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Anonymous. Have you ever used the EU Small Claims Procedure, or the EU Judgments regulation? I have.

I have been waiting for one year for the Irish courts to register a certified EU procedure judgment from England and Wales. ONE YEAR. And that's in a state that is similar to us in systems and uses the same language. Sent me 19 EURO banker's draft, and endless reams of paper, and endless certificates and affidavits to the Registrar of County Kildare. Twice.

Believe it or not, their courts are actually worse than ours - and that's saying something! On the one ocassion each month they actually answer the phone, they ask "when did you send it in". "Oh March, we'll not have got to that yet, bye."

I've tried both Italy and Spain in years past and in the end both clients simply gave up as they were just money pits sucking endless amounts of cash and making no progress.

And the French Huissiers de Justice (bailiffs) no how to charge fees like nobody's business.

Of course the system isn't supposed to be like that. But it is. So don't kid me that we're going to lose out something significant by Brexit.

Service using Hague rules and enforcement relying on comity in the USA (non EU member state) is actually much, much easier than using EU regulations believe it or not.