The legal process of initiating a divorce begins (in the U.S.A.) with filing a lawsuit. A divorce action is a legal action filed in court, just as a lawsuit for a breach of contract, for personal injury, for eviction, etc. is also filed in court.
After the divorce complaint or petition is filed with the appropriate court, the spouse against whom the divorce action is filed must be “served with process,” so that the court can exercise jurisdiction over the spouse, i.e., the other party to the lawsuit. That means serving the spouse with a summons and a copy of the complaint or petition for divorce (some states require that the spouse be served with other documents as well).
These are the first two steps in the legal process of seeking a divorce.
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