Plain Language Translations of American Divorce Law
175court must also send copies of those papers to the opposing party in such a
way that it can be proved later that the opposing party actually received
those papers. The usual procedure is for the first party to file three copies
(or more) of all the necessary forms with the court clerk, who stamps the
copies with the case number assigned to the case. One copy is retained by
the court. The first party (party filing the case) must then arrange to have a
second copy hand delivered to the opposing party by an uninvolved third
person, who then signs a paper (the “return of service”) stating that he
delivered the papers. The third person then returns the signed “return of
service” to the first party, who files it with the court.
There are a number of alternative procedures available to accomplish
the same thing. These are meant to handle special situations, such as when
the receiving party refuses to be served or lives outside of the state where
the case was filed. Of course, all these available alternatives add to the
confusion created by the procedure.
This whole procedure is called “service of process”. To hand the
papers to the other party is to “serve” the papers. The “process” portion of
this procedure is often defined for the non-specialist in this instance as
“written notice to appear in court”,^16 but “process” is elsewhere often
defined as a wide variety of other actions or things, such as “action,”
“conduct,” “proceedings,” “line of action,” “manner”, “performance”,
“methodology”, “procedure”, and many more. In other words, the use of
the term “process” in American law is generally as broad as the use of the
term in everyday life. Serving the papers to the opposing party is
necessary for a case to begin, since the date of the service is the date from
which the parties must count to determine how much time the opposing
party has to file his response to the case with the court and serve his papers
in return to the originating party.^17 Serving the papers starts the “process”,
(^16) This definition was taken from a set of instructions for self-represented litigants
by the Northwest Justice Project, which is the legal aid agency that handles divorce
cases in Washington State. The actual written notice that the case has begun is
called a “summons”. It is one of the forms that are delivered to the opposing party
during service of process, along with the original pleading, such as a “complaint”
or “petition”, and several other documents as needed. There is no actual form
called “process”. This is one of those instances that exemplify the problem noted
by Araúz, Faber, and Martínez of poor quality of definitions when terminology is
left to professions in the field, even when they have the best of intentions (Araúz et
al. 2012: 95-96).
(^17) A rule of the court specifies the amount of time to respond, depending on the
type of case and type of service of process provided, usually between 20 and 90
days.