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“Generally, though, in a domestic violence case, someone can be subpoenaed to testify against their spouse, marital privilege does not apply in a domestic violence case, because you are the named victim in the case you are the one against whom the crime is alleged to have been perpetrated.”
“An actual subpoena that can force you to go into court is a personally served subpoena. So in order for you to be forced to go to court, you have to be personally served with a document by someone that says this is the court date, this is where you're being served to go you have to sign it, they have to send you have to be personally served. Now, technically, you don't have to sign it, they can hand it to you and they can write that you are handed it.”
“But basically, a human has to personally serve you in order for you to legally be required to go to court. What often happens is especially in El Paso County, we have such a large jurisdiction, that the DHS office will send out these subpoena waiver postcards or subpoena waiver letters. It gets a little tricky though, because when people get these letters, and they read them, they see the highlighted portion that says you are required to appear at court and they freak out thinking oh my gosh, I'm gonna get a warrant if I don't go to court.”
“But if you read it carefully, in that language, it will say sign here to waive subpoena service. What that means is, the best way I can explain it is think of it like an RSVP. I know that that sounds kind of trivial, but it makes the most sense in my head.”
“If the state sends you a waiver of subpoena service, and you see the fine print that says sign and return to waive subpoena service. Basically, what you're doing is self serving the subpoena on you”
“You cannot cannot cannot have any defense attorney who represent your spouse giving you advice, though, if they give you advice, that is witness tampering, it is unethical, it is illegal, they cannot do it.”
“You cannot cannot cannot have any defense attorney who represent your spouse giving you advice, though, if they give you advice, that is witness tampering, it is unethical, it is illegal, they cannot do it.”
“Now, if you get a subpoena, a lot of confusion comes up in these cases, because there's a difference in actually being subpoenaed or being asked to waive subpoena service.”
“I want to be very clear, this video is not legal advice.”
“If you have any questions, you should hire an attorney and talk with them to make sure that you're following all the laws properly.”