Dear esoteric-ga;
Thank you for allowing me an opportunity to answer your interesting
question. Please note that for the purposes of this forum we cannot
provide legal advice but merely relay published research or draw from
our own professional experience and knowledge.
Having spent the past two decades in law enforcement I can tell you
with relative confidence, based on the way in which you described the
situation, that the likelihood of your friend being jailed for failing
to answer subpoena in a civil complaint is remote. Virtually all
subpoenas bear the warning that the person to whom it is serves risks
a jail sentence for failing to answer the subpoena. Even subpoenas
that I receive on cases I am involved in bear this same warning. This
is because the subpoena itself is usually a canned form and it is used
for many purposes, not the least of which is a criminal summons. The
likelihood that one would go to jail for not appearing is often
determined by the complaint and the jurisdiction of the court the
defendant is summoned to appear before. Criminal courts can jail you
even if you are just late for a hearing but civil courts normally just
enter a judgement against you and find in favor of the plaintiff in
your absence (lose the case by default judgement).
In my 20 years I have never once seen a civil defendant jailed for
failing to appear in a civil case. More than likely however your
friend lost his case in absentia and a formal judgment for the amount
claimed by the plaintiff (and perhaps additional court costs and
attorney fees) were entered against him (you can verify this by
calling the court clerk’s office. If it happened this way it is now
public record).
I would think that the worst case scenario is that the plaintiff’s
next move is to request an “ex parte order” in which the court may
authorize the seizure and subsequent forfeiture of his assets (income,
bank accounts, property, business, real estate, vehicles, etc) in
order to satisfy the judgment. As the commenter mentioned below,
bankruptcy can bring this to a screeching halt in some cases provided
that the bankruptcy is filed BEFORE the seizure takes place. It is
imperative then, in my opinion, to seek immediate legal counsel so as
to avoid the loss of personal property or garnishment of wages.
Again, I think you can relax. I really don’t foresee your friend going
to jail for not answering this civil subpoena. Jail time is usually
reserved for those defendants in criminal cases who fail to appear or
fail to comply with a court order. People don’t usually get sent to
jail for not showing up in civil court, but are more commonly jailed
for actually appearing in civil court and “showing out”.
I highly recommend that you get your friend to legal counsel to
protect his assets – and fast.
Below you will find that I have carefully defined my search strategy
for you in the event that you need to search for more information. By
following the same type of searches that I did you may be able to
enhance the research I have provided even further. I hope you find
that that my research exceeds your expectations. If you have any
questions about my research please post a clarification request prior
to rating the answer. Otherwise, I welcome your rating and your final
comments and I look forward to working with you again in the near
future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.
Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga
INFORMATION SOURCES
Based on actual professional experience in both criminal and civil
matters. |
