Each legal jurisdiction has rules and discrete terminology regarding the appropriate procedures for serving legal documents on a person being sued or subject to legal proceedings. In the U.S. legal system, service of process is the procedure by which a party to a lawsuit gives an appropriate notice of initial legal action to another party (such as a defendant), court, or administrative body in an effort to exercise jurisdiction over that person so as to force that person to respond to the proceeding in a court, body, or other tribunal. Notice is furnished by delivering a set of court documents (called "process") to the person to be served.
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👉 Service of process in the context of Legal dispute
Legal proceeding is an activity that seeks to invoke the power of a tribunal in order to enforce a law. Although the term may be defined more broadly or more narrowly as circumstances require, it has been noted that "[t]he term legal proceedings includes proceedings brought by or at the instigation of a public authority, and an appeal against the decision of a court or tribunal". Legal proceedings are generally characterized by an orderly process in which participants or their representatives are able to present evidence in support of their claims, and to argue in favor of particular interpretations of the law, after which a judge, jury, or other trier of fact makes a determination of the factual and legal issues.
- Activities needed to have a court deem legal process to have been provided, such as through service of process.
- Conduct of a trial, whether a lawsuit or civil trial, or a criminal trial.
- Issuance and enforcement of court orders, including those imposing foreclosure or receivership.
- Hearings, particularly administrative hearings.
- Arbitration.
In the United States, Congressional hearings are not generally considered legal proceedings, as they are generally not directed towards the imposition of a penalty against a specific individual for a specific wrong. However, impeachment proceedings are generally conducted as legal proceedings, although experts dispute the question of whether they are primarily legal proceedings, or are merely political proceedings dressed in legal formalities and language. Richard Posner, for example, has asserted that it was "the intent of the framers of the Constitution that an impeachment proceeding be primarily a legal proceeding, akin to a criminal prosecution, rather than a political one".
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Service of process in the context of Legal process
Legal process (sometimes simply process) is any formal notice or writ by a court obtaining jurisdiction over a person or property. Common forms of process include a summons, subpoena, mandate, and warrant. Process normally takes effect by serving it on a person, arresting a person, posting it on real property, or seizing personal property.
Service of process in the context of Civil procedure
Civil procedure is the body of law that sets out the rules and regulations along with some standards that courts follow when adjudicating civil lawsuits (as opposed to procedures in criminal law matters). These rules govern how a lawsuit or case may be commenced; what kind of service of process (if any) is required; the types of pleadings or statements of case, motions or applications, and orders allowed in civil cases; the timing and manner of depositions and discovery or disclosure; the conduct of trials; the process for judgment; the process for post-trial procedures; various available remedies; and how the courts and clerks must function.
Service of process in the context of English civil procedure
The rules of civil procedure in England and Wales that govern the conduct of litigation in the civil courts primarily stem from the Civil Procedure Rules adopted in 1999 as part of the Woolf Reforms, but also from the accompanying Practice Directions, other legislation and case law.
The rules that apply differ depending on the type of claim, but ultimately govern the entire cycle of a case before the courts, including the steps that must be undertaken before the claim is issued, service to the other parties, allocation of the case to the different tracks, adding or substituting parties to a claim, default judgment, summary judgment, striking out all or part of a claim, and disclosure of evidence. The rules also deal with how hearings are conducted both pre-trial and at trial, as well as the remedies (both interim and final) that the court can grant, how they are enforced or appealed, and the assessment of costs.