Full question:
My daughter got served by Montana State University. Although she's been living in Bozeman, MT for the past 4 years, the summons was filed in Riverside Superior Court, CA. Speaking with their attorney, they stated that my daughter will be served in Montana as well, making her have TWO lawsuits for the one debt. We're trying to figure out if she'll require two separate counsels for two separate summons.
- Category: Civil Actions
- Subcategory: Service
- Date:
- State: California
Answer:
A summons is a paper issued by a court informing a person that a complaint has been filed against her. It is not the lawsuit itself. The party bringing a lawsuit (plaintiff) must notify the opponent/defendant that a lawsuit has been filed. The summons states the name of both plaintiff and defendant, the title and file number of the case, the court and its address, the name and address of the plaintiff's attorney, and instructions on how to file a required response to the complaint within a certain time (such as 30 days after service), usually with a form on the back on which information of service of summons and complaint is to be filled out and signed by the process server. A copy of the summons must be served on each defendant at the same time as the complaint to start the time running for the defendant to answer. After service to the defendants, the original summons, along with the "return of service" proving the summons and complaint were served, is filed with the court to show that each defendant was served. An alias summons is a second summons and a pluries summons is a subsequent summons.
It is possible that the plaintiff attempts to locate the defendant in multiple places and serves him/her in more than one place. If that is the situation, then the multiple summons would still refer to the same underlying case.
If the underlying case involves a debt in a particular state where both parties reside, where the debt was incurred, etc., and the case was instituted outside that state, there may be an issue with the choice of venue. In other words, if the issue at hand involves collection of a debt (contract default) and the debt was incurred in Montana between 2 Montana parties, then it could be appropriate to challenge the choice of venue if the lawsuit was started in California.
But the only contact with California was the service of the summons for a Montana lawsuit, then it may not be an issue.
One attorney who is experienced in civil procedure as well as contract law could represent you in the defense of the collection action.
This content is for informational purposes only and is not legal advice. Legal statutes mentioned reflect the law at the time the content was written and may no longer be current. Always verify the latest version of the law before relying on it.
