[2025] EWHC 2941 (Comm)

Fecha: 11-Nov-2025

The Guidance reasonably available to WFW at the time of submitting the documents to the FPS for service

40.

Both parties considered it relevant, and I agree, to consider what guidance was reasonably available to WFW (or Ince & Co. before them) when they were taking steps to serve the Defendants under Article 5 of the Hague Convention.

41.

There were three principal sources of guidance.

The specific guidance relating to service in Brazil provided to Ince & Co. on 23 June 2023 by the FPS.

ii)

The Hague Convention website for Brazil, which provided no real guidance beyond a requirement for translations into Portuguese.

iii)

The UK government’s website. This provides generic advice relating to service of legal documents overseas rather than being specific to service in Brazil under Article 5.

42.

The FPS now publishes on its website a checklist for service pursuant to Article 5 of the Hague Convention, which sets out the steps to be taken to ensure that any request for service complies with the Convention and can be processed and forwarded on a timely basis. The FPS also now publishes a spreadsheet with a specific list of requirements for individual countries with entries as to the specific requirements for Brazil. It is, however, common ground that neither the checklist nor the spreadsheet had been published prior to early 2025.