A defendant in Orlando, a witness in Santo Domingo, a corporation in Delaware, or a Florida case with a defendant in Ponce. The attorney needs the document to arrive in compliance with the law of the issuing forum and the law of the place of delivery, and proof of service that is admissible back home. This is how we handle it.
Serving in Puerto Rico for courts in the states
Most of our assignments in this category come from firms in Florida, New York, Texas and North Carolina with defendants in Puerto Rico. Under Federal Rule 4(e)(1) and most state rules, service in Puerto Rico may follow Puerto Rico law, which means personal delivery under Rule 4.4 with no abode substitute in the state-law method, although the federal method of Rule 4(e)(2) remains available in federal cases. We serve under both the law of Puerto Rico and the rule of your forum, return a proof of service in English executed under penalty of perjury pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1746, the form federal and most state courts accept, and recommend attaching a Spanish translation for the person served when the document is in English only. Assign directly through this site or through ProcessServerPuertoRico.com.
- Corporate defendants: resident agent search in the Puerto Rico Department of State registry before the first attempt.
- Subpoenas from other states: Puerto Rico has not adopted the Uniform Interstate Depositions and Discovery Act; a foreign subpoena for a witness in Puerto Rico generally requires a letter rogatory or a commission and issuance by a Puerto Rico court. We advise on the route before you spend on service that cannot be enforced.
- Federal subpoenas under Rule 45 are served in Puerto Rico like any federal subpoena, with tender of the witness fee where required.
Defendants in the United States
A summons from the Puerto Rico Court of First Instance may be served in another state in the manner the Puerto Rico rules prescribe for personal service or under the law of the state where service is made. A federal summons from the District of Puerto Rico is served under Rule 4(e) following the law of either the forum state or the place of service. In both cases the server must be a person authorized in the place of delivery; several states (Florida, Texas, Georgia, Illinois and Arizona among them) require a license, certification or sheriff's appointment.
Poindexter & Associates, Inc., based in Raleigh, North Carolina, coordinates service in all fifty states through servers licensed in each jurisdiction and returns an affidavit in the format your court requires, in English and, on request, with a certified Spanish translation. The same firm performs the locate when the address in the file is no longer valid.
Defendants in the Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is not a party to the 1965 Hague Service Convention or to the Inter-American Convention on Letters Rogatory. That leaves the attorney two routes:
| Route | How it works | When it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Letter rogatory through diplomatic channels | The Puerto Rico or federal court issues the letter, transmitted through the U.S. Department of State and the Dominican Ministry of Foreign Affairs to a Dominican court that orders service by a court bailiff (alguacil). Typically six months to a year. | When the judgment will have to be enforced in the Dominican Republic and opposition to the exequatur is anticipated. |
| Agent service (Dominican alguacil) | A Dominican bailiff serves the document under the Dominican Code of Civil Procedure and draws up a formal act of service. In federal court this fits Rule 4(f)(2)(A) (method prescribed by the foreign country's law for service in its own courts) or, with an order, Rule 4(f)(3). In Puerto Rico state court, under the Rule 4 provision on service outside Puerto Rico. | When jurisdiction in Puerto Rico is what matters and the defendant has assets or presence here. This is the usual route, and it takes days, not months. |
The District of Puerto Rico has upheld agent service in the Dominican Republic when it complied with Dominican law, and has rejected defenses built on misreadings of the appearance periods in the Dominican Code. Poindexter Global Intelligence coordinates service with Dominican bailiffs and obtains the act of service with the formal requirements of the Code, and VSP Consultores Legales, S.A. supervises compliance and, where required, prepares the translation and legalization of the act for filing in Puerto Rico or in the states.
Translation. The document served in the Dominican Republic must be in Spanish for the service to be enforceable there; the bailiff's act is issued in Spanish and accompanied by an English translation when the forum is a U.S. court.
Defendants in other countries
- Hague Service Convention countries (Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Canada, most of Europe): request to the Central Authority on form USM 94, with translation into the language of the destination country where required. Some countries object to direct agent service under Article 10; others permit it.
- Inter-American Convention countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Venezuela and others): letter rogatory through the Central Authority, forms USM 272 and 272A.
- Countries without a treaty: letter rogatory through diplomatic channels or, in federal court, an alternative method authorized under Rule 4(f)(3), including email where shown to be reasonably calculated to give notice.
Judicial Process of North Carolina, the network's process service firm in Raleigh, handles Hague requests and letters rogatory for clients across the network.
Witnesses outside Puerto Rico
A citation for the deposition of a witness in another state is governed by Puerto Rico Rule 40.6 and by the law of the witness's state; in states that have adopted the Uniform Interstate Depositions and Discovery Act, filing the Puerto Rico citation with the local clerk produces a subpoena of that state. We coordinate issuance and delivery through Poindexter & Associates.