The Use of Subpoenas in a Pennsylvania Personal Injury Case

Subpoenas are useful tools in personal injury cases because they are a way of compelling documents, information or witnesses. A subpoena is a document issued through the Court that compels a "third-party" (that is, a person or company that is not one of the parties to a lawsuit) to either: appear and testify or give documents. Since third-parties are not part of the lawsuit, the subpoena is the way the Court has authority to require them to cooperate.
In a personal injury case, both the injured person and the defendant (usually insured by an insurance company) want to discover information. The plaintiff-- the injured person-- is making a claim for damages due to an injury. So, the plaintiff's medical history is open to discovery. The insurance company typically will send subpoenas to the plaintiff's medical doctors to get medical records.

Also, there may be persons who either witnessed the incident that caused the plaintiff to be hurt. The plaintiff or defendant may choose to subpoena those witnesses to appear and testify at a deposition or a court trial. Since the subpoena is issued by the Court, failure to comply with the subpoena can result in sanctions including Contempt of Court fines or penalties.

The subpoena to obtain documents from a third-party is a useful discovery tool. For example, if a plaintiff was hit by a drunk driver, the plaintiff would want to subpoena the police records including the blood alcohol testing of the defendant drunk driver. Under Pennsylvania Law, the party who wants to send a subpoena must first send a written notice to the other parties to the lawsuit of the desire to send the subpoena. A copy of the subpoena must be sent with the notice to the other parties. Those other parties then have 20 days to object to the subpoena. If no objection occurs, then the subpoena can be sent to the third party.