Authority

Contact details:

Practical Information:

A request under Article 3 of the Convention must be sent to the Ministry of Law of Singapore, together with the following documents:

(a)   The document to be served;

(b)   A summary of the document to be served, in accordance with Part 3 of the Model Form; and

(c)   An English translation of the documents mentioned in (a) and (b), if they are not in English.

The above documents may be sent to the Ministry of Law of Singapore in one of the following ways:

(1)   Via e-mail [a] to the Ministry of Law’s e-mail address (see above), as long as one physical set of the request and documents referred to in (a), (b) and (c) above is also received by the Ministry of Law. Any request sent via e-mail will not be capable of execution unless one physical set of the documents is also received.

If e-mail is used, the certificate of service / non-service under Article 6 of the Convention will be sent to the forwarding authority via e-mail.

[a] The Ministry of Law of Singapore requests forwarding authorities to consider utilising this method of service in the event requests under Article 3 of the Convention: (i) involve voluminous documents (i.e., more than 300 pages in total); or (ii) are sent in bulk (i.e., more than 5 requests to be sent at one go). Applicants may consider using cloud storage services (e.g., Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive) to upload their documents and share a secure link for submission.

(2)   Via physical delivery to the Ministry of Law’s address (see above). The requisite hard copy documents must be in duplicate. Forwarding authorities are encouraged to provide their working e-mail address when submitting the request, in the event the Ministry of Law of Singapore is required to get in touch to seek clarifications and/or additional information.

Subject to any written law which provides for the manner in which documents may be served on a body corporate [b], service of the document will be effected by a process server —

(a)   By leaving the document, and a copy of the translation of the document, with the person to be served;

(b)   By a method of service authorised by the Rules of Court 2021 for the service of analogous documents issued by the Court; or

(c)   By a particular method requested by the applicant, unless the method is inconsistent with any law for the time being in force in Singapore.

(See Order 64, Rule 4A, and Order 7, Rules 2 and 3 of the Rules of Court 2021.)

[b]Please note that we will not be able to effect service on a company that has been wound up / dissolved, and no longer exists.

The request for service sent under Article 3 of the Convention to the Central Authority of Singapore should be in English.

An English translation of (a) the document to be served and (b) the summary of the document to be served (i.e., Part 3 of the Model Form) is required, if they are not in English. (See Order 64, Rule 4A(4)(c) of the Rules of Court 2021). 

The costs occasioned by the employment of a process server for service of judicial and extrajudicial documents are reimbursable to Singapore pursuant to Article 12(2) of the Convention. 

For judicial documents 

For the service of judicial documents under Article 5 of the Convention, a sum of $100 (Singapore dollars) in respect of each address for service must be paid for purposes of paying the costs occasioned by the employment of a process server. (See Order 64, Rule 4A(4)(e) of the Rules of Court 2021). Payment shall be made: 

(i) By way of a bank draft in the sum of $100 (Singapore dollars) made payable to “Registrar, Supreme Court/AG” which is to be provided at the same time the request is made; or 

(ii) By way of a bank transfer. Details of how to effect such bank transfer will be provided upon the receipt of the request and all relevant documents. The applicant is to state clearly that they wish to make payment by way of bank transfer, when making the request for service. 

The costs relating to the execution of the request for service under the available alternative channels of transmission are as prescribed under domestic legislation. 

Please note that service will be effected only after full payment is received. 

For extrajudicial documents 

Service of extrajudicial documents is undertaken via a service provider. The Ministry of Law will collect payment on behalf of the service provider for the service provider’s costs of effecting service of extrajudicial documents. Details of how to effect payment will be provided upon receipt of the request and all relevant documents.

Where both the Service Convention and another civil procedure convention are applicable, the relevant party may elect to use either convention.

The Republic of Singapore is Party to the following civil procedure conventions: 

(a)   Convention between the United Kingdom and Austria regarding legal proceedings in civil and commercial matters 

(b)   Convention between the United Kingdom and Italy regarding legal proceedings in civil and commercial matters 

(c)   Convention between the United Kingdom and Germany regarding legal proceedings in civil and commercial matters 

(d)   Treaty on Judicial Assistance in civil and commercial matters between the Republic of Singapore and the People’s Republic of China

Amendments were made to the Rules of Court 2021, the Singapore International Commercial Court Rules 2021, and the Family Justice Rules 2014, to implement Singapore’s obligations under the Service Convention. These subsidiary legislation may be accessed at this link. 

An announcement published by the Ministry of Law of Singapore on 24 November 2023 may be accessed at this link. The announcement provides, among others, a summary of the options for service of Singapore documents out of Singapore, and for service of foreign documents in Singapore, where the Service Convention applies.

Requests for service on bodies corporate in Singapore: To minimise delays with the processing of incoming requests for service on bodies corporate in Singapore, applicants are encouraged to conduct a search of the company’s name and registered address(es) via the website of Singapore’s Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) at this link to ensure the accuracy of these details. Such searches on ACRA’s website can be adequately conducted at no cost.

The certificate of service / non-service under Article 6 of the Convention will be completed by: 

(a)   In the case of service of judicial documents – the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Singapore; 

(b)   In the case of service of extrajudicial documents – the Ministry of Law of Singapore.