To start a lawsuit by filing a complaint, you draft a document explaining who you’re suing and why, file it with the correct court along with a filing fee, and then arrange for a qualifying adult to formally deliver copies to the defendant. Before you do any of that, confirm the statute of limitations on your claim hasn’t run, because a missed deadline ends the case before a judge ever reads it.
Confirm Your Filing Deadline First
Every civil claim has a statute of limitations, and if you file after it expires the court will dismiss the case no matter how strong the underlying facts are. Deadlines vary by state and by claim type. Personal injury claims commonly run two or three years from the date of injury, with a few states as short as one year and others as long as six. Written contract deadlines range from three years in some states to ten or fifteen in others. Property damage, medical malpractice, fraud, and statute-specific claims each have their own clocks.
If you couldn’t reasonably have known about the harm when it happened, many states use a “discovery rule” that starts the clock when you learned or should have learned about the injury. Medical malpractice and toxic exposure cases often turn on that argument. Don’t assume it saves you, though. Some states impose a statute of repose that cuts off claims by a hard outer date regardless of when the harm was discovered.
Take Care of Pre-Suit Steps
Send a Demand Letter
A demand letter tells the other side what happened, what you believe they owe, and what you’ll do if they don’t resolve it by a specific date. It isn’t legally required for most claims, but it often prompts settlement, and judges and juries look more favorably on plaintiffs who tried to work things out before suing. Keep it factual, give a reasonable deadline (usually 30 days), and state that you’ll file suit if the demand isn’t met.
Preserve Your Evidence
Once litigation is reasonably foreseeable, you have a duty to preserve anything relevant: emails, texts, photos, contracts, medical records, financial statements. If you routinely delete old messages or your employer follows a document-destruction schedule, suspend those practices for anything connected to the dispute. Courts treat evidence destruction seriously, and even accidental loss can lead to sanctions or a jury instruction that the missing material would have helped the other side.
Check Whether Your Claim Needs an Administrative Step First
Some lawsuits can’t be filed in court until you’ve completed a mandatory administrative process, and skipping that step gets your case dismissed even if you’re within the statute of limitations. Employment discrimination is the leading example. If you’re suing under Title VII (race, sex, religion, or national origin) or the Americans with Disabilities Act, you must first file a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and receive a Notice of Right to Sue before you can go to federal court. The EEOC generally gets 180 days to investigate before issuing that letter, though it may issue one sooner in some situations. Age discrimination claims under the ADEA work differently: you can file suit 60 days after filing your EEOC charge without waiting for the Right to Sue letter.1U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. What You Can Expect After You File a Charge
Other pre-suit requirements come up with medical malpractice (many states require a certificate of merit from a medical expert or pre-suit mediation), claims against government entities (often a formal notice of claim within 60 to 90 days), and certain consumer protection claims. Check your specific claim type before drafting anything for court.
Decide Whether to Hire a Lawyer
You can represent yourself in any court, but that doesn’t make it wise for every case. Small claims and simple matters are workable on your own. Anything involving significant money, complex legal theories, or an opponent who will have a lawyer usually calls for representation. Attorney fee arrangements vary: hourly for contract and business disputes, contingency (typically one-third of any recovery, with nothing upfront) for personal injury, and flat fees for straightforward matters like simple debt collection. Many attorneys offer free or low-cost initial consultations.
Pick the Right Court
Jurisdiction
Jurisdiction is the court’s authority to hear your kind of case. State courts handle most civil lawsuits: contract disputes, personal injury, property damage, and similar claims. Federal courts hear a narrower set, mainly cases involving federal law (federal question jurisdiction) or disputes between citizens of different states where the amount at stake exceeds $75,000 (diversity jurisdiction).2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 U.S. Code 1332 – Diversity of Citizenship; Amount in Controversy; Costs If your case doesn’t fit either federal category, you’re filing in state court.
Venue
Even within the correct court system, you need the right geographic location. Venue rules generally point to the county or district where the defendant lives, where the defendant does business, or where the events happened. Filing in the wrong venue usually results in a transfer rather than dismissal, but it adds delay and cost.
Consider Small Claims Court
If your dispute is mostly about money and the amount fits under your state’s small claims limit, small claims court is faster, cheaper, and built for people without lawyers. Dollar caps range from around $2,500 to $25,000, with most states between $5,000 and $15,000. Filing fees are lower, procedures are less formal, and hearings often come within weeks. The tradeoff is limited relief and, in many states, no right to appeal a loss.
Draft the Complaint and Summons
The complaint is the document that officially starts the lawsuit. It tells the court and the defendant who you are, what happened, why the law entitles you to relief, and what you want the court to do. In federal court, the requirements are a short statement of the court’s jurisdiction, a short statement of the claim showing you’re entitled to relief, and a demand for the specific relief you want.3United States Courts. Civil Cases State courts follow similar patterns with their own formatting rules.
A workable complaint includes:
- A caption at the top identifying the court, all parties, and (once assigned) the case number.
- A jurisdictional statement explaining why this court can hear the case.
- Factual allegations laid out chronologically in numbered paragraphs, each carrying one fact or a set of closely related facts.4United States District Court Eastern District of California. Pro Se Package A Simple Guide to Filing a Civil Action
- Causes of action naming the legal theories (breach of contract, negligence, fraud, and so on), each tied to the facts that support it.
