From the time of the commencement of the action by service of summons, or by the filing of a complaint, or as otherwise provided, the court is deemed to have acquired jurisdiction and to have control of all subsequent proceedings.
RCW 4.28.020
Jurisdiction acquired, when.
Applied in 29 court decisions — leading case 58 Wash. App. 588 - Lindgren v. Lindgren (1990)
Most recently applied in 3 Wash. 3d 165 - Spencer v. Franklin Hills Health-Spokane, LLC (May 2024)
1984 c 76 s 2; 1895 c 86 s 4; 1893 c 127 s 15; RRS s 238.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Washington State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Washington statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.