From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishserve a summons/writ etcserve a summons/writ etcSCLto officially send or give someone a written order to appear in a court of law → serve
Examples from the Corpus
serve a summons/writ etc• Voice over Jaguar has already served a writ on one customer who withdrew his order.• In some ways it's like serving a writ, only in this circumstance it's entirely beneficial to the recipient. 