Service of process
| Civil procedure in the United States | 
|---|
| Jurisdiction | 
|  | 
| Venue | 
| Pleadings | 
|  | 
| Pretrial procedure | 
| Resolution without trial | 
| Trial | 
|  | 
| Appeal | 
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.