Subpoena Notices Vary through Cases
Video Transcribed: “What’s the minimum time before the court can serve a subpoena? My dad was served two days before court in my custody case.” All right, that’s the question that we have today. I’m Tulsa lawyer James Wirth, and I’d like to see if we can get that answered for you.
So first off, it sounds like that this is a question regarding notice, how much-advanced notice is necessary for a subpoena to appear in court in a custody case? And this answer’s not going to be specific to custody cases. It’s based on Oklahoma Civil Rules of Procedure, which applies to pretty much all civil cases, and that requirement is you have to give three days’ plus travel time notice of a subpoena to appear at court. So in this case, if it was only two days, then it’s pretty clear cut that is not sufficient notice. That could be grounds for your father to file a motion to quash that subpoena.
So, that’s what the statute provides, three days plus travel time is the amount that you need. Also, if you’re subpoenaed, they’re required to pay you a mileage check, and it’s based on Oklahoma law how much that is, and an appearance fee, I think that’s $10 a day last time that I checked, plus mileage. So there could be a lot of different things in the law that they didn’t comply with. One of them is not giving enough notice, another one is mileage and appearance fee. There could be others as well specific to your circumstances.
So, if you’ve got a question on whether a subpoena has been properly handled and whether it is enforceable, you’re going to want to talk to an Oklahoma child custody attorney about that privately and confidentially. To get that scheduled with somebody at my office, you can go online to makelaweasy.com.
