International
An engagement across borders
Several legal systems require coordinated case planning. Jurisdiction, evidence and practical enforceability are central.
General information. The legal assessment depends on the circumstances of each case.
Circumstances
Clarify the context
Evidence
Preserve documents
Deadlines
Explain any urgency
Approach
Discuss the next steps
Overview
Why the sequence decides the outcome
A typical set of facts looks like this: the contract is governed by the law of one state, the payment ran through an account in a second, the other side is registered in a third, and the assets from which a claim could be satisfied lie in a fourth. Each of these four connecting factors can found a different jurisdiction, and not every one leads to a title that is ultimately enforceable.
From this follows an uncomfortable feature of these proceedings: the first step constrains those that follow. If an action is brought in one state, that can block pending or planned proceedings in another; if communication is made openly too early, assets disappear before they can be secured. That is why the work does not begin with a letter, but with a classification.
The following sequence describes the order in which we examine the decisive questions. It is not a timetable and not a performance promise – some mandates end after the classification with the advice to do nothing, because the expected effort exceeds the attainable advantage.
Overview
Six steps, in this order
The steps interlock: what emerges in step two about jurisdiction decides whether step three comes into consideration at all.
- 01
Record the facts and secure the documents
First, what happened is reconstructed: contracts, correspondence, payment records, times and parties involved. In parallel, what can be lost is secured – platform accounts are closed, chat histories deleted, servers shut down. This preservation is time-critical and is therefore not postponed.
- 02
Clarify jurisdiction and applicable law
Only then can it be assessed which court can be seised and which law applies. In the European judicial area that follows the relevant regulations; outside it, the respective national conflict-of-laws rules and relevant conventions. Frequently several options exist, which differ markedly in duration, cost and enforceability.
- 03
Locate assets and examine preservation
A title against an impecunious other side is an expensive piece of paper. That is why, before an action, it is examined where assets exist and whether interim relief comes into consideration in order to secure them there. Whether such an application is possible and sensible depends on the legal system and on the state of knowledge.
- 04
Instruct and coordinate local counsel
Where representation before a court is required, a locally admitted practitioner is instructed. Selection, briefing, alignment of deadlines and translation run through the case lead, so that several proceedings are not conducted in an uncoordinated way side by side.
- 05
Assert claims – out of court or in court
Whether one proceeds first out of court depends on whether the other side is approachable and whether an announcement would endanger the securing of assets. A criminal complaint and civil enforcement follow different logics and are deliberately coordinated with each other rather than run in parallel.
- 06
Prepare recognition and enforcement
A decision takes effect only where it can be recognised and enforced. Within the European Union the relevant regulations facilitate that; vis-à-vis third states – including the United Kingdom since withdrawal – recognition follows national law and conventions. This question is not asked at the end, but before the action.
Overview
What remains with us and what is handed over
The division is the same in every mandate, because it is the reason why the clientele needs only one contact person.
With the case lead
- Classification of the facts and strategy across all states concerned
- Selection and briefing of local counsel
- Deadline management across several legal systems
- Communication with the clientele and cost approvals
- Coordination of criminal complaint, information requests and civil proceedings
With locally admitted practitioners
- Appearance before courts and authorities in the respective state
- Assessment of particularities of the procedural law there
- Service of process and representation in ancillary proceedings
- Enforcement measures in the respective state
Overview
What cannot be promised
Whether and in what amount a claim can be enforced depends on circumstances that lie outside a law firm’s sphere of influence: on whether the other side can be found, whether it still has assets, how quickly information is provided and how the competent court decides. We therefore give no promises of success and no success-rate figures.
Some routes close quickly. Recall procedures in payment traffic are bound to short deadlines, platforms delete data according to their own retention rules, and assets can be moved across several states within days. The earlier a set of facts is examined, the more options as a rule remain open – that is the only robust statement about the time factor that can be made.
And in a share of cases the honest advice is to do nothing: when the attainable amount does not justify the expected effort, or the other side is recognisably impecunious. We say that, even when it speaks against a mandate.
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- General information. The legal assessment depends on the circumstances of each case.