Janna Purdie provides a handy guide to cross-border service & jurisdiction clauses
- Recent cases provide insight into one of the service gateways which enables claimants to serve a claim form overseas without the court’s permission.
A vital step when commencing proceedings in the English courts is the valid service of the claim form on the defendant—failure provides the defendant with the opportunity to challenge the court’s jurisdiction to determine the claim. When serving overseas, an essential requirement is that the court has jurisdiction over the defendant(s) to determine the dispute before it. The rules setting out whether this is the case are known as the so-called ‘jurisdictional service gateways’ and are set out in:
- CPR 6.32 and CPR 6.33—these rules enable the claimant to determine whether the court has jurisdiction, or
- CPR PD 6B, para 3.1—these rules are applied by the court when determining whether the gateway(s) relied on by the claimant are applicable ie an application for permission to serve out of the jurisdiction is required.
In both cases, the court’s jurisdiction may still be challenged by the defendant. Both sets of
