U.S. litigators are used to reaching for the Hague Service Convention, but several Latin American jurisdictions aren't parties — or aren't parties to the evidence side. When the Hague doesn't apply, the workhorse mechanism is the letter rogatory: a formal request from a court in one country to the judicial authorities of another, asking them to perform an act of service or take evidence under their own law.
The Inter-American Convention
Across much of the Americas, letters rogatory are channeled through the Inter-American Convention on Letters Rogatory and its Additional Protocol, to which the United States and a number of Latin American countries are parties. The Convention sets up central authorities to receive and transmit requests, which makes the process more orderly than the old diplomatic channel — though it remains formal and document-heavy. Where a country is party to neither the Hague nor the Inter-American Convention, requests fall back to the traditional diplomatic (consular) channel, which is slower still.
How a request moves
- The letter rogatory is prepared, often with the underlying documents, and accompanied by a certified translation into the destination's language.
- It is transmitted through the designated central authority (in the U.S., via the State Department's contractor) to the foreign central authority.
- The foreign authority forwards it to the competent local court, which executes the request — effecting service or taking the evidence — under local procedure.
- Proof of what was done is returned back up the same chain.
Plan for months, not weeks
Every handoff in that chain adds time, and the executing court acts on its own calendar. A letter rogatory measured in several months is normal, and a complex evidentiary request can run longer. Because the local court applies its own law, what it will and won't do — for example, whether it will compel a reluctant witness, or how it handles document production — varies by country and belongs in your case plan from the start.
Service versus evidence
The same machinery carries both service of process (delivering the suit papers in a way the forum will later recognize) and evidence requests (testimony or documents for use abroad). The procedural requirements and the local court's willingness to act can differ sharply between the two, so they're worth scoping separately.
What we handle
We prepare and transmit letters rogatory and Inter-American requests across the region, manage the certified translations, track each request through the foreign central authority and courts, and return documented results to your team.