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
Tag Archives: Legal Process
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
The Content of an Answer: Third-Party Claims
Sometimes, when a defendant gets a complaint, the defendant wants to say: What happened to the plaintiff isn’t my fault. It is the fault of another party. The defendant might raise this argument as an affirmative defense, or the defendant might Continue reading The Content of an Answer: Third-Party Claims