The Trials of Enforcing US Judgments in England

Ben Summerfield, Partner and Litigation Head for Morrison Foerster’s London office, recently spoke to CDR News about the challenges of enforcing U.S. court judgments in the UK. The UK ratified the Hague Convention 2019, in 2025, providing for the reciprocal recognition of judgments between signatories. Despite becoming a signatory in 2022, the U.S. is yet to ratify the convention, which leads to enforcement challenges, as Ben noted: “There is absolutely no sign of it being ratified imminently and it does not seem to be a high priority. The US has got a lot on its plate.”

As Ben explained, applying for a summary judgment is “the conventional means to get to an English court judgment on a US court judgment quickly”, adding however “there are certain principles that apply as to what the English court would be looking at” before allowing a summary judgment. Ben notes, there are additional challenges to obtaining a summary judgment:

“There are certain principles that apply as to what the English court would be looking at…English courts are concerned to ensure US courts had competent jurisdiction in the first place, by reference to English law standards.” Further challenges arise around judgments that are contrary to public policy, for example around damages: “the most contentious area which arises in the field of public policy is that under some US statutes, there is the ability to claim punitive damages, which are calculated as a multiple of compensatory damages,” compared the English legal system, which tends to award compensatory damages.

Seeking local counsel and guidance throughout the process is crucial, if parties foresee a requirement to enforce the judgment in the English courts, Ben commented: “Otherwise, you are going to have a piece of paper that is not going to be worth very much at the end of the day.”

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