Can You Get Out of a Subpoena for Medical Reasons

In March 2018, an investigator was held in antipathy of court and jailed for refusing to testify during an appeal for the capital punishment of a Colorado man, because of her personal opposition to the death penalization.

A subpoena, according to Colorado criminal defense chaser Iris Eytan, is "a witness summons that is issued by a court." Information technology's an official court lodge requested by an chaser, compelling someone to practise something. There are two types of subpoena:

1. subpoena ad testificandum: a request for witness testimony
2. amendment duces tecum: a request for product of documents

An chaser can amendment someone to obtain data relevant to their criminal case or civil case. Eytan says a subpoena will usually be signed past an attorney, demanding that a witness come to a court hearing at the address and appointment listed. Both kinds of amendment must be served to the witness personally. Eytan says that the person to practice so, a process server, must be at to the lowest degree eighteen years of age and non associated with the case. It can be an investigator or a paralegal, but not an interested party such equally a witness. The procedure server must serve the document by hand. "You lot tin can't get out it on their doorstep," says Eytan. "It can't exist mailed to them. Otherwise, it's non valid."

If a procedure server hands someone a amendment and they turn down it, but they've physically taken it, and the procedure server is sure of the identity of the witness, then that is still valid, and the person has been served. If a procedure server hands someone a amendment and they drop it on the basis, and the server is sure of their identity, that is also valid.

There is an pick to waive personal service. It is legal to post subpoenas, but Eytan says the all-time practise is for the attorney to talk to the witness and enquire them if they'll mail it back. "On every subpoena, there's a section at the bottom that says, 'I'll waive my right for yous to serve me paw to paw,'" she says. "They tin sign that slice of paper and send it dorsum maxim, 'OK, you lot don't need to serve me. I've received it. I acknowledge it.'"

A lawyer tin can be authorized to have a subpoena on your behalf. A lawyer can also challenge the subpoena. "Let'south say you're a therapist and they want your client'south records," says Eytan. "It's advisable to get a lawyer, because you don't want to violate the rules of your licensure. If you're a witness, let's say you're scared that y'all're going to get hurt if you show up in court, you might want to accept a lawyer asserting your rights and helping protect y'all."

Alleged criminals can get public defenders, but witnesses aren't provided with gratuitous counsel. If you want legal protection, information technology is important to talk with an experienced criminal defense force lawyer.

There are consequences to fugitive service and non complying with a subpoena. "If yous're served with a amendment or you waive service and you practice not show up, and then you lot volition be held in contempt of courtroom," says Eytan.

Fifty-fifty if you lot don't want to testify—say, confronting someone you know, like a family member or friend—and yous go to court but refuse to answer questions, you lot tin can besides face contempt of court charges and potential jail time. "You can serve up to six months in jail or you tin can be fined," Eytan says. "Judges have been known in Colorado—especially in loftier-contour cases where they might need a witness—to jail somebody."

According to Eytan, if you receive a subpoena requesting documents, the documents need to be delivered to court before or on the appointment requested. You don't demand to appear in court, only you can drop off the records. To object the amendment, you must still show up in court with the documents. The judge will take the documents but volition not await at them or give them to anyone.

"What's the reason yous want to quash the subpoena, and then these are not produced to the parties?" says Eytan. "The person tin can come to court and state they don't think it's fair that these documents are going to become role of the case for numerous reasons. They're medical records and they're private; they're confidential because they're chaser-client records; they include mental health records; they're school records; or the request was too voluminous—it's overwhelming and they can't go the documents together."

Under Colorado law, Eytan says a person has to be subpoenaed inside 48 hours of the court date. If they're served 24 hours before, they all the same have to come to courtroom and explicate that they were not served within the timeframe.

If someone is fugitive service, there'south not much attorneys tin can practice. However, an attorney tin can pay a sheriff to serve an individual. "If you hire the sheriff'southward office to practice it, they're not going to be innately involved in the case, so they're non going to empathise the moves of that individual," says Eytan. "Only sometimes, people are more likely to respond if in that location's a sheriff at their door."

For more information on this area of law, see our overview of criminal defence.

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Source: https://www.superlawyers.com/colorado/article/how-you-can-and-cant-get-out-of-a-subpoena/d5479fd9-0807-49e1-b9d1-142763299976.html

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