Getting a foreign party into the case
Before a court can hear a claim against a foreign company, it needs personal jurisdiction, and that usually depends on the company's contacts with the forum or a forum-selection clause in the contract. Formal service abroad may have to follow the Hague Service Convention or another treaty, and some countries require translation and delivery through a central authority, which can take far longer than domestic service. Arbitration avoids some of these steps because the contract supplies consent, though notice still has to be given properly. In international commercial litigation and arbitration alike, a defect at this stage can surface again when you try to enforce the result.
Evidence across borders
Many legal systems do not allow American-style discovery, and some restrict sending documents or personal data out of the country. Requests for evidence held abroad may proceed through the Hague Evidence Convention or letters rogatory, both of which are slower than ordinary discovery. In the other direction, a federal statute allows parties to some foreign proceedings to ask a US court for discovery from people or companies located here, which can be useful when the main dispute is abroad. Keep the contract, invoices, shipping papers, and messages in their original form, with translations prepared separately and labeled as such.
From a decision to collected money
We usually start by locating the other side's assets and working backward. Arbitral awards generally travel more easily across borders through the New York Convention than court judgments, which depend on each country's own recognition rules. Recognition of foreign money judgments in New York runs under its own statute, and other states have their own versions, so a foreign judgment may be enforceable here when that statute's conditions are met. In a first consultation we lay out the available forums, the order of steps, and the cost and time each path tends to involve, so the decision about where to begin is deliberate rather than reactive.
