Rule 3.Commencement of action

A Delaware Superior Court action starts with two documents, not one: a complaint (or, where a statute calls for it, a petition or statement of claim) and a praecipe directing the Prothonotary which writ to issue. The plaintiff files enough copies of the complaint for service on every defendant, and an amicable action starts differently still, by filing the parties' own agreement on what's at issue. Every new complaint also comes with a Case Information Statement, which the rule is careful to describe as administrative only — it carries no legal effect on the case. If a party disagrees with how another party listed related cases on that statement, the objection has to reach the Prothonotary within 10 days of the last responsive pleading, and any other party gets 5 days to respond; the Civil Administrative Judge handles the dispute and, with the President Judge's sign-off, can reassign the case.

Filing costs money up front, and Rule 3(e) sets the figures directly: a $200 nonrefundable deposit before the Prothonotary will file anything or docket any proceeding, with more collected as fees and costs use it up. Any part of that $200 left over at the end of the case isn't returned — the Prothonotary's office keeps it. A third-party complaint triggers its own separate $200 deposit, and a request for a special jury adds a nonrefundable deposit of at least $750. A plaintiff who isn't a Delaware resident when the complaint is filed, or who later moves out of state, can also be ordered to post security for costs, on 5 days' notice and motion, with dismissal as the consequence of not posting it. On the back end, Rule 3(g) gives the Prothonotary 60 days to try to collect awarded costs from the losing party before remitting whatever's left to the party who made the original deposit.

Rule 3(c) and (d) cover appeals de novo to the Superior Court. The praecipe has to be filed within whatever time a statute sets for the appeal, or, if no statute speaks to it, within 15 days of the judgment or order being appealed. The appellant files the certified record of the proceedings below within 10 days of filing the praecipe, and there's no stay of what happened below unless the Court orders one under Rule 62(c).

Rule 3(h) adds a distinctly Delaware requirement for personal injury cases: the plaintiff has to attach expedited discovery to the complaint itself, not wait for a discovery request. That means answers to the interrogatories in Superior Court Civil Rule Form 30, copies of documentary evidence on special damages (or a sworn explanation of why they're not yet available), and, if lost wages are part of the claim, three years of income tax returns — filed as an exhibit, sealed, or backed by a sworn promise to produce them once the defendant appears. The same obligation falls on anyone asserting a personal injury counterclaim, cross-claim, or third-party complaint, though the Court can waive any of it for good cause.