How Are Ontario Family Court Documents Served Outside Ontario?
The rules regarding the service of Ontario court documents outside Canada can be very complicated. You may have to deal with the conflict between the jurisdiction's laws and international rules. You will need to get advice from a lawyer in Ontario and you may need additional assistance from a lawyer in the country where the documents must be served. (Lawyers in Ontario will generally not give advice about the law in another country unless they are qualified as a lawyer in that country.)

Over 70 countries have signed a treaty (the Hague Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters).  But the rules very even between these countries.  If you are serving documents in one of the countries,

• you can serve through a "Central Authority" for that jurisdiction (a government agency) - this will take time and there are fees
• you might be able to serve using a method acceptable under both Ontario rules and the rules of the other jurisdiction

You may have more options for a country that has not joined the Hague Convention, but you must be careful not to break the law in that other country.

Some research will have to be done for the country you are trying to serve in.  The following options might be available:

• service arranged through a lawyer or process server in the other country
• service by a friend in that other country
• service by the other party signing and returning an Acknowledgement of Service card
• service through a "Central Authority"

If you serve in another country, you may have to translate the Ontario court documents into another language. (For example, to serve Ontario documents in Japan, it may be necessary to translate the documents into Japanese, even if the party being served does not read Japanese.)

If you are unable to serve the other party by any of the normally acceptable means or cannot locate the other party for service, you might get permission from a judge to serve in another way.

Not handling service property may make the service invalid and can cause great delay, unnecessary expense, and may give a person the warning, so that they can try to avoid service.

If you do not serve according to the rules (the Ontario Family Law Rules and the Hague Convention) and did the other party does not respond, the judge may refuse to make any order in the case (because service was invalid).