传票subpoena

传票subpoena subpoena is a command, issued in the name of a court, ordering a person to testify or turn over evidence. If the recipient fails to comply with the subpoena without an excuse recognized by law, he or she may be held in contempt of court. There are two types of subpoenas. A subpoena ad testificandum, often referred to simply as a “subpoena,” compels the person designated to attend a hearing or a deposition for the purpose of testifying. A subpoena duces tecum orders the production of documents or other tangible things. Subpoenas are critical to the functioning of the judicial system. In civil matters, subpoenas are the primary means of obtaining testimony and tangible evidence from persons who are not parties to the case. They serve this function during both pretrial discovery and at trial. Unless a nonparty is served with a subpoena, he or she generally cannot (1) be compelled to testify at a deposition, a hearing, or a trial, or (2) be required to produce documents or things. In criminal cases, the government utilizes subpoenas to conduct investigations into illegal activity. Both defendants and the government must use subpoenas if a witness is unwilling to testify or produce documents and evidence. The subpoena power is a broad one. A subpoena generally may seek any testimony or tangible evidence relevant to the case. This includes materials in the possession of a subpoena recipient that belong to someone else. Nevertheless, the subpoena power does have limits. Subpoenas may not direct that a person give testimony or produce tangible evidence that is irrelevant to the case or that is protected by a privilege, such as the attorney-client privilege or the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. A subpoena duces tecum also may not order a person to produce tangible evidence if doing so would be unduly burdensome. While a court usually may enforce a subpoena served on any person in the same state, this authority does not extend beyond the boundaries of the state except in rare circumstances, such as federal criminal cases. To obtain testimony or documents from a person in another state, the subpoena must be issued by the court where the witness is located and enforced by that court. When a party receiving a subpoena ad testificandum believes that the subpoena seeks testimony on irrelevant or privileged matters, he or she generally may not challenge the command to appear. Instead, the witness must wait and, during the examination, object to any questions that would require disclosing irrelevant or privileged information. However, in the case of a subpoena duces tecum that requests privileged or irrelevant material, the recipient may ask the court to quash it. Where complying with a subpoena duces tecum would be unreasonable or burdensome, the court may either quash the subpoena or place conditions upon compliance, such as the payment of reasonable expenses incurred when producing the documents or things. The subpoena form itself generally needs to list the name of the court from which it is issued, the title of the case, and the name of the court where the case is pending. It must also state whether the person designated is to appear and testify, produce tangible evidence, or both. A subpoena duces tecum has to specify the types of documents desired. Subpoenas are issued in the court’s name, but in most states and the federal system attorneys found protected expression in T-shirts that bear messages.