A summons is a document issued by a court to an individual or an enterprise as a medium of intimating that person or enterprise about the institution of suit, petition or complaint in which he or she has been made a party. A court can issue summons in civil case as well as a criminal case. The summons contains necessary information such as the names of plaintiff and defendant, the title and file number of the case, the details of the court and the name and address of the plaintiff’s attorney if there is one. The summons also contains instructions on how to file the response and mentions the time period allowed to file the response.
All the parties to the lawsuit have the legal right to get a copy of the petition, complaint etc. along with the summons. This is done to ensure that all the parties have got a reasonable opportunity and time to put up their version of the story before the court. The law puts the burden on the person who has approached the court for relief i.e. Plaintiff or Complainant, to serve the documents on the opposite party i.e. Accused, Defendant or Respondent. The summons and other documents may be served by a sheriff or other authorized person for service of process, called a process server.
The service of documents within the same state or country is not that complicated as the process is clear. You may chose to serve the documents on the other party by any one or more means which are specified in the rules of the court related to process service. In cases where the opposite party deliberately avoids the acceptance of documents, the task of serving the documents become a bit hectic. The professional process servers can help you in such circumstances.
When you are required to serve documents upon a party living in some other country, you will have to be very careful and act on the advise of an attorney who has relevant experience. The mode of service which you should opt for depends on various factors, the most important being law of the state where the court is located. In some cases, service of documents by a personal process server is the best option whereas in some cases the service should be done through Hague Service Convention method. We have a wide network of process servers in India and can serve the documents in an efficient manner.