Legal Definitions - Rogatory letters

Rogatory letters, also known as letters of request, are a formal communication from a court in one country to a court in another country. This official request asks the foreign court for assistance in a legal matter that is pending before the requesting court.

The primary purpose of rogatory letters is to obtain evidence, such as witness testimony or documents, or to serve legal papers on a party located in the foreign country, when such actions cannot be performed directly by the requesting court due to jurisdictional limitations. They are a crucial tool for international judicial cooperation, ensuring that justice can proceed even when relevant parties or evidence are located across national borders.

Here are some examples illustrating the use of rogatory letters:

• Imagine a civil lawsuit in the United Kingdom concerning a complex financial fraud. A key witness, whose testimony is vital to the case, has since moved to Brazil and is unwilling to travel to the UK. The UK court cannot compel a Brazilian citizen to testify in the UK or send its own officers to take testimony in Brazil. In this scenario, the UK court would issue rogatory letters to a court in Brazil, formally requesting that the Brazilian court assist in obtaining the witness's testimony according to Brazilian legal procedures. The Brazilian court would then arrange for the witness to be questioned, and the testimony would be sent back to the UK court to be used in the British lawsuit.

• Consider a criminal investigation in Canada where authorities suspect a large amount of illicit funds has been laundered through a bank account in Switzerland. To gather the necessary financial records, the Canadian court cannot simply demand the documents from a Swiss bank, as this would infringe upon Swiss sovereignty. Instead, a Canadian court would issue rogatory letters to a Swiss court. These letters would request the Swiss court to compel the relevant Swiss bank to produce the account statements and transaction records, which would then be transmitted back to Canada for use in the criminal prosecution.

• Suppose a couple is divorcing in Germany, and one spouse has moved to the United States and is refusing to acknowledge the divorce proceedings. For the German court to have proper jurisdiction and ensure due process, the American spouse must be formally served with the divorce papers. Since German court officers cannot serve legal documents in the U.S., the German court would send rogatory letters to a U.S. court. The U.S. court would then arrange for the divorce papers to be officially delivered to the spouse in the United States, confirming that they have been properly notified of the legal action against them in Germany.