A Rhode Island Summons on a Third-Party Complaint is a legal document that is used in the state of Rhode Island to notify a third party that they are being added to an existing lawsuit as a defendant. The summons is issued by the court and served to the third party, who then must appear in court to answer the complaint. There are two types of summons: a standard summons and an alias summons. A standard summons is used when the third party is being added to an existing lawsuit, and an alias summons is used when the third party is being added to a new lawsuit. Both types of summons require that the third party appear in court on a specified date to answer the complaint.