united-states california enforcing-judgment
Enforcement of foreign court orders in the USA
<p>Can non-US court orders against US entities be honored/enforced in the US?</p>
<p>Say if I sue a Californian company in a New Zealand court (which happens to assume its jurisdiction) and win some monies, would that judgment be any practicable to enforce in California?</p>

<p>Usually, but not always.</p>
<p>In California, this is governed primarily by the Uniform Foreign-Country
Money Judgments Recognition Act. <a href="https://law.justia.com/codes/california/2009/ccp/1713-1724.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">California Code of Civil Procedure §§ 1713-1724</a>.</p>
<p>The general rule is that the judgment of a foreign court in a country with a legitimate legal system (like New Zealand), that had jurisdiction over the parties and the subject-matter, is enforceable through a summary process that does not reconsider the merits of the foreign money judgment, if the person seeking to enforce the judgment can establish those facts. See § 1716(a)-(b).</p>
<p>But there are many exceptions to the general rule. See §§ 1715(b) (taxes, fines, penalties, some domestic relations judgments), 1716(c) (seven grounds for procedural irregularities, a ground for public policy exceptions, and certain defamation judgments). Section 1717 of the Act provides for certain exceptions to the exceptions.</p>
<p>There are also federal law exceptions in addition to those in the act, including one applicable to foreign defamation case judgments. But these laws rarely have much practical effects beyond the California statute in cases involving purely money judgments that are governed by the California statute.</p>
<p>Injunctive and other non-monetary relief granted by a foreign court is less frequently enforceable, and when it is, is not governed by a simple, summary statutory process from this statute. Special rules apply, in particular, to foreign child custody judgments.</p>
<p>The summary process, when there is no other pending case in California between the parties is as follows: &quot;If recognition of a foreign-country judgment is sought as an original matter, the issue of recognition shall be raised by filing an action seeking recognition of the foreign-country judgment.&quot; § 1718(a).</p>
<p>It is legally possible to file and prosecute a case like this one <em>pro se</em> in California, and it is unlikely that an in person hearing would be required in a case like this one. Usually, one could prevail in motion practice or with a remotely conducted hearing (especially in the COVID era). Whether an in person evidentiary hearing was required in a case like this would depend a great deal on the nature of the defense to recognition of the foreign judgment asserted. But, the better practice would be to hire a California lawyer to handle it for you.</p>
<p>Typically, the cost of doing so would be the filing fee, the cost of serving the judgment debtor with process, and something on the order of $1000-$3000 in legal fees. So, it would be much less expensive than a full fledged new lawsuit, but would be too expensive to be practical in the case of a small claims sized judgment in most cases.</p>
