Business court proceedings might require subpoenas of business records to help gain relevant information necessary to further a case. Organizations may have helpful information that could help advance the case, but they usually won’t provide it without any legal requirement.
In such cases, you may need to have the court compel the organization or business to provide the business records using a subpoena. But how do you subpoena an organizational entity in California if you’re not a judge?
In this article, you’ll learn about the regulations regarding subpoenas in California. Also, you’ll learn the steps required to subpoena a business entity to get the business records necessary to forward a case quickly.
What Are Subpoenas?
Subpoenas can have different meanings, depending on the context. The most common meaning ascribed to it is an official order for an individual or organization to appear in a law court.
In this context, however, a subpoena is an official request for official business documents which would have otherwise been confidential. Since a subpoena is a legal requirement, an individual or organization may not flout either type.
A court might also issue a subpoena to extract information from non-parties in the case if the data can potentially help speed it up.
If you’re involved in a legal case that could be helped by a subpoena, there are known legal processes to help you get one with ease. However, you may need some legal knowledge to prevent your subpoena for records in California from being thrown away by the court.
Types of Subpoenas
Before trying to get a subpoena, it’s essential to learn the different kinds of subpoenas to know which is the most applicable to your specific scenario. Here are the three major types of subpoenas.
1. Witness Subpoenas
A witness subpoena is the most familiar type of subpoena, usually targeted at an individual. It’s simply an order that requires an individual to appear in court as a witness during a trial. It is usually to compel individuals unwilling to participate in case they witness an event that could help the prosecution.
2. Subpoena Duces Tecum
The subpoena duces tecum is different from the standard witness subpoena in that the subpoenaed individual or organization isn’t legally required to appear in court.
Instead, they’re only required to make the necessary documents available, either physically, by mail, or fax.
3. Deposition Subpoenas
A deposition subpoena is also similar to a subpoena duces tecum because it requires an individual or an organization to provide copies of its business records. In addition to that, however, the subpoenaed party is also legally required to appear in court to answer questions that could help the case.
How to Serve a California Subpoena for Business Records
Serving a subpoena requires many legal procedures that may appear challenging if you have no previous legal experience. If your subpoena doesn’t follow the set regulations for official documents in California, the court may throw it out.
To simplify the experience, you can hire an experienced California subpoena service via https://drlegalprocess.com/california-subpoenas/. However, here are the necessary steps to serving a California subpoena for business records to get an idea of the entire process.
1. Decide on the Document Type
The initial step should be deciding if you’re requesting a consumer record or employee records.
Consumer records are requested from organizations like financial services, the police, and schools. In contrast, employee records refer to classified documents sought from employees of the witness during the litigation process.
2. Complete the Subpoena Form
The subpoena form is your opportunity to describe the required business records and how they can help prove or disprove matters relating to the case. You can also specify if you want the person in charge of the documents present at the hearing.
You can get a subpoena form in California through the court clerk. If you have no experience with subpoenas, you should seek legal counsel, as your subpoena may be rejected otherwise.
3. Issue the Subpoena at the Court Clerk
Issuing the subpoena in this respect means stamping it at the court that ordered the issuance. Your subpoena is invalid without the court’s stamp unless you’re an attorney, automatically granting you the freedom to sign the subpoena as an officer of the court.
4. Examine the Documents
You’re allowed to examine the documents submitted by the subpoenaed entity before your court hearing. While the papers will be mailed directly to the court, the court can provide them to you upon request before it makes an official appearance in court.
Note that you may be required to cover some costs relating to the provision of the subpoena. If the documents seem irrelevant to the court case, you may abandon them, continuing with the case without the papers.
Alternative Ways to Serve California Subpoena for Business Records
The whole process of subpoenaing a business to accelerate your legal proceedings might look pretty easy. Still, when you attempt to serve a subpoena yourself, you’ll understand why subpoena serving services exist.
Suppose you’d instead not bore yourself with all the legal jargon involved in serving a subpoena. In that case, you can use a legal process server well-versed in California subpoena rules to help you throughout the process.
In this respect, you should consider hiring a trusted legal process service firm like D&R Legal Process Service. With 36 years of experience serving legal processes in California, their expertise is unmatchable.
Despite their experience and expertise, D&R Legal Process Service doesn’t charge exorbitant prices. You also get support throughout every stage of the legal process, ensuring you never make any rookie mistakes in the hearing.
Conclusion
When serving a subpoena for business records in California, you must follow the set rules and standards, or your subpoena may be thrown out of court. You can either hire a legal process service or get a friend or family member to serve the subpoena on your behalf.
Without the expertise that legal process services like D&R Legal Process Service offers, the chances of successfully serving a subpoena become very low.
