Although federal court requires an additional document, a civil action cover sheet, generally, you need only two documents to start a lawsuit. In most instances, those documents are a summons and a Continue reading The Summons and Complaint
Category Archives: Summons & Complaint
Starting a Lawsuit: The Filing of a Summons and Complaint
In practical terms, the starting of a lawsuit is an easy step. The plaintiff or someone on behalf of the plaintiff, takes the original, and an appropriate number of copies of the summons and complaint to the clerk of the court, and presents these documents and the filing fee. The clerk’s office takes Continue reading Starting a Lawsuit: The Filing of a Summons and Complaint
Notice to the Other Party: Service of the Summons and Complaint
The next step in litigation after starting the lawsuit is to give notice to the party being sued, the defendant, of the lawsuit. In broad terms, this would seem to be a simple step. After all, in serving the summons and complaint, the plaintiff is only delivering a copy of those documents to the defendant. However, there are elaborate rules governing this step, and this step Continue reading Notice to the Other Party: Service of the Summons and Complaint