Ministry of the Attorney General have created resources to help lawyers and litigants who must serve documents in accordance with the Hague Service Convention.

We have also developed additional helpful resources including a flow chart outlining the process, and a Lunch and Learn on the Hague Service Convention, which has been scheduled for Legal Aid Ontario staff on December 11, 2017. The Lunch and Learn will be available on the LAO LAW website shortly afterward.

Learn more

The resources listed below can be found on the Secondary Materials page in the Family Law section of the LAO LAW website (login required).

• Procedure: Service of Documents Abroad— Rules of Civil Procedure, R. 17.05(3) and the Hague Service Convention
• Service of Documents Outside of Canada
• Tables A and B created by the Ministry of the Attorney General
• Process flow chart

For more information

Contact program support at Gen‑OperationalSupport@lao.on.ca.