Summons

A summons is an official command from a court requiring someone to appear in court to be tried for a criminal offence. This is the normal way of dealing with most offences, especially minor ones. An information is filed in the court and then the Court will mail the defendant a summons. It is a standard form which will have been typed over to include all the details about the defendant and the offence.

On the following example, words in italics are the added details of the defendant.