Applications for taking evidence in Australia for foreign courts: A tool for resolving proceedings

Piper Alderman recently made multiple applications across Australia in the Supreme Courts of Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia to facilitate depositions of witnesses residing in each of those states in relation to the matter of Spice Jazz LLC v Youngevity International [2021] before the United States District Court for the Southern District of California.

Piper Alderman acted as the nominated agent for a Plaintiff in US proceedings by locating Australian witnesses and bringing deposition applications in the relevant Australian courts.

Australia's States and Territories have each enacted legislation empowering their superior courts to make appropriate orders giving effect to a Letter of Request from a foreign court, made under the Hague Evidence Convention, for evidence to be taken within their jurisdiction. We have provided an overview of the current regimes in our previous Insights which can be found here and here.