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Hello. I have a hearing coming up that I need my psychiatrist to testify in. I have told her the date and her response was that she had to check. This psychiatrist is planning on moving yet she hasn't given me a date. All she has said is she knows she will be in MY state still when the court is having the hearing. It has been a few weeks now and she has not returned my phone calls or answered letters. My question is how long does it take ,on average, to draw up and deliver a subpoena so in my case, my psychiatrist has to be in the court to testify in my behalf? I would rather not send her one because she is being my witness. However, she is a very important part. So I do want to give her as much time to get back to me but I don't want to be out of the option of serving her if she is trying to avoid me for some reason.
1 ANSWER
It takes very little time (maybe a half-hour to an hour) to "draw up" a subpoena to appear as a witness, more if the subpoena asks the person to produce documents or other tangible things. The amount of time it takes to serve the subpoena (you can't just mail it) depends on how easy it is to find the person, whether the person tries to avoid service, and, probably most important, how much you are willing to pay the process server. Process servers charge more for expedited service. At normal rates, it can take more than a week, even if there is no problem finding the witness. However, you can't serve someone with a subpoena on Tuesday directing them to appear on Wednesday; you have to give them a reasonable amount of notice. What is reasonable depends on the circumstances, but I would try to get the witness served at least two weeks in advance.
Answered on Oct 10th, 2014 at 1:37 PM