Dictionary:

subpoena

  (sə-pē'nə)

A writ requiring appearance in court to give testimony.

To serve or summon with such a writ.

[Middle English suppena, from Medieval Latin sub poenā, under a penalty (from the opening words of the writ) : Latin sub, under; see sub– + Latin poenā, ablative of poena, penalty.]

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(Latin for ‘under penalty') a writ issued under the authority of a court to compel the appearance of a witness or documents for a judicial proceeding.

The process or writ issued by the court requiring the attendance of a witness at a certain time and place for testimony. It also may order him or her to bring books, records, or other relevant items as evidence.

(Lat., “under penalty”), an order of a court to a person commanding him or her to appear as a witness or to produce documents in his or her possession (subpoena duces tecum). The use of subpoenas in civil proceedings in federal courts is regulated by rule 45 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

— William M. Wiecek

For more information on subpoena, visit Britannica.com.

[Latin, Under penalty.] A formal document that orders a named individual to appear before a duly authorized body at a fixed time to give testimony.

A court, grand jury, legislative body, or administrative agency uses a subpoena to compel an individual to appear before it at a specified time to give testimony. An individual who receives a subpoena but fails to appear may be charged with contempt of court and subjected to civil or criminal penalties. In addition, a person who has been served with a subpoena and has failed to appear may be brought to the proceedings by a law enforcement officer who serves a second subpoena, called an instanter.

A subpoena must be served on the indivi- dual ordered to appear. In some states a law enforcement officer or process server must personally serve it, whereas other states allow service by mail or with a telephone call. It is most often used to compel witnesses to appear at a civil or criminal trial. A trial attorney may receive an assurance from a person who says that she will appear in court on a certain day to testify, but if a subpoena is not issued and served on the witness, she is not legally required to appear.

It is up to the attorneys in a case to request subpoenas, which are routinely issued by the trial court administrator's office. The subpoena must give the name of the legal proceedings, the name of the person who is being ordered to appear, and the time and place of the court hearing.

Legislative investigating committees also issue subpoenas to compel recalcitrant witnesses to appear. Congressional investigations of political scandal, such as the Watergate scandals of the Nixon administration, the Iran-Contra scandal of the Reagan administration, and the Whitewater scandal of the Clinton administration, rely on subpoenas to obtain testimony.

A subpoena that commands a person to bring certain evidence, usually documents or papers, is called a subpoena duces tecum, from the Latin "under penalty to bring with you." This type of subpoena is often used in a civil lawsuit where one party resists giving the other party documents through the discovery process. If a court is convinced that the document request is legitimate, it will order the production of documents using a subpoena duces tecum.

A party may resist a subpoena duces tecum by refusing to comply and requesting a court hearing. One of the most famous refusals of a subpoena was Richard M. Nixon's reluctance to turn over the tape recordings of his White House office conversations to the Watergate special prosecutor. Nixon fought the subpoena all the way to the Supreme Court in United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683, 94 S. Ct. 3090, 41 L. Ed. 2d 1039 (1974). The Court upheld the subpoena, leading Nixon to resign his office a short time later.

under penalty (a summons to court)

An order of a court, a legislature, or a grand jury compelling a witness to be present at a trial or hearing, under penalty of fine or imprisonment. Subpoena is Latin for “under penalty.”

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Common misspelling(s) of subpoena

• sepina

Dansk (Danish)
n. - stævning
v. tr. - indstævne

Nederlands (Dutch)
dagvaarding, dagvaarden

Français (French)
n. - assignation/ citation à comparaître
v. tr. - assigner (qn) à comparaître

Deutsch (German)
n. - Vorladung
v. - vorladen

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (νομ.) (έγγραφο για την) κλήτευση (μάρτυρα)
v. - (νομ.) κλητεύω (μάρτυρα)

Italiano (Italian)
citare, citazione

Português (Portuguese)
n. - intimação
v. - intimar

Русский (Russian)
вызов в суд, вызывать в суд повесткой

Español (Spanish)
n. - citación
v. tr. - citar, mandar comparecer

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - stämning (jur.)
v. - delge en stämning, instämma, kalla inför rätta (jur.)

中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
传票, 传唤, 传讯

中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 傳票
v. tr. - 傳喚, 傳訊

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 소환장, 벌칙부, 소환 영장
v. tr. - 소환하다, 소환장을 발부하다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 召喚状
v. - 召喚する

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) أمر حضور أمام المحكمه (فعل) يقدم أمر الحضور الى أحد‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮כתב-הזמנה לדין‬
v. tr. - ‮הוציא כתב-הזמנה לדין‬

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