What to do about a Subpoena?

[alligatorob]

Florida

A server is trying to find my wife to serve her with a subpoena to testify at a trial next week. She is a social worker and the odds are this has something to do with her work but we don’t really know what it is about. She has not been contacted by anyone other than the server and the server has only left messages on her phone.

The problem is that she is leaving on a business trip Sunday and will be over 1000 miles away out of state all week. It’s a business trip and canceling will be a big problem and will cost us a lot of money.

What happens if the server finds her before she leaves? Can she be compelled to cancel the trip and stay to testify? Would it make sense to return the servers calls and talk about this or would she be wise to dodge service until she gets out of town?

 

[seniorjudge]

You're wasting time.

Find out who is trying to subpoena her and ask that whoever to ask the court for a continuance.

 

[alligatorob]

Thanks for the advice Senior Judge we tried to follow it, but no luck so far. My wife has called to server twice, last night she spoke to the server's husband who told her the server was too sick to come to the phone. This morning my wife tried again and just got the server's voice mail, a message was left but so far no call back.

Then my wife tried calling the judge’s clerk (this is a small county and only 1 judge does family court things so it was just a guess on the judge). The clerk said she couldn’t do anything for my wife, she couldn’t excuse the subpoena and she could not tell my wife what case it might be or what it might be about. Anyway Friday is running out and my wife has tickets to leave town on Sunday morning. What will the consequences be if she does not get served until it is too late to contact the court? What are the consequences of trying to dodge the server until my wife leaves town (now that she has acknowledged knowing about this)?

She really has no idea what this is about, but as a social worker she does sometimes get subpoenaed to testify in a case in family court, so that is out best guess. This would however be the first time she was called as a witness without first being contacted by the party who wanted her to testify. This all seems very strange to me, but we don't want to violate the law and we don't want my wife to have to cancel her trip.

 

[lwpat]

They can't claim that she is dodging service since she has called the process server and the court. Dodging service is not illegal anyway, people do it all the time.

 

[abercrombie]

Served: Must I appear?

Georgia

I have a similar situation. I was served a subpoena to appear to give a deposition in an attorney's office in a matter where one party is sueing a corporation I worked for 2 years ago. I don't mind giving a deposition but I was served 3 days in advance and have a non-refundable plane ticket and will be out of town. The attorney called me two days ago and I told him I would be out of town but he's ignored that.

This seems unreasonable - must I appear and cancel my plans? Can I simply send him an overnight letter that I am unavailable on that date and suggest an alternative?