- A prayer for relief stating what you want the court to award: a specific dollar amount, an order requiring the defendant to do or stop doing something, or both.
Most courts publish fill-in-the-blank complaint forms online, and self-represented plaintiffs in federal court can request a pro se civil complaint packet from the clerk’s office. Even if you draft from scratch, reading a template helps you avoid common mistakes like omitting the jurisdictional statement or writing your facts as one long narrative instead of numbered paragraphs.
You’ll also prepare a summons: the court’s formal notice telling the defendant they’ve been sued and how many days they have to respond. In most courts you complete the summons form and submit it with the complaint, and the clerk signs and stamps it to make it official.
File the Complaint and Pay the Fee
Filing means delivering the complaint, summons, and any required attachments to the clerk of the court, either electronically, in person, or by mail. Many federal courts and a growing number of state courts use electronic filing systems that let you upload documents and pay fees online.
You’ll pay a filing fee when you submit. In federal district court, the standard fee for a new civil action is $405.5United States District Court Northern District of California. Court Fee Schedule State court fees vary widely, generally from under $100 to over $400. If you can’t afford the fee, you can apply for a fee waiver by showing financial hardship.
Once the clerk accepts the filing, the court assigns a case number you’ll put on every future document, and your complaint receives a timestamp. That timestamp is the official filing date for statute of limitations purposes. Keep copies of everything, including the stamped copies the clerk returns to you.
Serve the Defendant
Filing puts your case on the docket but doesn’t notify the defendant. That’s a separate step called service of process, and it’s a constitutional requirement. No court can act against a defendant who hasn’t been properly served.6Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 4 – Summons
How Service Works
The most common method is personal service: someone at least 18 years old, who isn’t a party to the lawsuit, hand-delivers the complaint and summons to the defendant.6Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 4 – Summons That person can be a professional process server, a sheriff’s deputy, or another qualifying adult. You cannot serve the papers yourself. Process server fees typically run $20 to $100, more for hard-to-locate defendants or rush jobs.
If personal service isn’t possible, most jurisdictions allow substituted service, meaning the papers can be left with a responsible adult at the defendant’s home or workplace. Some courts also allow service by certified mail with a return receipt. The rules differ between federal and state courts and among states, so check your court’s specific requirements before attempting service.
Waiver of Service in Federal Court
In federal court, you can mail the defendant a request to waive formal service. If the defendant agrees and returns the waiver, they get more time to respond: 60 days from when the request was sent, rather than the standard 21 days after personal service.6Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 4 – Summons If the defendant refuses without good cause, the court will make them pay the costs of the formal service you then had to arrange. Waiving service doesn’t waive any defenses the defendant might have.
The 90-Day Deadline
In federal court, you have 90 days from filing the complaint to complete service. Miss that and the court can dismiss the case, though it must give you a chance to show good cause for the delay before doing so.6Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 4 – Summons State deadlines vary but tend to be similar. Don’t wait until the final week; process servers often need multiple attempts to find a defendant.
File Proof of Service
After the defendant is served, the person who delivered the papers files a proof of service with the court stating who was served, when, where, and how. Without it on file, the court has no record that the defendant received notice, and the case stalls. If the defendant returned a waiver instead, filing the waiver takes the place of a proof of service.6Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 4 – Summons
What Happens After the Defendant Is Served
The Defendant’s Response
Once served, the defendant has a limited window to respond. In federal court, the standard deadline is 21 days after service to file an answer or a motion challenging the complaint. If service was waived, the defendant has 60 days from when the waiver request was sent.7Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 12 – Defenses and Objections When and How Presented State courts set their own deadlines, commonly 20 to 30 days. The defendant may answer, admitting or denying each allegation and raising defenses; file a motion to dismiss; or do nothing.
Default Judgment
If the defendant misses the response deadline, you can ask the clerk to enter a default, which is the official record that the defendant didn’t appear. You then request a default judgment. For claims seeking a specific dollar amount, the clerk can sometimes enter the judgment directly. For anything else, you appear before a judge and present evidence supporting the relief you want.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 55 – Default Courts scrutinize defaults, you still have to prove damages, and judges can set a default aside if the defendant later offers a reasonable excuse.
Discovery Begins
If the defendant does respond, the case moves into discovery, the phase where both sides exchange information, documents, and sworn testimony. In federal court, the parties must meet early to discuss a discovery plan and make initial disclosures of key witnesses and documents.9Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 26 – Duty to Disclose General Provisions Governing Discovery Discovery is where most litigation time and expense lives, and where many cases settle.
A Word on Filing Without a Real Basis
Courts can penalize plaintiffs who file lawsuits that lack factual or legal support. Under federal rules, every complaint carries an implicit certification that the claims are supported by existing law, that the factual allegations have evidentiary backing, and that the filing isn’t meant to harass or delay. If a court finds a violation, it can impose sanctions ranging from fines to orders reimbursing the other side’s legal fees. Before a sanctions motion is filed, the opposing party must give you 21 days’ notice, during which you can withdraw or correct the filing to avoid the penalty.10Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 11 – Signing Pleadings, Motions, and Other Papers Representations to the Court Sanctions If your facts are real and your legal theory is reasonable, you have nothing to worry about.