Rule 1-003 Commencement of action.

A lawsuit officially starts when someone files a complaint with the court. The complaint is the document that lays out what the case is about and what the person filing it wants.

When the complaint is filed, the court clerk marks it with the exact time and date it was received. This timestamp matters because it sets the official start date of the case. That date can affect deadlines later on, like how much time someone has to respond or whether the case was filed before a legal time limit ran out.

In short, filing the complaint is the first legal step in starting a lawsuit, and the date it's filed becomes an important marker for everything that follows.