A lawsuit begins with the filing of a complaint in court.
Nothing happens in a lawsuit until the complaint is delivered to the parties who are being sued.
This is called service of process. No one on a campus is authorized to accept service upon the California State University as an entity. Process servers seeking to effect service on CSU should be directed to the Office of the General Counsel. If you are named personally as a defendant, you are the only person authorized to accept service on your own behalf, unless you have specifically authorized someone else, such as the Office of General Counsel, to accept service for you. You should write down the time, date and manner of your receipt of the complaint, and immediately advise your supervisor, who will send that information, along with copies of all documents you were provided, to the Office of the General Counsel.