Summons

Summons is required per Minn Stat. 518.091 for any new family court case (divorce, custody, parenting time, 3rd party custody). It essentially initiates the proceedings (or lawsuit) and notifies the other party that the proceeding has been initiated, their deadline to respond, and conditions they must follow now that the case has started (restraining provisions).

(b) Upon service of the summons, the restraining provisions contained in the notice apply by operation of law upon both parties until modified by further order of the court or dismissal of the proceeding, unless more than one year has passed since the last document was filed with the court.

The form is pretty simple with very few things that need to be filled in. Always use the most updated version in mycase (Summons – Dissolution or Summons – Custody)

1. Make sure you include the court district and county in the caption
2. In a dissolution, update the caption to indicate if it is with or without real estate
   1. If there is real estate, will need to keep the language about real estate, add the address, and legal description (or “Legal to Govern”)
   2. If no real estate, delete that part
3. If there are no kids, you can delete the language that talks about the parenting education course.