Whether you have served a subpoena makes all the difference between a valid or invalid court order. You have a constitutional right to a summons service, which summons you to a hearing at a specific date and time and which tells you exactly what the trial will be.
You may get an order signed by a judge that requires a certain action or payment of money. Maybe you get a summons to court that results in an injunction being issued against you – or maybe not. If you take the order to an attorney to hire him to help you with legal advice on the order, he really should ask if you’ve served a summons to court in the first place. If you are not served a subpoena, the judge’s order is not legally valid (and should be challenged on that basis as soon as possible), because your legal rights were violated when the trial was held without you.
The saying goes, “The easiest way to win an argument is to keep your opponent’s mouth shut.” If the hearing is held without a summons, your mouth is effectively duct tape. An attorney you hire must be willing to assert your right to call service, and I recommend that you get the attorney to commit to doing so in a written contract with you.
The summons must include a motion. A motion can be referred to by other names such as petition, plea, process, etc. While a motion can be presented without a summons, a summons to the court must include a motion telling what the trial is about. A motion is a written request made by one party against another in a lawsuit, and submitted to a judge to take action by issuing an order at their request. A motion has no force unless and until it is signed, in whole or in part, by a judge, which turns the motion into a court order. However, the motion must be submitted to the other party before the trial, stating the date and time of the trial, so that the trial and the signed order become valid.
Summons literally call, or summon, (1) the other party to come to court at a certain date and time; (2) the other party provides a written response to the motion within a certain period of time; or (3) both. You can see the huge loss you will incur if you don’t get a call and why this is an important issue for your legal success. Don’t let the other party shut your mouth!