Subpoena and types of Subpoena:
Subpoena
The witness may easily volunteer or agree to come and testify in court in a matter. This is when the party that intends to call him to come and give testimony in his favour will just invite him over to the chamber of the counsel that is representing him to be prepared. Witnesses that are to testify in the court in a case are meant to be prepared by the counsel that is handling the case.
The preparation of the witness is an avenue where the witness will be educated on the dos and don’ts of the court. The witness need also be prepared on the format to tell his testimony and what to address the court and the other counsel with. This is the reason when the witness misbehaves in court, the presiding judge will always ask the Counsel that invited the witness and hopes the witness was prepared.
However, there are times that the person that is meant to be invited as a witness in the matter will blatantly refuse to come and testify in the matter. The person has information about the transaction that cause the case between the parties but he out of personal reasons or other beliefs refused to come and testify in the case. The party that intended to call him before will be faced with the legal choice of praying to the court to compel the person to come and testify in the court as a witness. This will only be possible through the magical power of subpoena.
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A subpoena is a process of compelling a person to come and testify in court as a witness over a matter that he has knowledge about the transaction that led to the suit. This emphatically states a person will not be compelled to come and testify in court through the order of subpoena except when the person has knowledge about the matter. The person must have been requested by the party praying the court for a subpoena to come and testify in the matter, which he most fiercely rejected.
The court will then use its superior power to invite him to come and testify in the matter subject to the application of the party that needs his testimony. The subpoena can either be for the person to come and testify in the matter, to come and tender a document, or for him to come and do both.
Types of Subpoena
Subpoena duce tecum
Subpoena duce tecum is a type of subpoena used to compel the attendance of a person to come and tender a document in a matter. The person that is invited to come and tender the document in the case must be with the particular document that a party needs in the case and which he has invited to come and tender for him but he refused. The court can either summon the person to come and tender the document or will grant the subpoena duce tecum demanding that he should come and tender the document in court. The person subpoenaed to come and tender only a document shall not be requested by either of the parties in the court to give a testimony.
Subpoena ad testificandum
Subpoena ad testificandum: this is the type of Subpoena where a person is compelled by the court to come and give testimony in a matter. The person has information about the transaction that involves the parties in the case but he has refused to come and testify as a witness when the party praying the court for a subpoena requested that he should come. The person will only be compelled by the court to come and give testimony and not to tender a document.
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Subpoena duce tecum ad testificandum
Subpoena duce tecum ad testificandum is a type of subpoena where a person is compelled to come and tender a document in a case and give oral testimony. This entails that the Subpoena duce tecum ad testificandum comprises both the order of subpoena duce tecum and subpoena ad tesificandum. It compels a person to come and tender a document in court and to also testify in the case. The court in this type of subpoena will invite the person named in the application to come and tender a document in his possession and give testimony in a matter.
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