A subpoena is “[a] writ or order commanding a person to appear before a court or other tribunal, subject to a penalty for failing to comply.” Black’s Law Dictionary (11th ed. 2019) Before email subpoenas really would make people come into court (or the lawyer’s office) with all the documents requested and then the lawyer who issued the subpoena would question the producer under oath. Today, most subpoena’s just request documents to be emailed with a certification by the custodian of records. People respond to subpoenas because if they do not reply to the subpoena as requested, the subpoena issuer can ask that the deponent (person who got the subpoena) be held in contempt of court. “The service of the rule to show cause or order of contempt upon the nonparty, except when the rule or order is initiated by the court, shall include a copy of the petition for rule and the discovery order or subpoena which is the basis for the petition for rule. The service of the rule to show cause or order of contempt upon the nonparty shall be made in the same manner as service of summons provided for under sections 2-202, 2-203(a)(1) and 2-203.1 of the Code of Civil Procedure.” Ill. Sup. Ct. R. 204(d)(2,3) If the deponent does not live in Illinois and doesn’t plan on visiting Illinois any time soon, then they might not care about getting held in contempt of court by an Illinois court. You will recall on the Dukes of Hazzard that the Duke boys would simply cross the state lines to avoid the Sheriff as the Sheriff had no jurisdiction to enforce the law in the other state. Illinois contempt orders are similarly toothless in other states. Therefore, in order to ensure cooperation from an out-of-state deponent, an Illinois subpoena issuer must hire local counsel in the deponent’s state to register the Illinois subpoena in the county where the deponent lives under the Uniform Interstate Depositions and Discovery Act. The Uniform Interstate Depositions and Discovery Act is a statute that 47 states have enacted. I’ll be citing the Act under the Act’s Uniform Illinois citation for clarity. Obviously, you’ll need to refer to the citation of whatever state you’re registering your subpoena in. “To request issuance of a subpoena under this Section, a party must submit a foreign subpoena to a clerk of court in the county in which […]
