There are several cases when characterisation is not made by the lex fori:

The arguments adopted by judges to apply the lex fori include:

The law of that state, as lex fori, will prescribe any special procedures to be followed where service is to be effected abroad.

Note that Lex Fori also applies to all procedural relief (as opposed to substantive relief).

Lex Fori - In many cases, courts simply avoid this complicated and expensive analysis by applying their local law to the parties' entire property, even if there is a foreign element.

Lex Fori refers to the law of the forum, which means the law that the Court naturally applies (e.g. Greek court would apply Greek law)

Compliance with the procedural rules of the lex fori will not ensure that enforcement, for State B may impose its own requirements and is likely to scrutinise default judgments with particular care.

In divorce cases, when a court is attempting to distribute marital property, if the divorcing couple is local and the property is local, then the court applies its domestic law lex fori.

The lex fori will be satisfied by proof that the plaintiff has secured the service of the documents on the defendant abroad, either by taking them personally or (much more usually) by employing an agent.

If the parties have selected a jurisdiction as the place for the resolution of a dispute, the implication is that the courts may nevertheless apply their lex fori which includes their general choice of law principles.

Furthermore, the lex fori will prevail in cases where an application of the lex causae would otherwise result in a fundamentally immoral outcome, or give extraterritorial effect to confiscatory or other territorially limited laws.

In both cases, once jurisdiction has been established, the lex fori will be applied to determine whether the local ground(s) of divorce have been satisfied and, if so, the marriage will be terminated with or without ancillary orders being made.

Assuming that there are no public policy issues raised under the relevant lex fori, the domiciliary law should apply to define all major issues and so produce an in rem outcome no matter where the case might be litigated.

The second objective is to ensure that creditors receive the same protection irrespective of the place at which the matter has been brought before the courts: it would be very odd if the so-called lex fori criterion led to a substantial variation in the protection afforded to creditors.