Hey fellow writers, I'm looking for some knowledge on how subpoena formatting works. I'm aware that they can be hand delivered by an officer of the law and what the basic information they have on it. Full name of the court, time, place, "YOU ARE COMMANDED" wording, but what I need to know is if it has information in regards to the case itself attached. For context, the protagonist's Father committed a crime and they are being called to court in order to answer some questions about her that they can potentially use in the case. I've looked through dozens of different subpoena formatting and I'm still not sure if it's accurate or not that the protagonist would be made aware of the exact crime just by reading it. Any help would be appreciated!
Legal procedures vary from place to place, jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Where I live it doesn't have to be delivered by an officer, just someone not party to the action. I've done it a few times. The trick is to be hyper-polite and friendly right up to the point that they take the thing and then turn on your heel and walk out the door.
Oh cool, thanks for sharing your experience with this! I'd love your feedback on the process of sending out a subpoena. How soon after the crime is committed would the protagonist receive the subpoena about the crime?
Oh, criminal. That's a whole different kettle of fish. Such cases seldom go to court. The legal system is a useless joke.
That depends on what you define by 'court.' A good portion of them don't go tot trial, but if charges have been laid, pre-trials are still something that essentially 'need' to happen unless the defendant's intent is to plea from the start, and even then the actually plea is made in court in front of a judge and the sentencing is then also done in a court room, though that's generally, though not necessarily, done at the same time as the plea. This is from a Canadian perspective though, and different countries are different.
I misread the title of this thread and thought it said, How to write a Poltergeist receiving a Subpoena. I had some clever answers if it was that.
"Can the defendant stop throwi- *ducks* -stop throwing things around the room?" "Objection- your honour, unearthly shrieking doesn't constitute a response to the question."
