Summary Everything You Must Know About Each Type of Summons
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Course
Law
Institution
Law
In these VERY IMPORTANT notes, we discuss each type of summons, the contents of each as well as when the summons in question should be utilized to institute proceedings.
We also look at the differences between the summons and the notice of motion, and explain when to use each.
EVERYTHING YOU MUST KNOW ABOUT EACH TYPE OF
SUMMONS
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1. What is a summons?
A summons is a court issued document which commences the litigious process.
We prefer to consider the service of the summons as the step that commences
the litigious process, but this is neither here nor there.
The summons is addressed to the sheriff and directs said sheriff to serve the
summons and explain the plaintiff’s/plaintiffs’ claim, the procedural steps and
relevant time limits to be followed by the defendant/s to dispute the claim.
The sheriff in question will be the relevant sheriff who has jurisdiction over the
service addresses. You could be instructing several sheriffs, depending on the
number of addresses at which you will be serving the summons.
There are three types of summonses, namely the:
• simple summons;
• combined summons; and
• provisional sentence summons.
Strictly speaking, there is another type of summons referred to as the
interpleader summons, but there are vast differences between this type of
summons and the previous three just mentioned. In fact, it doesn’t feel right
referring to the interpleader as a ‘summons’. The interpleader summons will not
be discussed in this episode but will be addressed in a later video.
In practice, you will MOSTLY draft combined summonses, SOMETIMES draft
simple summonses, and very RARELY draft provisional sentence summonses.
Nevertheless, let’s briefly have a look at the three types of summonses, starting
first with the most ‘simple’ type, namely the simple summons.
2. The simple summons
2.1. What is a simple summons?
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As mentioned already, a summons is a court issued document which
commences the litigation process. This definition applies to the simple
summons.
A simple summons is a document which contains the particulars of the
plaintiff's/plaintiffs’ claim in the actual body of the summons. When we refer
to the particulars of a simple summons, we mean the most obvious thereof,
for example, the agreement, the breach and the amount due to the plaintiff/s
by the defendant/s.
Whereas a combined summons comprises the summons together with the
particulars of claim, a simple summons does not have particulars of claim
annexed thereto. Do not get confused between particulars OF THE claim
and particulars of claim. Particulars of claim is a pleading.
Instead, as already mentioned, very brief particulars of the claim are
included in the body of the simple summons itself. Therefore, as you can
imagine, there is a limit to what can be claimed in a simple summons. This
will be touched on in much greater detail shortly.
If a notice of intention to defend is received after the service of the simple
summons, the next step would be for the plaintiff/s to deliver a declaration.
A declaration is the equivalent to the particulars of claim incorporated in the
combined summons.
2.2. When should I utilize a simple summons?
In terms of Rule 17(2) of the Uniform Rules of Court and Rule 5(2)(b) of the
Magistrates’ Courts Rules, the simple summons may be issued where the
claim is founded on a DEBT OR LIQUIDATED DEMAND. We have
previously touched on what a debt or liquidated demand is, but we are going
to get deep with the expression now.
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