Definition of summons
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Old French sumunce (modern French semonce), from popular Latin *summonsa, a noun use of the feminine past participle of summonere ‘to summon'.
Noun
summons (plural summonses)
- A call to do something, especially to come.
- (law) A notice summoning someone to appear in court, as a defendant, juror or witness.
Verb
summons (third-person singular simple present summonses, present participle summonsing, simple past and past participle summonsed)
- (transitive) To serve someone with a summons.
* 2007: It proposes that those held in the prototype Selfridges cells be kept for a maximum of four hours to have their identity confirmed and be charged, summonsed or given a fine. - The Guardian, 15 Mar 2007, p. 1
Further reading
Legally, a summons (also known in England and Wales as a claim form) is a legal document issued by a court (a judicial summons) or by an administrative agency of government (an administrative summons) for various purposes.
Judicial summons
A judicial summons is addressed to a defendant in a legal proceeding. Typically, the summons will announce to the person to whom it is directed that a legal proceeding has been started against that person, and that a case has been initiated in the issuing court. In some jurisdictions it may be drafted in dense legal jargon, while several U.S. states expressly require summonses to be drafted in plain English and that they must start with this phrase: "Notice! You have been sued."
The summons announces a date by which the defendant(s) must either appear in court, or respond in writing to the court or the opposing party or parties. The summons is the descendant of the writ of the common law. It replaces the former procedure at common law by which the plaintiff actually had to ask the sheriff to arrest the defendant in order for the court to obtain personal jurisdiction in both criminal and civil actions.
In England and Wales, the term writ of summons for the originating document in civil proceedings has been replaced with the term claim form by the Civil Procedure Rules 1998 (CPR). This is part of the reforms to simplify legal terminology. However, despite its name, the claim form does not present the details of the claim itself (in other words, it does not replace the complaint). The complaint is now known as the particulars of claim.
In most U.S. jurisdictions, the service of a summons is in most cases required for the court to have personal jurisdiction over the party who is being "hauled" into court involuntarily. The process by which a summons is served is called service of process. The form and content of service in the federal courts is governed by Rule 4 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and the rules of many state courts are similar. The federal summons is usually issued by the clerk of the court. In many states the summons may be issued by an attorney, but some states use filing as the means to commence an action and in those states the attorney must first file the summons in duplicate before it becomes effective; one or more copies are stamped by the court clerk with the court seal and returned to the attorney, who then uses it to actually serve the defendants. Other jurisdictions may only require that the summons be filed after it is served on the defendants. New York is notorious for its permissive filing system, in which the summons or complaint need not be filed at all.
Citation
A citation, traffic violation ticket or notice to appear is a type of summons prepared and served at the scene of the occurrence by a law enforcement official, compelling the appearance of a defendant before the local magistrate within a certain period of time to answer for a minor traffic infraction or misdemeanor or other summary offence. Failure to appear within the allotted period of time is a separate crime of failure to appear.
Civil Summons
A Civil Summons is most often accompanied by a complaint. Depending on the type of summons, there is often an option to endorse your summons so you can identify the entity you are trying to serve. In the U.S. court system in California, for civil unlimited cases in the superior court, a summons will often have 1-4 options to endorse. 1 is as an individual. 2. is as the person sued under the fictitious name of (specify):. 3. is on behalf of (usually for a company). 4. is by personal delivery on (date):
References:
- Wiktionary. Published under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
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